By Barbara Duncan

It seems appropriate that this first issue of DisabilityWorld report on key sites covering accessible travel. In no particular order, following are 10 sites brimming with adventures, stories, tips and referrals.A January 4 announcement heralded the web's first "disability-friendly" directory of the world's airlines: www.everybody.co.ukThis site lives up to its billing, charting a comprehensive rundown of policies affecting disabled passengers such as carriage of wheelchairs, batteries & guide dogs, boarding procedures, oxygen provision, dietary options, whether medical clearance is required, and if information on emergency procedures is available in alternative formats. However, some information is ambiguous.  For example, several airlines report that they "recommend" that any passenger needing assistance in-flight should travel with a companion, when actually, according to many recent horror stories, they often require this at short notice. The airlines also give no clue that they may have two sets of operating rules: one for citizens of their country and one for others. For example, I was told recently that one German airline requires passengers using wheelchairs to travel with a companion on flights exceeding certain numbers of hours, but also has a policy that German passengers (only) can qualify to fly that companion for free. So, international travelers should still negotiate directly with each airline about specific needs and expectations. The site also features a listing of accessible hotels in the U.K., asserting they have all been individually checked out according to uniform criteria.

Hip New Sites

Probably the most hip "crip-travel" site on the web is Adam Lloyd's www.gimponthego.comAlthough largely US-centered and wheelchair focused, recent features included scuba diving in Egypt and tips for visually-impaired travelers. The writing is crisp, the photos are lush and the humor is wry-click on the Editor's page and you are informed that you have reached "the (severed) nerve of our operation."

If you want to exchange accessible abodes internationally for a vacation, try Swedish disability activist Adolf Ratzka's site: www.independentliving.org

Newsletters & Networks

One of the most current travel newsletters, Resources to Go, is sent free via email: www.ResourcesToGo@listbot.comEdited by Dave Davis, originating from Canada and subtitled "a resourceful guide for special needs travelers," the style is upbeat and savvy, featuring first-person reviews of recent excursions all over the world. Using a very plain text presentation, the editors also review travel books and list other travel information sources.

I was less impressed with www.access-able.com , operated by Bill & Carol Randall of Colorado, partly because of the ubiquitous "smiley face" inserted into every wheelchair graphic, and partly because few of their cited travel books include year of publication and many are out of date. On the plus side, they feature a "members only" service for those who have joined globetrotter Rick Crowder's "TravelinTalk" network of about 1000 disabled people around the world who exchange experiences and recommendations.

Another newcomer to the travel field is www.candy-charles.com , a California couple who are producing an ambitious full color quarterly periodical, "Emerging Horizons: The Accessible Travel Newsletter." A recent issue covering New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Ireland and a couple U.S. destinations can be read online while the current copy is available through subscription. The Travel Resources section of the site is pretty slim, featuring only two guides under Asia, some very random entries from the USA (e.g., the Manhattan information consists of a folder about Lincoln Center) and in the British Isles category, the only entry is Ireland.

A more European-centered approach can be found at www.geocities.com/paris/1502 This site bills itself as "Global Access-the Disabled Travel Network" and is more thorough in its attention to current information (fewer out-of-date guidebooks) and its comprehensive international links page. The main weakness here is it's easy to get lost in a labyrinth of generic travel information (e.g., how to pack) if not careful to consistently specify disability links.


Old Faithfuls

One of the few comprehensive sources for regularly updated access information is www.radar.org.ukThis group, the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation, handles orders for access guides to London and Paris and publishes "Holidays in the British Isles" (most recent edition: 1999) and "European Holidays and Travel Aboard" ( most recent edition:1998), all available at reasonable costs. If you can get past the quirky British system where public "disabled bathrooms" can only be entered with use of a special key, their other approaches to access are more universal.

The original international accessible travel resource, www.sath.orgstill has a lot to offer. Founded in 1976 as the Society to Advance Travel for the Handicapped, now just called SATH, this group holds annual conferences about accessible travel, publishes "Open World" magazine and has an impressive list of Travel Agents & Tour Operators specializing in access issues. Perhaps because it's been in the field so long, its contacts are not exclusively focused on wheelchair access, but also include guided tours for developmentally disabled travelers and resources for deaf, blind & visually impaired travelers.

For the more serious traveler in search of study visits, going to school in another country, or participation in international exchanges, contact www.miusa.orgfor its publication, "A World of Options" and its new periodical, "Away." This is also the only site I could find that tracks international travel opportunities for young people, including those with disabilities.

Summary

Acknowledging that it can be overwhelming to update links and references, more attention should be paid to these pages on the travel sites. Nearly all are primarily concerned with those traveling in wheelchairs, although none describe themselves as that narrow-band. Unless one can afford to subscribe to all their print periodicals, it is necessary to websurf monthly among them to see what's new. There are at least a dozen more travel-oriented sites that I didn't mention, either because their links were old or not working or because their content consisted of listings without any attempt to evaluate the information. No doubt, there are other good ones that I missed, so please let us know and we'll cover the topic again in a future issue.