Travels with a Wheelchair
‘Is travelling with Sophie getting easier?’ A friend asked on our recent return from a week’s holiday in Egypt. He was referring to the fact that our eldest daughter Sophie is severely disabled.
I thought about the question before replying. ‘Not really, we’re just getting better organised.’ Although we have travelled a fair amount in Western Europe with Sophie, the trip to Egypt was the first time we felt brave enough to go outside the EU and take a longer flight since she fell ill 7 years ago.
Sophie was a normal 17 year old sassy teenager planning a career in medicine when she contracted a rare brain infection, encephalitis lethargica. After a year in hospital she came home with profound brain damage and physical disability requiring 24 hour care. At that time, the last thing on our mind was how easy it would be to continue the adventurous holidays we had previously enjoyed with our four children. But for a family that had backpacked in Malaysia, driven north to south across Australia, east to west across the States, climbed Kilimanjaro and sailed around Zanzibar, it was inconceivable that our wandering days were over. Also, we have a second home near Montpellier in France which we were neither willing to exclude Sophie from nor wishing to abandon. Having been an energetic and able-bodied family before, we knew nothing about the parallel world of disability and its incumbent problems.
But living with disability became a reality for us as it does for one household in four according to the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC). Various areas of public transport services in the UK were exempted from the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995 but last year the Department of Transport agreed to the recommendations by DPTAC to lift the exemption from land based transport by the end of this year. Channel Tunnel trains are excluded from this decision as they are not transport within the UK, and there is still only a voluntary code in place for air travel and shipping. As a result, individual airlines and ferry companies decide for themselves how and whether or not they wish to carry disabled travellers. The market is estimated to be worth £40 billion a year and is consequently no longer ignored by the major players. This is in stark contrast to the situation twenty years ago when it was almost impossible for wheelchair users to board a train or bus and implausible for them to consider travel abroad. But, despite improvements in disabled access to transport in the UK and the Europe-wide standards being developed, international travel for wheelchair users remains uncertain. And more importantly, information is still difficult to obtain.
Bearing this in mind, our first trip 5 years ago to our French home with Sophie was planned well in advance. Instead of the family’s usual meandering drive across France, we felt the expertise of a major airline would offer the simplest method for travelling with Sophie and booked with British Airways. We obtained a letter from our GP confirming that the journey posed no threat to Sophie’s health and discovered that despite her being severely disabled, an E111 covered her health requirements in the event of an emergency as it would anyone else. Sophie’s Dad would fly with her from London to Montpellier while I drove down over a couple of days with the other children.
Once settled in Montpellier, I drove to meet Sophie and her Dad at the airport following their short flight. Sophie was howling and I subsequently learned that, despite having notified BA in advance about her disability, the information had not been disseminated. The journey had been a nightmare. Not only was Sophie carried onto the plane by baggage handlers due to insurance regulations, she was subsequently unable to sit next to her father. A letter of complaint still remains unanswered and we gave up on British Airways.
But we were not willing to give up on travelling with Sophie, and that winter planned a family ski holiday. This time, we decided Sophie and her Dad would fly to Geneva with Easyjet – we knew that the non-allocation of seats with low-budget airlines meant that they would be able to sit together. The no-frills service served us well. There was no suggestion that Dad could not transfer Sophie to her seat and a pleasant flight was enjoyed by all. Subsequent trips from London to various European destinations proved equally successful. Staff from various low-budget airlines asked how they could make the journey easier for Sophie and her Dad instead of quoting regulations.
In subsequent years, we have frequently made the long road journey with Sophie to Montpellier, crossing the Channel with P & O, Speedferries or Eurotunnel. With the appropriate label hooked onto our interior mirror, loading staff can see that we have a wheelchair and appropriate arrangements are made.
Once across the Channel, we head south. We spend almost as much on the motorway tolls as we do on fuel for the 10 hour journey and no longer take hotel breaks but share the driving to get the kilometres covered. Service areas are plentiful, offering decent disabled access as well as good coffee and food. There are usually wide open picnic areas and in theory, adequate disabled parking bays although in our experience, not usually used by the disabled. In the meantime, our other children have grown up and become independent travellers as well as occasionally joining us in Montpellier.
With the passage of time, we have become more confident taking Sophie to different places and to celebrate her Dad’s 50th birthday, we wanted once again to do something more adventurous as a family. We decided to organise a scuba diving holiday for the active members, with Sophie and I benefiting from some winter sun. We simply wanted a good diving resort along with decent accommodation offering disabled access and a pool – we didn’t relish the idea of dragging Sophie’s wheelchair along a sandy beach…..
We initially approached a high street agent who advised us to travel with a specialist tour operator. But it offered diving for the disabled – and Sophie didn’t like diving even when she was healthy. I decided to trawl the internet but discovered this was an equally fruitless exercise with generic websites either ignoring the issue of disability or offering ambiguous information.
We finally heard about the Meridien Hotel near Hurghada on Egypt’s Red Sea through word of mouth. It is offered on an ‘all-inclusive’ basis by Panorama Holidays who confirmed that it offered wheelchair access. They also offer local flight departures. I was particularly nervous about the longer flight in case Sophie got distressed and disturbed others. My worries were unfounded; surrounded by her family, Sophie was completely relaxed throughout the 5 hour flight. There was the inevitable odd stare from other passengers, with children pointing and whispering which I still find awkward but have had to get used to.
Although people may look, they rarely make any attempt at conversation or offer to help. We did have a bit of a struggle to carry Sophie onto the transfer coach at Hurghada due to steep, narrow steps, but it was only a forty minute drive to the hotel.
The Meridien complex is on a beachside location with an enormous outdoor pool. With ramps and lifts throughout, it was easy to navigate with Sophie’s wheelchair. This wasn’t the sort of holiday we used to choose and we discovered that ‘all-inclusive’ actually meant ‘full-board with selected drinks’. But there was a good dive package which Dad and the other children enjoyed.
All meals at the Meridien are buffet style with a wide variety of hot and cold dishes. For breakfast, one of us would collect milk and cereal from the dining room and feed Sophie before washing and dressing her for the day. At lunch and supper, we would take her to the restaurant. The staff were sensitive to our needs and reserved a table discreetly tucked into an alcove. We could enjoy our family meals, taking turns feeding Sophie without attracting too much attention.
We had requested rooms away from the main building in case Sophie was noisy at night. They were spacious and well appointed offering easy wheelchair access despite not being recommended for disabled use. The disabled bedrooms in the main building were disappointing with the only concession being a couple of grab rails on the bath. They would not have conformed to British standards and could not have been used by a disabled person without assistance.
Had we wished to leave the hotel complex with Sophie, it would have been difficult; coaches were not adapted for wheelchairs and in any case, a mammoth road journey was necessary to reach anywhere interesting. However for a family such as ours seeking some winter sun, this holiday was a good option despite lacking the excitement we had hoped for. Although I suppose it did prove that we can be a little more adventurous with Sophie.
Until major tour operators decide that the disabled market is worth wooing, it will remain difficult for families like ours to choose a suitable and affordable holiday. Given the diverse prosperity of countries worldwide, it is understandable that there are no international standards for wheelchair access. But there is no reason why travel companies don’t make clear in brochures and websites what disabled facilities are offered. They should illustrate what access is or is not available at airports, hotels and places of interest. Disability is a broad school: that transfer buses don’t offer wheelchair access may be a major problem to one person and not to another. Simply ignoring disabled facilities offers no solution.
With the proportion of disabled members of affluent societies growing rapidly (mainly due to our increasing longevity) the value of this market will become increasingly important to travel firms. According to DPTAC, over the next 30 years, the number of people in Britain aged over 65 will double with more than 33% of them disabled.
As a result, travel operators of all categories – airlines, ferry companies, train operators, bus companies and tour operators will start to target this sector of the population. They will learn to communicate effectively with their clients and educate their staff. And this, in my opinion, will make a real difference.
On our assorted travels with a wheelchair, the companies involved broadly have policies that are keen to accommodate disabled tourists and make their journeys as comfortable as possible. But they don’t make clear what they can offer either in facilities or service. As in any other walk of life, it is communication and people that make the difference. Someone with a smile who recognises that travelling with a wheelchair is not easy and offers to lend a hand is worth countless regulations or company policies.
© Judith Cameron
Hints for Travelling with a Disabled Person
Sources of information
Advice for disabled people travelling - Door to Door website at http://www.dptac.gov.uk/door-to-door/index.htm and Tripscope personalised advice at 08457 58 56 41
Guidance for ship operators - http://www.dptac.gov.uk/pubs/guideship/index.htm
Guidance for air operators http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_mobility/documents/divisionhomepage/031009.hcsp
Consultation on lifting the transport exemption - http://www.drc.org.uk/thelaw/transportcodes.asp
© Judith Cameron