My son has a number of disabilities and makes use of a wheelchair to get round. Regardless of his bodily wants, I do all the pieces I can to get him, and the remainder of my household of 5, out on this planet. It’s not straightforward. From ensuring transportation is accessible to reserving an open resort room to discovering excursions we are able to all take pleasure in, planning an inclusive journey takes work.
I’ve been following journey blogger Cory Lee for a number of years and was excited to fulfill him and his mom, Sandy Gilbreath, who’s one in all his caregivers, at an Abilities Expo final 12 months. Lee has been running a blog and sharing his travels for the previous decade, and he’s creating waves that profit the incapacity group.
When Lee was simply beginning out, he had no thought he can be so profitable. All of it started as a pastime in response to some disappointing rejection.
Accessible journey: Frustration turns right into a pastime
Lee was recognized with spinal muscular atrophy on the age of two, and Gilbreath did all the pieces she may to ensure Lee at all times had the sources he wanted.
In 2014, Lee graduated with a level in advertising and marketing, so when he utilized for jobs and eventually obtained an invite to interview, he had excessive hopes. Sadly, the interview didn’t go as deliberate.
“As quickly as I went into the hiring supervisor’s workplace, he regarded me up and down and instantly stated, ‘Properly, this job entails journey, so that you’re positively not one of the best match.’ He shut me down earlier than he even gave me the interview,” Lee recollects.
Across the similar time, Lee and Gilbreath had been making an attempt to plan a visit to Australia, they usually struggled to search out the correct sources. Lee was depressed from his experiences, and running a blog had simply turn out to be in style. The interview rejection and lack of understanding for his Australia journey impressed Lee to begin his weblog, Curb Free With Cory Lee. He wished to get the little bit of data he had already amassed about touring efficiently with a incapacity out into the world, making a useful resource for different wheelchair customers.
A profession is born for Cory Lee
To start with, Lee wrote about his earlier international journeys, making an attempt to publish as a lot info as he may whereas growing his social media channels. Early on, he had a small viewers and never quite a lot of engagement. However then, it began selecting up. And as he obtained extra web site site visitors, he was supplied talking engagements.
Lee spoke at an Talents Expo in 2015 and a author from the LA Instances interviewed him. After that article got here out, the journey presents began rolling in. Lee’s mom and one other caregiver normally accompany Lee on his journeys so he has a pair individuals who can advocate for his wants.
Early on, Gilbreath requested for day off right here and there from her job to journey. However in 2023, Lee was extraordinarily busy and he wanted assist managing his enterprise, from correspondence to social media to planning. So Gilbreath stop her job to journey with Lee full time.
To this point, they’ve traveled to all seven continents and 46 international locations. Lee’s favourite journey to date has been to India, the place he spent 10 days in Agra and Delhi and noticed the Taj Mahal. “It was higher than something I ever anticipated,” says Cory Lee. He even went paragliding in Switzerland over the Swiss Alps final summer season, which was an adaptive expertise—one which was terrifying however thrilling for each him and his mom.
“The paragliding seat they’d him in had wheels on it, and one other paraglider went with him,” Gilbreath says. “So I simply stood there and watched him go rolling off the aspect of the mountain with this individual I had met 20 minutes earlier.”
Touring with disabilities: What nonetheless must get completed
Whereas Cory Lee has discovered methods to get out on this planet, there’s nonetheless an extended highway forward for individuals with disabilities who wish to journey, a sentiment I relate to when I attempt to plan a visit with my son. For starters, we mentioned our experiences with amusement parks and what number of of them don’t enable individuals with extra extreme bodily disabilities to go on the rides. There are a handful of rides the place the participant can keep in their very own wheelchair, however positively not sufficient.
Air journey can also be a giant concern for disabled vacationers. Not too long ago, Lee met with the Division of Transportation to debate the necessity for wheelchair customers to remain of their chairs throughout flights.
“Once I’m speaking to an viewers, the No. 1 query is about air journey,” Lee says. “It holds individuals with disabilities again. They fear in the event that they want the restroom or if they will be dropped. That is the primary factor I wish to see modified in my lifetime. I feel it is going to come within the subsequent 5 to 10 years—huge modifications that may get extra individuals with disabilities within the air.”
Motels additionally must be extra clear. Lee defined that there are not any requirements, even amongst resort chains. For instance, two lodges from the identical chain which might be throughout the road from each other might have completely different definitions of what accessibility means. Points like completely different mattress heights or a 1- or 2-inch lip within the bathe versus easy entry. Lee places in quite a lot of hours when he books a resort room. He calls and requests pictures and movies to know what the room goes to be like so he has what he must survive. However he shouldn’t must put in a lot effort.
No holding again
Nonetheless, none of those challenges maintain Lee again. Once we spoke, he and his mother had simply returned from a visit to Disney World, adopted by a cruise to Cozumel, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. They had been dwelling for 2 days after which headed off to Chicago. And later this 12 months, they are going to be in Tokyo for the primary time. His dream is to go to extra South Asian international locations like Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and China.
“I’m nervous about accessibility inside Southeast Asia particularly. There aren’t quite a lot of accessible automobiles and transportation from the analysis I’ve completed,” Lee notes. “I’d like to lastly simply do it and determine it out.”
Throughout our dialog, I couldn’t assist however ask for recommendation for my family. We’re not practically as travel-savvy as Lee and his mother, however I’m excited to take our first cruise to Bermuda later this 12 months. Lee gave me sources that may assist my son have accessible adventures on our journey—info that seems like gold for households like mine. But it surely shouldn’t.
“If extra individuals would converse up about inaccessibility, we’d see modifications,” Lee says. I couldn’t agree extra.
Photograph courtesy of Cory Lee