While every attempt has been made to ensure the greatest degree of accuracy of the contents within, 20 States on Wheels makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of this book and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this book. No warranty of any kind, implied, expressed or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, contents of this book or its URLs to other Internet resources. Reference in this the public, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by 20 States on Wheels. Many of the photographs used in this book were taken directly by team members of 20 States on Wheels. All photographs not taken by our team members were posted online under Creative Commons 2.0 copyright licensing, and an attribution to the photographer is listed.
for Haley Rue, fellow adventurer, whose spirit lives on.
Table of Contents
Our Sponsors Anna A. Jolene van Antwerp Macarena Arias Rachel Belzer Danny Bin Jordan Boslego James Carey Michi Carrillo Ling-Ya Chao Jaemin Cheun Melissa Chin Daniel Choi Yunji Choi Jeremy Chung Keiko Coe Phoebe D. Kelsey Dean Tom Dingman Kasey Huong Doan David Doty Adham Elshahabi Ece Erdagรถz Wheelchair Escapes Iris Feng Mercedes Flowers Whitney Gao Brandon Geller Neil Golding AU Gonzales Jane Guthrie Carlos Gutierrez P. H. Zak Hap Inpyo Hong Robyn Hunter Jennifer Hwang Esther Jung Mark Karimov Regina Katz Carly Kauffman Andy Kim Anna Kim Hyunjung Kim
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Jiwon Kim Justine Ji Yeon Kim Kaitlyn Kim Kyle Kim Minjae Kim Minji Kim Oliver Kim Raymond Kim Somi Kim Stella Kim Chris Kochem Bob Kochem Asli Kolcu Vimal Konduri Andrew Kortina JJ Kuang Junko Kusunoki Nicky Kwon Quynh-Nhu Le Tuan Anh Le Dabein Lee Franklin Lee Kristi Lee Melissa Lee Jeffrey LeFors Lillian Lin Cory Lopez Kaitlin Madigan Douglas Maggs Jason Mahr Khoi Mai Daniel Marcos Kristin McLaughlin Elyse Montague James Moore Hali Nelson Giang Nguyen Danny Nightingale Jenny Noradee Seyun Oh Abbie Orlando Joe Palana Vivek Patel Chris Patterson Hien Pham
LinhDan Pham Phuong Pham Phuong-Van Pham Lauren Rains Lauren Rains Grant Riew Samuel Mendez Jane Robbins Pam Roberts Kathy Santoro Nazareth Seferian Catherine Shon Jordan Simons Hannu Siren Stacey Smith Anya Sokolova Donovan Solms Alissa Soriano Mark Steinbach Aubrey Stoddard Andy Suslenko Khanh Ta Wei Syn Tan To-Ha Thai Maung Thet Elias Arce Toner Linh Tran Kha Tran Masha Vapnitchnaia Maggie Vo Megan Whitehead Jiyeon Woo Wendy Woodin Anita Xu Mandy Y. Diane Yang Isabelle Yang Joon Yang Carolyn Ye Travis Yeh Anh Yeo Jaehyuk You Gloria Yu Bryan Zhao Eduardo Zheng
Acknowledgments T
his crazy project would never have been possible without the help of
supporters, Thomas Dingman, Dean of the Freshman Class at Harvard without whose support we never could have begun this project. We owe an immeasurable thanks to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation for their Quality of Life Grant, which was instrumental to making our dream a reality, and would like to extend our personal gratitude to Donna Valente at the Foundation. To Dai Hong Sohn and Sam Q. Kim at HMart, thank you so much for your generous donation to our project. To the Yeo family, our heartfelt thanks for your love, care, and generosity. To the staff at trevolta.com, our thanks for your help with our fundraising efforts. To Michael A. McDowell from the Hertz Corporation, we are so grateful for the generous discount and enthusiastic support. A warm and special thanks to Clark Dumont at MGM Grand Hotels, for offering us an incredible stay in Las Vegas, Detroit and Chicago. To the Bia Church and Bam-sil Hwai group in South Korea, many thanks for your donations and support. Our personal gratitude to Heather Linnane at Hampton Inn, Pittsburgh, for her great hospitality in arranging our stay. Many thanks to the Grand Hyatt in New York for their generosity. Thank you to the staff of Irving House in Cambridge, MA, for sponsoring a wonderful night for our team. Thanks to the staff at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles for their meticulous conlanders with Disabilities of California, for a great meal and a good talk. To our friends and supporters at Harvard and in the greater Boston Community, your help and encouraging words made our dream possible. Finally, thanks to our families, for their eternal love and support.
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Authors’ Note
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here is a dangerous idea about wheelchair users: that living in a wheelchair is tragic, because a person in a wheelchair cannot enjoy life as fully as an able-bodied person. We the authors of 20 that this idea is both dangerous and false. A person in a wheelchair experiences life no less fully anyone else: in meaningful employment, in loving relationships, and in pursuing one’s dreams—including, for some people, traveling.
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Kim came to the U.S. from South Korea to attend Harvard University. Before his freshman year began, Kunho was eager to travel around the U.S. to learn more about his home for the next four years. He was surprised and frustrated, however, when he found that there were hardly any travel guides written with wheelchair users in mind. Accessibility as a topic was rarely mentioned in any of the usual reout building by building which areas were accessible quickly be-
came a headache. Information as simple as whether the entrance was accessible, or whether or not there was an accessible bathroom, When Kunho started college in entation, he met a fellow Harvard freshman named Brad Riew. asked Kunho what he wanted to do in his life. “I want to travel around the world,” said Kunho, “and I would love to road trip around the States before I graduate.” Brad also shared that dream, and the two started making plans for a cross-country road trip. As their plans steadily grew from an idea into a real possibility, the two freshmen realized that they could combine their dreams for traveling with their desire to make a difference in how accessibility was reported in the tourism industry. In the spring, the two freshman began planning and fundraising in earnest for a cross-country road trip, during which they would create for wheelchair users. They added two team members, You-Myeong Kim and Cynthia Cheung, and began applying to grants, researching crowdfunding websites, and reaching out to businesses across
the country who might be willing to sponsor services or donations. In the end, the team was able to raise ing and awarded grants, in addition to securing sponsorships from several businesses across the states. in San Francisco and began an incredible, 50-day journey across the U.S., all the way to Boston. We formed many lasting memories and saw a wide slice of the American continent in our journeys, and reviewed the accessibility of tourist attractions we saw along the way. The book you are reading now is the result of two years of planning, research, and hard work by the 20 States on Wheels team. Our mission is threefold: to provide wheelchair users with a genuinely useful product, to encourage other wheelchair users to travel, and to highlight the need for better reporting on accessibility in the tourism industry. We hope you to embark on your own adventures.
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Our team drove a red Yukon XL equipped with hand controls, beginning in San Francisco on July 7, 2014 and ending in Boston on August 28th. Our route included the following locations: San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Niagara Falls, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston. 20 States on Wheels
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HOW TOs Road trips are exciting, but planning can be a daunting process. The following pages offer some advice for wheelchair users on making pretrip preparations.
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Packing: Wheelchair Accessories The following list covers a range of helpful accessories that wheelhighly recommend consulting your health provider before embarking on longer trips.
Pressure-relief cushion Road trip mean long hours of sitting in the car in one position, which may cause skin problems for wheelchair users. A cushion for pressure relief can help alleviate this problem. Various companies offer these cushions, from Roho to Jay2; consult your health provider for further advice.
Wheelchair pump to pump it back up. For long road trips, we recommend purchasing a hand-powered or car-battery compatible tire pump.
Spare tire tube We found the following video to be a clear demonstration: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s-5mdG-PoA
FreeWheel A FreeWheel is a small wheel that attaches to your wheelchair casters. This handy third wheel lifts your front wheels off the ground, and can allow you to roll more easily over obstacles such as dirt trails, grass, gravel, snow and sand.
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HOW TOs Booking Hotels Some travel agency websites, such as Hotels.com and Expedia.com, in our experience that booking through these websites does not guarantee a wheelchair accessible room, even when a representative from that after a hotels.com representative would guarantee us an accessible the mix-up was due to a communication gap between the agencies and the hotels; somewhere along the line of communication, the information about a need for an accessible room was lost every time. This can make the process of booking a room quite annoying; however, it is still useful money. After going through many inconveniences, we found the following approach to work the best: sible hotel online through a travel agency such as hotels.com or expedia.com. wheelchair accessible. with them that your room will be wheelchair accessible.
ble room, so that you have a written record of the request and may ask for a refund if your room turns out not to be accessible. trip due to the many mix-ups we experienced. Especially at budget hotels with fewer stars, in our experience, staff tended to be not very knowledgeable about the hotel’s wheelchair accessible rooms and each room’s features. For budget travelers in wheelchairs, this can be one of the biggest headaches during a road trip. To help make this process simpler, our team has included a short list of local hotels with accessible rooms in each city at the end of each section.
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Renting a Car with Hand Controls Major rental car companies such as Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Dollar and Budget all offer hand-controls and spinner knobs without any additional charge on some standard vehicles. Avis also offers transfer boards and Swivel seats to further assist wheelchair users. However, these companies do not offer wheelchair accessible vans with installed ramps; for local companies that offer wheelchair accessible vans with ramps, see To reserve a car with hand controls and spinner knobs, travelers must ask for such assistive devices. Hertz and Dollar both allow customers to request hand controls online. However, because not all vehicles can be equipped with hand controls, we highly recommend double checking by directly calling the company to ensure there are no mix-ups. When we rented our van, there was a miscommunication between the rental department at the website and the people at the actual facility in California; when we arrived, we found that the car we rented was not a vehicle that could have hand controls installed! Hertz was quick to solve the problem, still advise checking in advance to ensure that no mix-ups occur. The following companies offer rental car services across the United States:
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HOW TOs Obtaining a Disability Placard The process of obtaining a disability parking placard differs slightly depending on the state. Generally, wheelchair users applying for a parking on the state, you will be asked to submit the form in person or by mail. Fees can vary from state to state. Some states also offer temporary travel placards that are valid for up to six months. Note that visitors to California must apply for a travel placard, as California does not recognize disability placards from other states.
Using Self-Serve Gas Stations Many gas stations in the US have self-serve pumps. For some people purchasing gas. The ADA mandates gas stations to provide assistance to wheelchair users without any charge. If you encounter a self-serve pump that you are unable to operate, simply ask the station employees for assistance. If you encounter any problems or have questions about this is-
AAA Insurance counts on all sorts of services across the country. For budget travellers, getting a AAA membership might be a worthy investment depending on the distance and duration of your travel. AAA membership includes towing 6
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Planning
emergency services. They also include discounts and bargains at non-automotive retailers; for example, AAA members are eligible for discounts in places as different as theme parks to hotels. In addition, AAA gives out free maps, which can be useful in locations without phone service or as a backup in case your GPS malfunctions. The price of AAA membership -
ly at different local branches.
Helpful Apps for Budgeting We found the following mobile phone applications to be helpful with keeping our costs down:
Gasbuddy This app shows the gas stations around you, including up-to-date prices and locations, allowing you to stop by the gas stations with the cheapest prices. While the differences between stations may only be a couple of cents per gallon, these can quickly add up to much larger savings over the course of a long road trip.
Yelp Yelp is a widely known app for reviews of local businesses. We found distance, and sort the results by rating. Sadly, the Yelp app does not
Mint yourself and track your credit card transactions. The app will remind you to pay your bills on time and will also help keep you on the budgets you set for yourself. It can be a useful app for maintaining your budget goals when on longer road trips. 20 States on Wheels
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HOW TOs Navigating Airports Upon request, airlines freely provide assistance services to any wheelchair users who request it. No documentation is required. Airport staff will assist with carrying your luggage and with traveling from the airline counter to the gate. You may also rent wheelchairs for free. Allow plenty of extra time to get through security, especially if you wear a prosthesis or use any type of assistive device. There are special guidelines for checking wheelchair users during security; as wheelchairs will set off the metal detector, security will give you a pat-down instead. Travelers may request the security check be conducted in private if they deem these security measures too intrusive. The ACAA prohibits all airlines from discriminating on the basis of disability in air travel to, from and within the United States. Airlines may not refuse to provide transportation on the basis of disability, and are required to provide assistance with getting on and off the plane. When there is no level-entry boarding available, airlines must provide ramps or mechanical lifts for large commercial aircraft. Passengers with disabilities must follow standard FAA rules for stowing carry-on baggage, although assistive and medical devices do not count against the number of permitted bags. Assistive devices and wheelchairs have priority in the baggage compartment. If passengers with disabilities choose to preboard, collapsible wheelchairs and assistive devices have priority in-cabin storage space, including in closets on the aircraft. Airlines must also accept battery-powered wheelchairs, including their batteries, and FAA-approved portable oxygen concenpropriate airline.
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Crowdfunding One crucial part of our funding platform was crowdfunding, a process of raising money through a website that allows people to see your project and donate money to help make it a reality. There are several different types of websites that support crowdfunding for special projects. Among the most famous ones, with the biggest user bases, are Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Another crowdfunding website, the one we used for our trip, is Trevolta, which exclusively specializes in crowdfunding for inspiring travel. Each website varies slightly on the process for crowdfunding a project, but most will require you to make a video explaining your plan, write up an explanation of your project and its purpose, provide a timeline and plan for completion, present nors. Making a good video is absolutely key, as this is where you will explain your mission and convince people it is worthy; be thoughtful and take lots of time with it to make sure it is perfect. Once your project has launched, you cannot be complacent and just expect the money to show up; a huge part of effective crowdfunding, we found, is actively reaching out to members of your community, your family, and other people who believe in your cause. Take the initiative in being the one to reach out and ask people to donate. Especially in our case, as we used a website with a smaller user base, the great majority of our funds came from people we knew personally. Different websites may be better choices depending on your project. Kickstarter and Indiegogo have the largest user bases, which means more donors are available but your project has to compete with many ed, with a much smaller user base. This means far fewer donors are available, but a successful project may be in the spotlight for quite some time.
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How to Use This Book The “Basics” Section This book covers 20 cities and national parks throughout the United States. Each city section begins with the “Basics,” which present handy information for wheelchair users, including sections on weather; parking; accessible taxi companies; companies that rent accessible vans; and public transit. For cities with public transit that is only partially accessible, maps of the transit systems are provided. If no map is provided, public transit in that city is fully accessible.
The “Attractions” Section The next pages include reviews of tourist attractions in the area. Each review includes information such as the accessibility of building entrances; locations of accessible restrooms; whether or not designated handicap parking is available; a brief description of the attraction; pricing; hours; clarity of accessibility features on maps; address, phone number, and website.
The “Hotels” Section Finally, each city includes a brief, randomly compiled list of some hotels in the area with accessible rooms. Information on each hotel includes the star rating of each hotel; number of accessible rooms and roll-in showers; whether the shower/tub contains a built-in bench or guests must request a chair; presence of designated handicap parking; distance in miles from the city downtown; and the address and phone number of each hotel. For National Parks, information on camping and in-park lodgings are available as separate sections. While all attempts have been made toward the greatest degree of accuracy, we highly recall accommodations you may need.
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