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Travel Tips: Travelers With Disabilities

Travelers with disabilities have been heading off to Europe in ever-increasing numbers. If you're planning a trip, go to whatever countries your heart desires. Find good information below to get over any hurdles.

Resources

• Write to the tourist offices of every country you'll be visiting and request information on travel for the disabled.
• Recently published by Rough Guides , Able to Travel: True Stories by and for People with Disabilities is the most up-to-date guidebook available for travelers with disabilities.
• The U.S.A. office of Mobility International (a nonprofit organization with branches around the world) sponsors international exchange programs for the disabled, publishes a quarterly newsletter ($25/year, available on audio-cassette), and sells a handy book entitled "A World of Options: A Guide to International Educational Exchange, Community Service, and Travel for Persons with Disabilities" (1997, 600 pages, $35 ppd., P.O. Box 10767, Eugene, OR 97440, tel. 541/343-1284 voice and TDD, e-mail: info@miusa.org).
• Access Foundation for the Disabled, a nonprofit information clearinghouse for people with disabilities, offers information on accessible travel in over 150 countries and publishes a monthly newsletter available only on computer disk (Box 69, Malverne, NY 11565-0069, tel. 516/568-2715). The Society for the Advancement of Travel for the Handicapped (SATH) publishes a travel magazine ($45/year, tel. 212/447-SATH).
• Travelin' Talk, a network for disabled travelers, offers a newsletter that focuses on America but is gradually going global (P.O. Box 3534, Clarksville, TN 37043, tel. 615/552-6670, e-mail: trvlntlk@aol.com).
• SERVAS, an organization that enables travelers to stay with families in other countries, is accommodating to the needs of the disabled. Its listings note in detail which home stays are handicapped-accessible (for mobility-impaired, visually-impaired, and so on) and which hosts know sign language ($55/year membership, 11 John St., #407, New York, NY 10038, tel. 212/267-0252, web site: http://servas.org).