Now that we’re caught up with back story of how I ended up
in Georgia, let’s go right into a new fun series in my little world: travel. From
July 26th through July 30th, I will be in Washington D.C.
for the National Council on Independent Living’s (NCIL)
Annual Conference. (Many thanks to Georgia’s Statewide Independent Living
Council (SILC,) for selecting me to be
their Youth Pledge.)
This is huge for me for a few reasons. A) I love traveling
to new places, and revisiting those I’ve already been to. B) I may have an
opportunity to meet some big names in the Independent Living Movement. C)
I’ll be catching up with some old friends, and making new ones (networking.)
And, D) I really love to travel!
If
you’re older than me, then you may be saying to yourself, “Enjoy it while
you’re young. You’ll be sick of the crowds and the rushing, when you get to be
my age! It’s unnecessary stress.” At least, that’s what my mom says to me all
the time... Although, I don’t think I will be sick of seeing new sites, tasting
different foods, and getting to meet/know other brilliant minds of the world. So
for now, it’s totally worth it! What I would like to fast forward through
whenever I’m going on these adventures, are the [in]accessibility issues that I
encounter. Primarily, deriving from staff training , or lack thereof. Here’s a
Top 3 list of what I mean:
- How to safely handle wheelchairs [of all shapes and sizes]
- How to safely transfer a person who needs seating assistance
- How to respectfully communicate with the person with a disability
 |
| Me strapped into an aisle chair, waiting to board the plane. |
Those are just personal obstacles. The rate of successful
travel experiences isn’t as low as it may be assumed, however. I feel that a
little responsibility lies on the passenger, as well as airline staff. An open
mind, positive attitude, effective self-advocacy skills, and a corny joke here
and there are great to project to the public. The already stressful situation
is then eased a bit.
For my next few blogs, I will break all of this down, while
giving a brief review of this trip to D.C.
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