Going on ?? ??? ??vacation can pose a unique challenge for people with physical disabilities. Hotels and other accommodations aren't always clear about how accessible they are and the adaptive equipment needed to participate in certain activities can be expensive or difficult to obtain.
This is where the online travel marketplace Wheel the World comes in. The website connects people all over the world who have physical disabilities with customizable tour packages, depending on the person's needs.
Almost 14 percent of Americans have a physical disability affecting their mobility, according to the CDC. In 2015, 26 million U.S. travelers with disabilities took a total of 73 million trips, according to the 2015 market study by Open Doors, a nonprofit that publishes research on the disability travel market. Yet, many trips and destinations aren't disability-friendly.
Today Wheel the World offers customers over 30 accessible destinations in the U.S. and abroad, Alvaro Silberstein, the company's founder, says.
This also includes accommodations while traveling, such as hotels, apartments, motels, and trip activities.
They've served almost 900 people with physical disabilities, their family, and friends.
Wheel the World travelers in Atacama Desert, South America. Credit: Wheel the world Travelers can sign up for trips to destinations such as New York City, Hawaii, Paris, London, Machu Picchu, and even safaris in Kruger National Park in South Africa or Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.
Trip packages can include adaptive equipment such as amphibious wheelchairs, which can be used on the beach, in a pool, and in the ocean, and adaptive kayaks, which can help those with various physical disabilities to kayak.
Silberstein says there are some trips that are appropriate for people who are blind, though Wheel the World focuses on people with mobility issues.
In the future, they plan to include trips for people with hearing loss, and people with emotional disabilities, Silberstein says.
Customers can fill out a form on Wheel the World's website, detailing where they wish to go and the type of accommodations they require.
A Wheel the World traveler uses an amphibious wheelchair on Easter Island, Chile. Credit: Wheel the world Silberstein, who has gotten around in wheelchair since a drunk driver hit him when he was was 18, founded Wheel the World with his friend Camilo Navarro. The duo filmed Silberstein touring Torres del Paine in Chile in a trekking wheelchair, covering about 30 miles of terrain in five days. After they published these videos, Silberstein and Navarro were flooded with requests from strangers who wanted to duplicate the trip.
SEE ALSO: He's legally blind, so he makes self-driving car sensors to 'see'One of the biggest barriers for travelers with physical disabilities is finding information about accessible trips, Silberstein says, a gap Wheel the World aims to close.
Silberstein's team checks the accessibility of accommodations themselves, evaluating things such as door widths, bed heights, if elevators are present and functioning, and bathrooms' accessibility.
Wheel the World partners with tour operators and hotels to provide travelers with physical disabilities and their families with accessible trips.
In 2018, Wheel the World partnered with Peak DMC, a tour operator that is a division of Intrepid Group. Intrepid Group's website claims they are "the world’s largest adventure travel company."
Silberstein convinced Peak DMC to focus on accessibility by emphasizing the number of people with physical disabilities globally.
Wheel the World is working to expand tours in Europe -- currently their website lists London and Paris as the only destinations on the continent, but their eventual goal is much loftier.
"We want to allow millions of people to travel to thousands of destinations," Silberstein says.
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