THE FREEDOM TO TRAVEL

Travel THE FREEDOM TO

BY ROSALIND TULLOCH

Travel has taken a backseat for the last couple of years, the world has been off limits to us due to the pandemic, but now that travel appears to be a realistic option again for many of us, it could be time to satisfy those travel urges and go in search of some more exotic shores.

inding accessible holidays that cater for your individual needs and that of your family can be exceedingly difficult. Hours of research, reading reviews, communicating with venues and double checking access or equipment available can be exhaustive, especially if the information on the accessibility of a property is unreliable. There are too many reports of disabled guests arriving at accommodation only to find the accessibility information has been inaccurate. This can be a devastating blow to a disabled traveller and it can impact people’s confidence in travelling and exploring other countries, as well as their own. Most of you will be familiar with Airbnb as a platform to book accommodation in the UK or abroad, whether you have used it personally or not. Airbnb is a platform that invites people across the globe to rent out their home to guests. Whether that be a house, flat, apartment, boathouse, caravan or yurt, you can rent it on Airbnb. Airbnb does list accessible properties and allows users to search for suitable accommodation by using a comprehensive list of accessibility filters. These properties are checked and verified by Airbnb to ensure the accessibility features that the property conveys are genuine, so you can have confidence when booking.

There are too many reports of disabled guests arriving at accommodation only to find the accessibility information has been inaccurate NEW ADDITIONS

The great news is that Airbnb are committed to catering for their disabled travellers and they have recently announced some accessible additions to the platform. In May 2022, Airbnb launched a new way of searching for properties on their site by categorising them into areas like, beachfront, castles, farms, vineyards, islands, treehouses – no matter what style of property you are looking for you will find it on here, or you will at least have fun discovering all the different places. The categories allow users to pick any category they like and just scroll through the properties to get inspiration for their next trip. It is a wonderfully enjoyable way to discover amazing properties that you would not otherwise come across if you were restricting your searches to one location. Scrolling through pages of amazing, unusual, secluded or eco-friendly homes can be exciting and fun and users can get lost in the imagination of their next trip. However, this is not a luxury afforded to anyone who has mobility issues or access needs.

Wheelchair users and guests with mobility impairments must use the access filters to ensure they find an accessible home that will cater to their needs, and while Airbnb do have a great selection of filters and stringent processes to ensure the properties are as accessible as they say they are, there has been no other way to search or find inspiration for accessible properties. Until now.

Airbnb have introduced six new categories to their website and one of those categories is the Adapted category. We spoke to Suzanne Edwards, accessibility standards lead for Airbnb and a wheelchair user herself, who passionately spoke about the addition of this category for the disabled community, as she believes it could “revolutionise travel for guests with mobility needs”. Talking us through the new Adapted category Suzanne highlighted that just one click from the homepage will take guests to the Adapted listings via the universally recognised wheelchair symbol at the top of the page.

This will take you to a tempting mix of wheelchair accessible listings from all over the world, allowing you to scroll through a huge variety of homes all with one thing in common: accessibility. Additional accessibility features have also been added to the world map, allowing users who do not have fine motor skills or who use assistive technology to move around the map using toggle features for zooming and panning, instead of pinching and dragging. Airbnb have chosen some amazing adapted homes to be featured in this category, and Suzanne explained how Airbnb committed even further to verify and highlight accessibility information for guests: “We wanted to go a step further for the homes in this category so we partnered with Matterport who is a leader in 3D space capture and for every single home in the Adapted category we worked with the team at Matterport. They have a team of global technicians and we did 3D scans of all of these homes to verify all of the accessibility features that they had, such as the height of the thresholds or the widths of the doorways, and different features they have in the home.”

The 3D scans also provided them with 2D floorplans that have been added to

Canada

Portugal

just one click from the homepage will take guests to the Adapted listings via the universally recognised wheelchair symbol at the top of the page

New Zealand

the main photo set of each of the listings. Listening to their community of disabled travellers Airbnb recognised that floorplans were an important addition for many people to understand the layout of the home and the configuration of where each room was, these floorplans also feature all of the room sizes too.

This comprehensive approach to accessible accommodation listings opens up a world of travel opportunities to the disabled community. You can book the trip of a lifetime, a weekend break, or a family holiday with confidence, knowing that your accommodation will cater to your access needs, so you can relax and enjoy your time away. What are you waiting for? Start making your travel plans today at AirBnb.co.uk/ AdaptedHomes.