What comprises travel, not just outstation or international travel but also local travel and exploration in your city or town?

Hotels, homestays, museums, monuments, forts, palaces, restaurants, art galleries, pubs, bars, local markets, shopping malls and other places of cultural and historical importance. And, not to forget the various modes of transport by air, rail and road. And the different travel websites, mobile apps, blogs and other forms of travel content which help us make informed travel decisions and facilitate the booking process.

When was the last time you travelled and experienced all or a subset of the places mentioned above? The answer to this question will vary on a vast spectrum considering whether you are a person with a disability. If you have no medically proven disability, you might say last week, month, or a couple of months ago. But if you have any visible or invisible disability, you might say three years ago or five or never.

According to the WHO, about 1.3 billion people, roughly 16% of the global population or 1 in 6 individuals, have significant disabilities. Picture: Planet Abled

Seems strange, doesn’t it? One might think maybe there are not enough people with disabilities, and that is why we don’t see them so often. After all, we are over 1.4 billion people.

Let me share some data:

According to the WHO, about 1.3 billion people, roughly 16% of the global population or 1 in 6 individuals, have significant disabilities. In 2011, the Indian Census recognised only 2.2% of the population as disabled, which is now known to be underestimated due to the expanded recognition of 21 disabilities under the 2016 RPWD Act. This oversight led to an inaccurate count of disabled individuals in 2011. Additionally, post-COVID, a considerable number of people developed disabilities that remain unaccounted for. Estimating based on the global average, India likely has around 22.4 million disabled individuals.

It is challenging for disabled people to navigate travel experiences. Picture: Planet Abled

According to a United Nations report, more than 46 per cent of older persons–those aged 60 years and over—have disabilities and more than 250 million older people experience moderate to severe disability.

Persons with disabilities include, but are not limited to, wheelchair users, people who are blind, deaf, deafblind, autistic, or have intellectual, cognitive, psychosocial, sensory, or learning disability or people with mobility impairments who do not use wheelchairs or people with chronic pain or medical conditions.

Then why are they not seen in India?

Because the world is not built for disabled people, though India has developed at rocket speed in the last couple of decades in technology and business dominance, we forgot about making this country for persons with disabilities. Since they are not counted, they don’t exist, and if they don’t exist, then places, products and services are not designed for them. Why it is not built for them is a conversation for another day, a much longer one.

Digital Inaccessibility and Lack of Information

The gorgeous travel videos and content you see online on various social media platforms are not accessible to people who are blind, deaf, cognitive, sensory, or learning disabilities. Similarly, most travel booking websites and OTA are not accessible to this group either. The world’s technology hub has zero bothers about assistive technology solutions for its disabled population.

Inflight manuals rarely cater to people with disabilities. Picture: Unsplash

The information about the accessibility of the place of visit for various disabilities is non-existent. Even the 5-star hotels in India that happen to have wheelchair-accessible room/s(mandate for star rating compliance in India) do not mention it anywhere on their websites, except for the Marriott. So if a person with a disability even thinks of visiting anywhere, they must go through the exhausting process of calling up a place multiple times and often not getting the correct answer.

Transportation

Overcoming the lack of information and selecting your destination is the first step; transportation accessibility remains a concern. Whether by air, rail, or road, challenges persist for individuals with disabilities. Air travel poses issues such as potential damage to wheelchairs, inappropriate seating for blind or deaf passengers, and even denial of boarding for those with autism or deaf blindness. Flight entertainment and security videos often remain inaccessible, while AIRIMP codes for disabilities are largely unimplemented by airlines. Airport security lacks proper training for respectful checks. In terms of railways, despite being the world’s largest network, boarding a train as a wheelchair user can still be undignified, and accessible toilets are rare.

Transportation accessibility to different destinations remains a concern in India. Picture: Planet Abled

Blind or deaf individuals lack accessible schedule information, and interstate buses are generally inaccessible, rendering free tickets useless. Accessible infrastructure and navigation apps are absent. The Delhi metro stands out positively, showcasing accessible train travel. However, nationwide improvements are needed in rail and bus accessibility. Affordability and availability of wheelchair-accessible vehicles remain problematic, as only some cities offer them at high costs compared to regular options.

Accommodation

Most hotel staff will panic at the sight of a disabled person. Direct communication is often avoided, with inquiries about preferences directed to companions. Initially, even luxury hotels contacted me at Planet Abled to discuss payment or charges for disabled guests. They will not know how to assist a blind person in the buffet or how to take room service instructions from a deaf guest. And what about the protocol in case of disaster and emergency? In case there is a fire in the hotel. There is no protocol or training to save guests with disabilities. And if you decide to go for a holiday as a group of friends who are wheelchair users, it is highly unlikely, you all will get to stay at one hotel. Because the accessible room, even in 5-star hotels, varies from just one to a maximum of 3.

Places of Visit

Travel is not just limited to hotels. Most museums and monuments in India remain inaccessible. Few have done work on accessibility, but they are also only wheelchair accessible. Few, we work closely with, allow Planet Abled’s visitors special access but then they are dependent on PA to have an inclusive experience.

Travellers are often dependant on PlanetAbled for an inclusive experience at monuments. Picture: Planet Abled

The 2000-year-old Colosseum is wheelchair-accessible but the Taj Mahal is still not. The governance has taken absolutely no measures to make information and communication accessible for the deaf or people with learning or cognitive or sensory disabilities. In restaurants and cafes, menus are not accessible for the blind and the staff is not trained on how to communicate with disabled guests. We have recorded instances where disabled people were denied entry into a pub or a bar just because they are disabled.

Travellers add to the economy of the destination they visit in various ways. Shopping is one of them. But it’s challenging for disabled people to navigate these local markets in various ways. The new touch based payment machines make it impossible for blind, people with learning and cognitive disabilities to make payments securely.

Very few monuments in India are accessible for people with different disabilities. Picture: Planet Abled

Sanitation

Sanitation is an essential factor in the experience of a traveller. It is not just about having a clean washroom; it is about having an accessible restroom. Except in malls, where they are often used as store rooms or are left unclean only to shock a disabled person when they enter. I can’t mention how often this has happened to me and my parents in malls. It’s appalling. How many times have you seen an accessible public toilet?

People in wheelchairs stop drinking water when they travel because there are not enough accessible toilets. When my parents and I went for a holiday to Singapore, the highlight of the trip for my wheelchair-user mother was that there were accessible toilets everywhere, so she didn’t have to dehydrate herself. I am used to going inside men’s washrooms with my blind father. Because at how many places do you see gender-neutral disabled-friendly bathrooms? I have become more and more confident in freaking the other men in the toilet out. But how many people, especially women, can go rogue?

Training and Sensitisation

The lack of appropriate inclusion-aware training and sensitisation in the hospitality and tourism industry remains a significant barrier to creating accessible and inclusive destinations and communities. Accessibility is not taught in hotel or tourism schools or guide courses. Hence guides do not know how to explain things to guests with various disabilities; the drivers do not know how to interact with guests with disabilities in a dignified manner. The workforce at hotels, monuments, museums, and restaurants usually is not trained or made aware of communication strategies and tools to interact with guests with disabilities or how to serve them better. Travel agents also lack awareness about designing holidays for disabled travellers, and very few want to make a tangible effort and invest in learning.

Planet Abled promotes travel for persons with disabilities and the elderly. Picture: Planet Abled

For all of the many reasons mentioned, when I started Planet Abled, we had to become an ecosystem enabler and trainer to the industry instead of a travel service provider. Thanks to my own lived experience of disability, I understood intuitively what all places things can go wrong and mitigate them through destination audits, sourcing and creating local and makeshift accessibility solutions, and training the staff and ecosystem, because no one knew how to cater to guests with disabilities without their prejudices coming in the way. Based on our experiences, we are creating a global standard for accessibility for the hospitality industry, which will be released soon. We are raising funds for that because we want to release it to the industry for free to enable mass adoption.

Life is a book, and people who don’t travel read only one page. Until we get together as a society and make it accessible and inclusive for everyone to enjoy and experience, disabled people in India will be able to read only one page.

But despite all this, we all together can change that story. Let me know if you would like to join me on this journey.

If you're inspired by such transformative initiatives and are looking to scale your impact-driven startup, explore our Altitude program and be a part of the change.