Traveling with handicaps and disabilities can be so difficult. It makes every single step of the travel process arduous and can be utterly frustrating for so many reasons. However, you can still travel, and you can still have a ton of fun! Surely, I can help make the entire process easier on you.
There are so many different handicaps and disabilities that affect the lives of people around the world in ways that limit their travels. According to the State Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, over 25 million reported Americans over 5 years old fall into this category. To clarify, that is just “Americans” that have “reported”. What about the rest of the world??? What about those American’s that haven’t reported because they chose not to disclose? Furthermore, if there’s one thing you take away from this, let it be the comfort in knowing “You’re not alone.”
Speak with your doctors
You’ll certainly want to schedule appointments with your doctors prior to your travels. In fact, do so well in advance. Whenever you see your doctors, make sure you take a list with you so you don’t forget to discuss anything important. Below is a list of some things you may want to discuss with your doctors prior to traveling with handicaps and disabilities.
- Any new or concerning symptoms since your last visit
- Issues with your current treatment plan or equipment
- Treatment plan or equipment changes resulting from your current visit
- Side effects of new medications prescribed during your current visit (if any)
- Any necessary changes in diet, exercise, etcetera
- Travel Plans
- Any concerns you or your doctors have regarding travel methods, activities, or duration
- Any and all destination specific vaccines
- Travel safety precautions tailored to your specific conditions
TRAVEL TIP! Make sure to schedule travel plans well after starting any new medications, just in case. You certainly don’t want to book a trip and have it ruined by any unexpected side effects.
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Safety tips for traveling with handicaps and disabilities
It is important to make sure your home is safe while you’re away. My post Protect Your Home While You’re on Vacation is a great resource for you that will give you some ideas on how to bolster your current home safety plan. If your handicaps and disabilities prevent you from carrying out your pre-trip home safety inspection or upgrades, consider hiring a licensed and insured company that has good reviews to give you a hand.
Likewise, my post Basic Safety for all Travelers is a great resource that will give you some ideas on protecting yourself while you’re traveling. There is a section that discusses satellite communication devices in case you don’t have cell service and find yourself needing assistance. If you’re traveling with handicaps or disabilities, you may specifically want to look in to “On-The-Go Medical Alerts Systems with GPS. You may very well be hitting wheelchair accessible trails alone and find yourself in need of help.
There is also a section in that post about taking self defense classes. I encourage you to look into self defense classes for those with handicaps and disabilities. You’ll certainly want to be able to protect yourself if you find yourself in a situation that requires it.
Below is a list of additional safety precautions you may want to take depending on your specific handicap or disability.
- Travel with a trusted friend, relative, or caregiver
- Prior to departure schedule an extensive medical equipment safety check
- Limit night travel
- Install proper lighting and reflectors on mobility devices if you do go out at night
TRAVEL TIP! If you’re traveling internationally with medical equipment that requires power, you will need to know how to adapt to make use of each country’s infrastructure. See electricity requirements by country here!
Know your rights when traveling with handicaps and disabilities
There are civil rights laws in place to prevent discrimination against people living with disabilities. Prior to traveling, know your rights. Below is a list of resources regarding your rights with links for easy navigation.
- Introduction to Americans with Disabilities Act
- American with Disabilities Act Part 37 regarding transportation services
- Air Carrier Access Act
- Air Carrier Access Act Bill of Rights
- Accessibility for Buses – American Disabilities Act
- Rights for travelers with disabilities in Europe
- Laws regarding accessibility and discrimination by country from the U.S. Department of State
- Disability laws and acts by country from the United Nations
Budget & Saving
You’ll want to carefully evaluate your finances, so you don’t put yourself in a tight spot. You certainly don’t want to come home from your trip only to realize you can’t afford next month’s electric bill. So, can you afford a trip right now without financing it? Additionally, can you afford the trip right now without getting behind on your monthly bills? If you answered yes to both of those, you’re good to go!
However, there’s a huge amount of people that just answered no! If you are in this situation, let me help by giving you some advice. Set yourself up a dedicated “Travel Account”, preferably with a financial institution that gives you interest on your money. You’re certainly going to need somewhere to bank your travel funds.
Below are some easy ways to earn extra money for your travel fund so you can start saving now! You can do these in conjunction with your regular income stream because they are not time consuming (unless you want them to be).
eBay
Set up an account and start selling on eBay. To begin with, go through your house like you’re spring cleaning and getting rid of all the unnecessary clutter. Set aside all unwanted items so you can sort them. Make some piles so you can divide items into categories. Category one, trash! So, why the h*** was I keeping that?! Let category two be items worth selling. At this point, choose any item from category two.
Begin researching the item you chose. Go to eBay so you can enter the item and click search. On the left side of your screen, you’ll scroll down to SHOW ONLY and checkmark the “SOLD ITEMS” box. All items like yours will soon appear, and you can see what they sold for.
PRO TIP! Pay special attention to shipping because you don’t want to list an item on eBay that is worth less than what it costs to actually ship it.
As you run across items that are not feasible to sell on eBay, they will begin category three. Let that category be your garage sell or donation items. Once you have the piles sorted and know what items you are going to sell on eBay, start listing.
Inbox Dollars
This platform is free and so very rewarding!
Getting Started
Set up an account and verify your email. You’ll start reaping the rewards almost instantly. In fact, they will give you $5.00 just for signing up. Once you have earned $15.00, you can start transferring funds from your Inbox Dollars account to your dedicated travel fund.
Earning
There are many, many ways you can earn money and save with Inbox Dollars. In fact, you’re doing most of it anyway. For example, you can earn money for every coupon you print to use at the grocery store. Furthermore, you’ll reap the coupon benefits when you shop. You’re grocery shopping every month anyway so why not?!
Additionally, they have very generous offers you can take advantage of. For example, quite some time ago I was planning on getting a Chime card. There was (and still is) an offer on Inbox Dollars that will pay you a total of $230 if you enroll in Chime and set up direct deposits to your new Chime card. I went through the hassle free process and $230 appeared in my Inbox Dollars account in about 70 days or so.
I am not a fan of surveys so I haven’t tried earning on Inbox Dollars by doing those. Likewise, I haven’t tried earning by playing the games or watching videos.
The screenshot below was earned in just a couple months and was sent straight to my travel fund.
HELPFUL TIP! As you go through the steps they require on “offers”, make sure you take screenshots during every step of the process. In the event that your account doesn’t get credited, you can send the screenshots to their support team. I have only had one issue in all the years I’ve had Inbox Dollars so it isn’t a regular occurrence. Under those circumstances, their support team did a fantastic job fixing the issue and credited my account in a timely fashion.
Upwork
I have been with Upwork since they took over the Elance platform in 2015. I have certainly made a ton of extra money working from home and have had the pleasure of working with some incredible clients over the years! You can work as much or as little as you want so you can easily fit Upwork into your existing schedule. Bidding on easy, set price jobs at first is a great way to get a feel for how the platform works while building feedback. Whenever you feel comfortable, consider bidding on full or part time hourly jobs.
So, how does it work? You set up an account and fill out your profile with a goal of 100% completion. When you sign up, you’ll get a decent amount of free connects to bid on jobs with. Likewise, you’ll receive free connects throughout your Upwork career for reaching certain milestones. In truth, I have never ran out of or had to purchase connects!
Ibotta
In all honesty, I am brand spanking new to Ibotta. I don’t have any first hand information to give you other than it was super easy to set up an account! I wanted to share it with you because I know a ton of people who do well using it. They encouraged me to give it a try since I do a lot of online shopping. Once I have some first hand knowledge, I will update this section for you!
NOTE: I am not receiving any compensation by suggesting the aforementioned ways to make extra money.
Browse the possibilities
This is a super fun part for me! I really enjoy brainstorming and letting my mind daydream about all the endless possibilities. As you begin browsing possible destinations and activities, be aware that this part can get out of hand fast. All the “”OMG, I want-tos” add up! You go from a couple open browsers to 25 lickidy split because it’s addictive. Soon it becomes overwhelming as you realize each browser has a seemingly endless number of pages loaded with possible travel options.
Narrow down the possibilities
You’ll want to ask yourself some control questions to help narrow down possible destinations and activities.
- What’s your budget? This will help narrow those endless possibilities by immediately eliminating anything too expensive.
- What type of vacation do you want? Do you want to go to the beach? Spend a week in the mountains? Go on a long road trip? A cruise possibly? This will help you narrow down the possibilities by eliminating things you aren’t in the mood for.
- How far do you want to travel? Do you want to stick to domestic travel? Do you want to travel abroad? This will help you narrow down possible destinations by country.
- How do you want to travel? Once you have an idea how far you want to travel, you can then determine how you want to travel. Perhaps you have never been on a train and would like to travel by that method. Likewise, perhaps you have never traveled by boat and would like to charter a yacht. This will help you narrow those endless possibilities down to those which you can access based on the travel method you desire.
- When do you want to or when can you travel? Booking a certain travel destination may very well depend on available lodging during your vacation window. Some destinations stay pretty well booked in the summer months and around holidays. This will help eliminate destinations based on available lodging.
- What are your current travel limitations? This will help eliminate possible destinations and activities based on your current handicaps and disabilities.
Documentation for traveling with handicaps and disabilities
Wanna know one thing all travelers have in common? Documentation is not optional. You’ll need to know what documentation you have to have for your specific trip because requirements can vary. Not only do they vary by destination, they vary by method of travel. For instance, the documentation you’ll need to rent a car for domestic travel is not the same documentation you’ll need to board a plane for international travel.
For the most part, my post The Plight of Travel Documentation will cover the documentation you need. However, there are a few additional documents you may want to consider packing when traveling with handicaps and disabilities. See the list below.
- TSA Notification Card
- Service Animal Documentation
- Free Interagency Access Pass
- Proof of Disability (if you want to take advantage of available discounts)
Booking
Ahhh, the part where your travels start becoming a reality and you’ll soon be on the way to your chosen destination. However, you’re not quite there just yet. When traveling with handicaps and disabilities there are a few things you need to take into consideration before booking!
- Check many different booking sites and companies! Look for available promotions and discounts for those traveling with handicaps and disabilities because it doesn’t hurt to save where you can!
- Consider booking travel methods and accommodations during off peak times for a smoother process.
- Make sure you call and verify accessibility of all your travel methods and accommodations prior to booking! Get the accessibility promises in writing at the time of booking, just in case.
- You will want to verify your ETA so you can coordinate with the check in time where you’ll be staying. Arriving hours earlier than your check in time can be very difficult when traveling with handicaps and disabilities. In addition to normal luggage, you’re likely traveling with medical equipment, medications (that may or may not require refrigeration), a service animal (if your condition requires one), and so on.
Itinerary
Make sure you document your travel plans by making a schedule! You’ll want to give one copy to your “Safety Buddy” as previously mentioned in my Basic Safety for all Travelers post. Likewise, you’ll want a copy for yourself while you’re on your trip.
Packing for traveling with handicaps and disabilities
My post Packing Light Strategies will give you some ideas on packing light. However, there are some additional strategies that may make traveling with handicaps and disabilities a bit easier. Check out the list below and see which options best suit your individual needs.
- Light weight portable chargers for medical equipment
- Consider a wheelchair side pouch with pockets that zip
- Wear a fanny pack around the waist
- Consider a wheelchair bag that hangs on the rear handles
- Choose walking aids that break down, fold up, and double as a chair (like this rollator walker)
- Invest in a hands-free walker bag
- Travel with a TSA approved insulin cooler
HIKING TIP! Lightweight collapsible trekking poles or tactical trekking poles are really helpful if you get vertigo or have instability resulting from bad joints. Use one on each side if you need to.
Useful resources for traveling with handicaps and disabilities
CDC – Traveling with a Disability
Hotline for Air Travelers with Disabilities
VRBO (has accessibility filters)
accessibleGO (hotel booking site for people with disabilities)
Booking.com (excellent filtration system to narrow options based on your individual needs)
Wheelchair Accessible Taxis by State
Scootaround’s Cruise Mobility Rental Services
Accessibility Reviews by Sage Traveling
I hope this information makes your travels easier, and I hope it encourages you to travel to all those places you dream of. Wishing you many blessings and as always, Safe Travels!
