Traveling with a handicapped person

I am taking the summer off, and I hope to take another trip this year. I am tired of school, and after all traveling tops the list if things most people want to do when they retire. I want to make the most of this time off, because I am planning to return work. (Well maybe) We never took long family vacations when our children were small. We usually would make short two or three day trips to the beach. Let me tell the truth, when you have two young boys who love to fight in the car, going less than two hours was about all we could stand.

Traveling can be interesting when you have a bad back like I do, or when you are traveling with someone that is handicapped. Knowing the type mattress the motel has or if the hotel is really has handicapped accessible showers can be a very big deal. For example, I love the mattresses that the Marriott motels have, but not the ones of their sister chain, the Residence Inn by Marriott. Unfortunately that is a trial and error proposition. There is no way to know ahead of time unless you have previously stayed in a motel of that chain. In some cases you cannot even generalize because the chain may be in the process of upgrading the mattresses, but where you previously stayed had just not been upgraded yet. I was told this was the case when I stayed at the Residence Inn in Pensacola, Florida. I sure hope that is the case because I love Marriott service.

My mother has been in a wheelchair for seventeen years, and when she travels with us we usually call the hotel ahead of time to check their facilities. Don't be fooled when a hotel tells you they have a handicapped accessible room because their definition of accessible is probably different than yours. Most of the people who travel in a wheelchair either need a roll in shower, or they need a very stable transfer chair. We learned the hard way to call to make sure that handicapped means that they have one of those two options. We have gotten to a hotel expecting a handicapped shower only to be handed a small transfer stool that looked like it was made for a child. A person who is paralyzed or who has one leg can't stand up, and get into a bathtub on a little stool. With all of the money they make it looks like they would hire a consultant to explain the needs of a handicapped traveler, after all there are more handicapped travelers now than ever before. They would not even need to do that, they could just ask a few people in a wheelchair to explain their needs. If motels CEOs need proof of the spending power of handicapped people as a demographic, they just need to go to the nearest casino and look around.

The best way to make sure a handicapped person can enjoy the trip is to take the time to make a call the local hotel (not the reservation number), and to be very specific when asking questions. You can find the phone number for the local motel at one of the yellow pages sites. (http://www.yellowbook.com or http://www.yellowpages.com). Don't just ask if they have handicapped rooms because that is a requirement. Ask if they have a roll in shower, and if not what type of transfer chair is provided. I guess you could also ask what type mattress they have if you have a bad back, but I don't find that helpful. Just remember that when you have a relative in a wheelchair they don't want to be left home to look at four walls. A little effort can make sure the trip is enjoyable for everyone.