IL Postcard

Free Book: Disabled Traveler's Guide to the World

Date: 01/29/2007

The author and his wife at the Taj Mahal.

International Living Postcards--your daily escape

Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007

The picture above is of me and my wife, Nancy, at the Taj Mahal, one of the world's best known and most desirable travel destinations. Nearly 4 million people a year visit this place, but in the two days we were there, we didn't see one other person in a wheelchair. Not a single one.

Do you know why?

It's because if you are physically challenged, you or those you look to for guidance and support may easily assume it is too difficult to leave your secure environment and venture into unknown areas. That's a shame, because those unknown areas are full of wonderful experiences and discoveries you truly should not miss. Life is too short to skip them, and being disabled is no reason why you shouldn't go. We know this from experience.

We have been a disabled couple for almost 20 years. When we first began to put our lives back together, I asked my wife what I could do to bring her more happiness. She said she wanted to travel.

Seemed simple enough. But wow, was I wrong!

I had no idea how hard it would be to fulfill her request, because traveling disabled is anything but simple, especially outside the United States. Transfers to trains, planes, buses, and cars not suited to someone in a wheelchair. Hotel rooms are too small to turn around in; besides, you can't get into the elevators or roll into the showers. And safety is an issue everywhere.

As if that wasn't enough to make you think twice about traveling, we have also found an attitude that seems to prevail in the minds of many who are not familiar with special needs people. Their attitude, the minute they hear you are disabled or in a wheelchair, is to instantly think "disabled" means "unable." They jump to the conclusion you can't do anything that "normal" people can do.

Nancy and I have always had a good, positive, expectant attitude about everything, and we were determined to succeed in finding a way we could travel. As we started, we encountered a lot of difficulties, and I admit there were times we wondered if our expectation of being able to go where we wanted was unrealistic.

We kept at it, however, and looked upon each trip we took as a learning experience, an opportunity to gather information we could use that would make the next trip we took easier and more enjoyable.

Our perseverance has paid off. Now, two decades later, we have been on all seven continents, and in more countries than we can remember without an atlas. And we have certainly learned a lot about traveling disabled!

Many of our adventures are to places you wouldn't think anyone in a wheelchair could reach. Would you imagine someone in a wheelchair could land in Antarctica and play among the penguins? We did it. Antarctica is awesome!

The people at Intourist, the official Chinese travel agency, told me there was no way to get someone in a wheelchair onto the Great Wall of China. "Too hard," they said. "Too many steps. Too dangerous. Don't try." It took us nearly 30 minutes to get Nancy up on the wall, and when were at the top, hundreds of other tourists broke into applause around us!

Everyone told us we wouldn't be able to go to the hills in northern Thailand. We took a lot of flak for that one: "Too remote. No paved pathways. No bathrooms." But the day we spent with the Hill Tribe people was one of our most memorable.

Don't think for a minute you can't travel wherever you want. After all, if we can do it, you can do it, too.

Nate Rogers
For International Living

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P.S. Don't get me wrong--we're not crazy people who do dangerous things simply because someone tells us not to. It's just that we know ourselves better than anyone else. We have already solved many of the situations other people think are impossible. They don't recognize what every disabled person knows: You have to be more resourceful when you are physically challenged.

Editor's note: Nate and Nancy have put gathered everything they've learned in their 20+ years of traveling as a disabled couple…and put it all online for you to download free. See http://www.disabledtravelersguide.com for a full list of their adventures (and some great photos).