Planning an accessible trip
Preparing for a tour of Japan, a reminder that it's in the little things
Hello!
Welcome to the excitingly-large number of you who have subscribed to this newsletter in the past few weeks! The View From Down Here is a newsletter looking at the untold realities of life as a disabled woman; I’m so glad you’ve joined us in our quest for an anti-ableist world. Any questions, just reply to this email!
This week I’ve been doing the last bits of planning for an upcoming, very exciting trip around Japan. We’ll be visiting Tokyo, Takayama, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Nara and Osaka - as well as a trip to Mt Fuji - so there’s been a lot to read and research.
For the first time ever, we’ve used a specialist tour company to organise a lot of the logistics, from securing hotel rooms I can actually use to booking accessible transfers between cities. It’s saved us from untold hours spent on the phone finding out what exactly a hotel means by “accessible wet room” and has generally made the whole process much easier than normal.
Mainly, then, I’ve been googling the accessibility of the sites (and shops…!) we want to visit. I’m a massive history nerd and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how accessible Japan has made some of its oldest attractions; shrines, temples and palaces have all been adapted. Even better, official websites actually provide proper access information. It’s all been quite… easy to organise. I’m really looking forward to exploring with minimal stress.
Even when someone has booked accessible hotels and sorted transportation, there are still a few things I have to do when planning a trip that nondisabled people might not think of. They might seem like little things but they’re pretty essential. Some are absolutely essential to do before we go and some of them I do in advance to save myself some aggro while out and about. A few people have asked me about it so I thought I’d share a list here - perhaps it’ll come in handy for you in future if you travel with a disabled pal or family member (especially if they’re a powerchair user!).
Find out where accessible loos are likely to be so you can use them when you see them. In Japan, the most likely places to have them are train stations, shopping centres and museums (this is also true in London and most of Europe, so I already know how to plan accordingly)
Find out what the local lingo is for ‘accessible’, even if you say it in English. In Japan, the phrase I’ll be using a lot is “where is the barrier-free entrance?” whereas in Europe and the States people still often refer to a “handicap route” (shudder)
Check if wheelchair chargers will work. Unlike small consumer electronics, wheelchair chargers require a certain voltage. Different countries’ electricity grids operate at different voltages, so you might need a converter to avoid a charging fail
Check the airline you are flying with will accept your wheelchair batteries on board and fill out any annoying paperwork about it. Even if it says they will have said paperwork saved on their system, print it out and take it with you
Know how to safely put an electric wheelchair on manual for the ground crew. Take an empty carry-on so you can keep removal parts (cushions, headrests, joysticks) with you (preventing them going missing in the hold)
Pack a bike pump!
Find out how to call an accessible cab (and if they exist). In NYC, for example, there’s a dedicated line to call but it only works if you dial from a US number. In Paris, the G7 taxi app is the way to go. In Dublin (eight years ago) you just had to walk
Going further afield or off-the-beaten-track, you might need to take a few “access essentials” with you in case you can’t buy them. For me, this looks like a big bundle of straws, many packets of wet wipes, and a set of plastic cutlery (being fed with chopsticks by someone else is not the one)
Are you a disabled traveller? What measures do you take to plan for a trip? Let me know in the comments!
Subscribe below to be the first to hear all about our Japanese adventures and get in touch if you have any questions about accessible travel.
See you next week,
Lucy
Links of the week
I loved this New Yorker piece about whether or not you are the same person you’ve always been, and how the way we form the narrative of our lives shapes how we understand ourselves. It was really interesting to read in light of last week’s issue of this newsletter
For most day to day purposes, I am abled. However, some activities are harmful/dangerous to me. For example, I went to the Middle East recently and was invited to ride on a camel. This sounds great, but standard lifestyle advice is that riding a horse is dangerous, so I had to think laterally and refuse the ride.
Also, I have to be able to access good healthcare at all times (good enough that I can get emergency open heart surgery), so I do research on local hospitals before going. That has meant that I haven't gone to a few countries that could been interesting.
One of the most frustrating things I've had to deal with when travelling as my health got worse is just making the trip longer so I have time to rest and recover. It can feel like a waste of money - spending several days on each side of the flight mostly in bed. So, finding places to stay where I can still do very light activity (something nice to eat, something nice to look at) during that time is really helpful for me.
When it comes to accessible travel stuff, I've only interacted with an accessible company once - to organise a tour in an infamously inaccessible area. I was extremely disappointed - it cost a fortune but I felt more like we were being ferried from place to place and that's it. I didn't get the TOUR side of it - constantly asking for history and local knowledge only to get one sentence answers (and feeling grateful I'm a journalist so I could at least feel comfortable constantly asking questions - even if it pissed me off).
So a big piece of advice I have from anyone (and a lesson hard learned) is that if you are booking a tour, since it's private, make sure with the company that you have a guide who has the skills and knowledge that matches up with your interests.