Introduction

Many disabled people have difficult and sometimes harmful experiences when they travel overseas. This happens whether they travel alone or with a support person. Most of the problem does not come from our impairments. It comes from travel staff who act on assumptions about disability instead of asking the disabled person what they need.

The travel industry is large and varied. It includes airlines, airports, cruise lines, hotels, travel agents, tour directors and local transport. Each one is a point where a disabled traveller can be helped well or treated badly. When things go wrong, the disabled person usually pays the price in lost dignity, lost independence and sometimes physical injury.

This paper draws on a real account written by a blind woman who travelled overseas on a guided tour with her sighted husband. Her experiences are described without naming any person, company or vessel. They are used because they show, very clearly, the patterns that many disabled travellers recognise. The paper then sets out practical ways that people working in travel can manage their own lack of knowledge about disabled people, so that it stops becoming the traveller’s problem.

What went wrong: one traveller’s experience

Over four days on a cruise that formed part of a longer guided tour, one blind traveller and her sighted husband were involved in four separate incidents with crew members. Every one of them came from the same failure. Crew members decided for themselves what a blind passenger needed, and did not ask her or the person travelling with her.

Being told where to sit, and being segregated

On two occasions in the ship’s dining room, male crew members insisted that the couple sit where they were told, instead of letting the husband choose. Other passengers were free to sit wherever they liked. On the second occasion the husband realised that the crew were trying to seat all the disabled passengers together at one table. This was segregation, plain and simple. The couple stopped eating in the dining room for the rest of the cruise.

Personal belongings taken away

On both of those occasions, crew members waited until the husband had gone to collect food. They then tried to take personal belongings from the blind woman, including her white cane and even her handbag. A white cane is a mobility tool. Taking it away from a blind person leaves them unable to move independently or safely, and it is never acceptable to remove it without being asked. Waiting until her companion had left made the experience more frightening, not less.

A wheelchair that was not needed

While the couple waited on a lower deck for their tour director before docking, a female crew member insisted that the blind woman be put in a wheelchair. She refused, because she can walk perfectly well and does not need one. The crew member was openly indignant that her instruction had been refused. Blindness does not affect a person’s ability to walk. A wheelchair offered to someone who does not need it is not help. It takes away independence and signals to everyone watching that the person is seen as helpless.

This is not a problem confined to one cruise or one country. Disabled travellers, including this author, have noticed the same pattern with airlines much closer to home. A blind person who travels with a sighted companion and walks without difficulty may still find that an airline expects them to sit in a wheelchair to move through the airport. The assumption seems to be that any disability means a wheelchair, and that the wheelchair is the airline’s standard answer whatever the person actually needs.

Physical force and injury

The most serious incident happened in the evening, as passengers returned to the ship by tender boat after a day ashore. As the blind woman stood up and turned to take her husband’s arm, as she had already done three times that evening, a female crew member jumped from the ship onto the tender. She screamed at the top of her voice in a language the couple did not speak. She pushed the husband out of the way when he tried to guide his wife. The tour director also tried to help and was ignored. The crew member kept screaming in the blind woman’s face.

Two male crew members then manhandled her off the tender. They were extremely rough and did not care where they put their hands. She was left with substantial bruising to her arms and legs. She described feeling persecuted and humiliated in front of her fellow passengers. Her husband was treated with contempt.

What would have worked

The traveller, her husband and the tour director all knew exactly what was needed. If anyone had asked, they would have said the same thing. The couple simply needed to be left alone to step from the tender to the ship the way they had already done three times that day. No equipment, no extra staff and no force were required. All that was missing was one question.

The underlying problem

The core problem is not a lack of goodwill. Some of the staff involved probably believed they were helping. The problem is that they acted on what they assumed about disabled people, and treated their assumptions as more reliable than the disabled person’s own knowledge of themselves.

Assuming one disability means every disability

Travel staff often treat “disabled” as one category with one answer. A blind person is offered a wheelchair. A deaf person is spoken to loudly and slowly. A wheelchair user is spoken past, to their companion. Each impairment affects people differently, and two people with the same impairment can need quite different things. The only reliable way to know what someone needs is to ask them.

Treating the disabled person as a hazard to be managed

When staff see a disabled traveller mainly as a risk, they reach for control. They move the person, seat them, take their belongings or put them in equipment. This protects the organisation’s sense of order, not the traveller. It also removes the person’s dignity, and as the tender incident shows, it can cause real physical harm.

Ignoring the people who know

In every incident described above, there were people present who knew exactly what was needed: the traveller herself, her husband and their tour director. Staff ignored all three. A companion or support person is there because the disabled person chose them. Pushing them aside does not make the traveller safer. It removes the support they rely on.

Standard procedures that are not standard at all

Many travel businesses have one default response to disability, such as wheelchair assistance at airports. When staff apply that default to everyone, the procedure becomes the goal and the traveller becomes an object to process. Good procedure starts with the person and offers a range of options, including the option of no assistance at all.

Reacting badly when assistance is declined

The crew member who was indignant at a refused wheelchair shows a common attitude. Some staff see a disabled person declining help as rude or difficult. In fact, declining help that is not needed is an ordinary adult decision. It should be accepted at once, without argument, and without the staff member taking offence.

Better ways forward for the travel industry

No one working in travel can know everything about every impairment, and no one expects them to. What disabled travellers do expect is that staff manage their own lack of knowledge honestly, by asking, listening and accepting the answer. The number one rule is simple: ask us what we need, and accept the reply. Disabled people live with our impairments every day and are the experts on our own needs.

Ask first, and ask the right person

Before offering any help, staff should ask the disabled person directly whether they would like assistance, and if so, what kind. The question should be put to the traveller, not to their companion, unless the traveller asks staff to speak with their companion. A simple, open question works best, such as “Is there anything you would like help with?”

Accept the answer, including no

If the traveller says they do not need help, staff should accept that straight away and move on. If they want help of a particular kind, staff should give exactly that, not something they think would be better. A refusal is not rudeness, and it should never be met with argument, pressure or visible irritation.

Never touch, move or take without consent

Staff should never take hold of a disabled person, steer them, lift them or move their mobility aids without asking first and getting a clear yes. A white cane, guide dog, wheelchair, walking frame or hearing device is part of how the person moves and communicates. It must never be taken away. Personal belongings such as bags must be left with their owner.

Respect the companion and the tour director

When a disabled person travels with a companion, support person or tour director, staff should treat that person as part of the traveller’s own arrangements. Where the traveller and companion already have a way of doing things, such as guiding by the arm, staff should step back and let them do it. Staff can ask whether anything extra is needed, and otherwise stay out of the way.

Offer choices, not a single default

Airlines and airports should stop treating wheelchair assistance as the standard response to every disability. Booking systems and check-in staff should offer a range of options. These might include a sighted guide, a meet-and-assist service without a wheelchair, priority boarding, information in accessible formats, or simply nothing at all. A traveller who books with a sighted companion and states that they walk independently should never be expected to sit in a wheelchair.

Record what the traveller says, and pass it on accurately

Much of the confusion in travel comes from information getting lost or changed between the travel agent, the airline, the airport, the cruise line and the hotel. Every business should record the traveller’s own words about what they need. That record should travel with the booking unchanged, rather than being converted into a generic code that triggers a wheelchair or another standard service.

Never segregate

Disabled travellers must have the same choices as everyone else, including where to sit, when to eat, which activities to join and who to spend time with. Grouping disabled passengers together at a table, in a waiting area or on an excursion, without their request, is segregation. It must stop.

Communicate calmly and clearly

In any situation where staff think a traveller might be at risk, raising voices, shouting or rushing in makes things worse. Staff should introduce themselves, speak calmly and directly to the person, use a language they understand, and explain what they are proposing before doing anything. If there is a language barrier, staff should find someone who can communicate or ask the companion or tour director to help.

Invest in disability-led training

Every business in the travel chain should provide disability responsiveness training to front-line staff, including crew, ground staff, check-in staff, cabin crew, hotel staff and travel agents. That training is most effective when it is designed and delivered by disabled people. It should focus on attitudes and communication, not only on equipment and procedures. It should also be refreshed regularly, so that new staff are trained and existing staff keep their knowledge current.

Listen to complaints and act on them

When a disabled traveller raises a complaint, the business should respond promptly with a genuine apology. It should explain what it will change, and follow through. Complaints from disabled travellers are some of the most valuable information a travel business can get. They show precisely where its staff and systems are failing, and how to fix them.

Conclusion

Disabled people travel for the same reasons as everyone else: for work, for family and for the pleasure of seeing the world. We pay the same fares and deserve the same dignity and respect. The experiences described in this paper did not happen because the traveller was blind. They happened because staff did not know what to do, did not ask, and would not accept the answer when it was given.

The fix is not expensive or complicated. Travel businesses need to replace assumptions with questions, replace default procedures with genuine choice, and replace control with respect. Training led by disabled people, accurate booking records and a willingness to listen will prevent most of the harm described here. Every person working in travel can start today by remembering one rule: ask us what we need, and accept the reply.