Hotels Have Come A Long Way With Accessibility — But There's Still So Much Work To Be Done
Hotel rooms are not designed with me in mind. But hopefully, that's going to change.
Eager to shower and get to bed after a late-night arrival in Brussels last summer, my husband and I were disappointed — but not surprised — to find that my wheelchair didn’t fit into the bathroom of our supposedly accessible hotel room.
Too late to find a new hotel to stay in after a short but laborious flight from our home in Dublin, I clumsily lowered myself to the floor, scooted into the shower and sat while my husband angled the showerhead toward me and sprayed me down. Using the toilet was an even bigger issue, but I’ll spare you the details.
Navigating hotels as a person with a disability can be challenging in unexpected ways. After a long day of traveling, nothing feels better than settling into a cozy bed. But for wheelchair users like me, there are often several obstacles that keep us from resting, relaxing and getting anything else done in a hotel room that was clearly not designed with anyone like me in mind. From stories about beds being too high to limited floor space and roll-in nightmares, there are so many things that the global hospitality industry needs to address.
I have to hope that change is underway, because this can’t be as good as it gets. I spoke to several big hotel groups about what they’re doing to ensure better accessibility for their disabled guests — and some of them appeared to already have plans in action.
InterContinental Hotels Group brands include Even and Crowne Plaza, as well as, on a luxury level, Kimpton and the InterContinental. At the InterContinental specifically, there’s a new inclusivity initiative that prioritizes accessibility through a pledge to focus on diversity in clientele.
