It is estimated that Americans with disabilities spend more than $17 billion on travel every year. In spite of spending so much on travel, nearly half of these travelers faced difficulties during their stay at various places. Travelers end up staying at places that don’t have the right accessibility features, and even if they  try to enquire with the hotel before traveling, hotel staff are not trained or equipped to answer those questions or help select rooms that would be better for the travelers.

In order to alleviate this issue, Daman Wandke, started a website called Abilitrek that finds hotels that have the right accommodations for travelers with disabilities. Just like any other hotel search website, Abilitrek lets you search for hotels in a specific city. However, when search results appear, the website lets you filter by accessibility features like accessible bathroom, roll-in shower, and in-room accessibility. Selecting a hotel from the search results also shows which of the accessibility features are available in the room. If none are available, the message “this hotel does not offer any accessibility accommodations” is displayed under “Accessibility”.

Abilitrek users can answer a questionnaire consisting of 37 parameters, and add their disabilities and requirements to their profile. Abilitrek also calls hotels on travelers’ behalf to ensure the requested accessibilities are available. Abilitrek also depends on feedback from travelers to keep track of which hotels are disability friendly, and which ones are not.

Watch the videos below to learn more about Abilitrek, and the services they offer. Make sure to also follow their blog, and Facebook page. They post a lot of informative content there!

Image Gallery:

No accessibility features at this hotel

This page shows the accessibility features available at a hotel – accessible bathroom, roll-in shower, in-room accessibility

Screen showing search results of hotels. On the left are filters for accessibility features.

Source: Geekwire

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