1) When people with disabilities travel, they represent more than just themselves as individuals. They represent an entire community of people with disabilities and carry the pride and identity of that community. 2) Economically, American adults with disabilities spend billions of dollars annually on tourism, making up an important consumer group. Their travel choices can influence the tourism industry. 3) By traveling, people with disabilities spread awareness of disability culture and pride around the world, challenging stereotypes and advocating for disability rights in other countries.

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MY SPIN Disability Pride
and World Travel
W
hen we travel we repre- some little-known facts gathered marginalized “community of dif-
sent more than our- by Rosangela Berman-Bieler of ference.” Often those meanings
selves because we are the Inter-American Institute on attached to us abroad are the very
part of a community. As Disability and Inclusive Develop- stereotypes we have worked so
a person with a disabil- ment using research done by the hard to abolish, or at least insulate
ity you carry two items of unusual Open Doors Organization: ourselves from, back home.
value — especially in combina- American adults with disabili- Travel can mean separation
tion. Both tend to surprise those ties or reduced mobility currently from the replenishing sources of
you meet as you travel. The two spend an average of 13.6 billion disability identity and pride in our
items are money and pride. By U.S. dollars a year on tourism. In lives. Loss of a community of dis-
money I don’t just mean the 2002, these individuals made 32 ability pride isolates us from per-
change in your pocket. By pride I million trips and spent 4.2 billion sonal relationships, political dis-
mean the self-determination of dollars on hotels, 3.3 billion on cussions, and the artistic vitality of
knowing who you are beyond airline tickets, 2.7 billion on food our culture. Yet that very “pres-
economic measures of worth. and beverages, and 3.4 billion on ence of absence” is one of the
By Scott Rains The very fact that you have a trade, transportation, and other privileged moments of travel.
disability and travel suggests activities. The most popular inter- Personally, it can give us perspec-
something about your economic national destinations for this tive on our lives. Publicly, it adver-
Travel advertises condition. It indicates that you
have credit, savings, education,
tourist segment are: 1. Canada; 2.
Mexico; 3. Europe; and 4. the
tises us as being a portal for oth-
ers into an as-yet-to-be-experi-
us as being a por- maybe a profession that requires
travel, but most importantly the
Caribbean, in that order.
The economic means to deter-
enced way of life as a person with
a disability.
tal for others into ability to make decisions about
the course of your life for your-
mine our own futures gives us
powerful leverage as consumers
Travel the world today and
you will find there is a hunger for
an as-yet-to-be- self. That combination of means
and dignity are a potent method
on the attitudes, infrastructure,
and products of the travel indus-
community and solidarity among
people with disabilities. As an
experienced way of social transformation.
Leisure travel means moving
try. Our travel behavior is studied
by the industry.
exchange student, backpacker,
business or vacation traveler,
of life as a person beyond survival mode. A small
but growing percentage of people
with disabilities have made the
Community is the multiplier
effect that makes our economic
behavior only a small part of the
your identity as a person with a
disability gives you access to
faces of the host culture that are
with a disability. transition to economic stability,
but we are not equally distributed
global impact that we exert. When
we travel, we represent a commu-
both positive and negative.
Wherever you go, you will find
around the world. Travel spreads nity of people with disabilities, unique opportunities to learn
us around, which is to say that it and woven through that commu- from and contribute to local man-
spreads around living examples nity is a unifying thread of pride. ifestations of disability culture.
of an alternate lifestyle. We may be fortunate enough When we travel, we are
With a generation of perma- to have begun our travel from a ambassadors of a community
nently disabled people having situation where family, friends, beyond borders with a set of core
experienced increasing degrees legislation, luck, and hard work values that the world has a chance
of employment, education, and have given us a strong sense of to discover through the choices
leisure, those of us with the self-confidence and a life lived we make. Take your pride on the
means to travel belong to a con- among people like ourselves. A road and level the path for the
sumer group that is only starting change of location might place us ones who come after you.
to be noticed. How we choose to where our identity as a member Scott Rains publishes the
spend those resources — even of the disability community is only Rolling Rains Report, a source of
through our leisure activities — vaguely perceived as member- travel info for people with disabili-
has profound impact. Here are ship in some inconsequential and ties: www.RollingRains.com.
10 NEW MOBILITY