Accessible travel is moving forward, but not uniformly

It is Disability Pride Month, and July has brought several important developments in accessible travel.

We have seen a boutique hotel designed around accessibility from the outset, a London hotel place accessibility under the responsibility of a senior operational leader, an industry-wide campaign to improve the way accessibility information is shared, and another delay to wheelchair-protection rules for airlines.

Each story is significant in its own right. Taken together, though, they reveal a wider problem: different parts of the travel industry are moving forward at very different speeds. Disabled travellers are often left dealing with the gaps between them.

Hospitality is starting to build accessibility in

One of the most encouraging stories this month came from Napa Valley in California. The Mosaic Hotel Collection’s new 50-room resort, The Elene, has applied universal design principles across the property rather than limiting accessibility to a small number of designated rooms. Features such as roll-in showers have been incorporated into the hotel’s overall design, rather than treated as specialist additions or compliance requirements.

That distinction matters. When accessible accommodation is integrated throughout a hotel, disabled guests have more choice. They are less likely to be restricted to one particular room type, location or price point simply because they need an accessible bathroom.

There has also been an interesting development in London, where Pan Pacific London appointed its Director of Security, Safety and Sustainability as the hotel’s first Access Champion. The role will be connected to the Accessible Hospitality Alliance’s network of professionals responsible for improving accessibility within their organisations.

The important point is not the title itself, but where the responsibility sits. Accessibility has been placed alongside safety, security and sustainability: areas that are treated as serious operational priorities. It has not simply been handed to guest relations to deal with when a customer raises a problem.

Both examples point to the same conclusion. The businesses making meaningful progress are treating accessibility as a design and leadership decision from the beginning, rather than something to address after a complaint has been made.

The information gap remains a major problem

Good accessible facilities are only useful when travellers can find out about them.

TravelAbility’s Accessibility Travel Information Day on 27 July is intended to draw attention to the lack of clear, practical accessibility information online. Its research suggests that many businesses with genuine accessibility features still fail to explain them properly on their websites. At the same time, most disabled travellers are understandably reluctant to book without having clear information in advance.

This is not a small or specialist market. VisitBritain has estimated that the UK’s Purple Pound is worth more than £15 billion each year. Similar estimates across Europe and North America place the wider value of accessible tourism in the tens of billions. The demand already exists. What is often missing is the information people need to book confidently.

This is one of the main reasons specialist accessible travel agencies are still needed.

The phrase “wheelchair accessible” on a booking website can cover an enormous range of facilities. It might mean a fully adapted room with a roll-in shower, grab rails and suitable turning space. It might simply mean there is step-free access to the reception area. The description may not be deliberately misleading, but it is rarely detailed enough to confirm whether a property will meet an individual traveller’s needs.

Someone still has to ask the questions, check the measurements, confirm the facilities and obtain written answers from the hotel.

TravelAbility’s campaign is a welcome push for greater transparency, but one awareness day cannot correct years of vague descriptions and incomplete hotel websites. For now, accessibility still needs to be checked property by property.

Air travel is moving much more slowly

While parts of the hotel industry are showing what voluntary leadership can achieve, progress in air travel remains frustratingly slow.

The US Department of Transportation’s wheelchair-protection rule includes important measures relating to airline liability for damaged wheelchairs, staff training and reimbursement when passengers face additional costs. However, enforcement of several key provisions has been delayed again, with some requirements now pushed back until the end of 2026, more than a year after the rule was first finalised.

In June, senators responded by introducing the Air Carrier Access Amendments Act. The proposed legislation aims to give disabled air travellers a private right of action, bringing their protections more closely in line with other areas of civil rights law. The proposal reflects a long-standing concern that the existing complaints system has not delivered consistent accountability.

Advocacy organisations continue to report wheelchairs being damaged in transit and passengers arriving without essential mobility equipment, nearly 40 years after the original Air Carrier Access Act became law.

The contrast between hospitality and air travel is difficult to ignore. A new hotel in Napa Valley is treating roll-in showers as part of good design, while the rules intended to ensure that a wheelchair is returned safely by an airline remain a moving target.

What this means when planning a holiday

The message is not that progress is impossible. It is that travellers need to understand where progress is happening and where the risks remain.

Hospitality is currently one area where good businesses are choosing to move beyond minimum legal requirements. Those businesses deserve to be recognised and supported.

Air travel remains the part of the journey where stronger regulations do not always translate into a reliable experience on the day. It therefore needs careful preparation, detailed checks and, wherever possible, contingency planning.

Travellers should check a flight and an airline’s assistance arrangements just as carefully as they check an accessible hotel room. A new rule or positive headline does not necessarily mean that the experience on the ground has already changed.

That is why we carry out our own thorough checks, working with trusted partners around the world, rather than relying solely on an accessibility filter on a booking website.

We speak to hotels, airlines, transfer providers and equipment suppliers to establish what is actually available and whether it is suitable for the individual traveller.

That’s also, in a nutshell, why we do the vetting ourselves rather than pointing clients at a filter on a booking site. If you’re planning a trip this summer and want a second pair of eyes on any leg of it (air, hotel, or in between), get in touch.