Disabled Accessible Travel to London, Kenya, Africa, and Prague

GLOBAL ACCESS NEWS TRAVEL E-ZINE
VOLUME VII, NUMBER 1, January 2006
Copyright © 2006, Global Access News
http://www.globalaccessnews.com/

Please note: Any Internet links mentioned in this E-Zine were verified as functioning as of the date on this E-Zine. Websites and e-mail addresses, however, change frequently, so changes may have occurred after that date.

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NEW ADDRESS FOR GLOBAL ACCESS

Please note our new address:
http://www.globalaccessnews.com/

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Happy New Year! I hope that 2006 is full of travel and fun for you. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to write us and share your travel experiences.

CONTENTS

1. SAFARI IN KENYA
2. LONDON: NEW TOUR BUS
3. ACCESSIBLE PRAGUE BUSES
4. EASY BREATHING
5. NEW MEASURES TO AID DISABLED EU TRAVELERS
6. KUDOS TO L’OCCITANE
7. PARIS PASSERELLES SUPPLEMENT ‘05

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1. SAFARI IN KENYA

Gordon Rattray, who operates Disabled Adventure Travel Worldwide, www.able-travel.com
wrote to share his Samburu lion adventure in Kenya. Rattray is a wheelchair user and specializes in providing information for disabled travelers to Africa.

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2. LONDON: NEW TOUR BUS

The Original London Sightseeing Tour now offers 10 new accessible hop-on-hop-off, tour buses for disabled visitors to that city of over 7 million people.

Operating 24 hours a day over several bus routes, the purpose-built, open-top buses are equipped with access ramps and dedicated wheelchair spaces. The buses make frequent stops at many of London’s top sites and museums. This is now the only accessible tour bus service in the city.

Ticket prices (until March 31, 2006) are £16 for adults and£10 for children aged 5-15. Except for December 25, the buses depart daily from six convenient locations: Baker Street, Grosvenor Garden: Victoria, Marble Arch, Haymarket, Embankment Pier and Coventry Street. To learn more, visit http://www.theoriginaltour.com/home/

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3. ACCESSIBLE PRAGUE BUSES

Prague, still one of the best tourist bargains in Europe, now offers several roll-on, roll-off public buses. Visit the bus company’s multilingual website at http://www.dp-praha.cz/cz/index.htm
to check routes and times. Accessible buses are marked on the schedules with a wheelchair user icon.

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4. EASY BREATHING

Up until now, some air passengers with respiratory disabilities have had to pay extra to have oxygen available aboard a plane. Is that discriminatory, and if so, should the rules of the Air Carrier Access Act be changed to reflect that?

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is now considering those questions and is taking input from individuals and respiratory support groups on this issue until the end of January.

Currently, people with respiratory disabilities must pay an extra $100 per flight segment to bring their own oxygen tanks along. That often becomes pricey for those taking longer flights, considering the fact that many budget airlines will not carry oxygen at all because of its volatility.

While existing Air Carrier Access Act rules don't cover specific accommodations by air carriers for passengers needing oxygen, DOT is now considering whether technological advancements such as the availability of liquid oxygen and portable oxygen concentrators, which turns air into oxygen, might make providing oxygen for their passengers less costly.

Some airline carriers now claim that having to provide oxygen will necessitate their hiking ticket prices to offset their new costs. But, if oxygen costs were less cost-prohibitive for people with respiratory disabilities, perhaps more of them will fly more often, and the airlines could tap into this new market niche.

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5. NEW MEASURES TO AID DISABLED EU TRAVELERS

Air travel in Europe should prove markedly smoother for disabled passengers in 2006 because the European Parliament recently gave their informal approval to new measures that will ensure that disabled travelers receive guaranteed assistance at all EU airports.

The demand for these measures was sparked after a 2002 incident when RyanAir charged a disabled man for using their wheelchair at a terminal. The new measures states that any EU airport will provide disabled travelers with wheelchairs for at both the departure and arrival segments of their journeys. EU airports must also assist disabled travelers to and from a car park, as well as help them with flight check-in, luggage registration and flight boarding. The new measures will be phased in over the next two years.

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6. KUDOS TO L’OCCITANE

Kudos to L’Occitane for their long-term (and continuing) commitment to assist blind and visually impaired people. Many of their fragrance and skin care products have carried Braille labels for 10 years, and in 1996, the company opened Provence Tous des Sens, a summer perfume school for blind teenagers in Provence.

During the 2005 holiday season, L’Occitane donated 20% of each gingerbread candle sale to the American Foundation for the Blind, once again demonstrating their charitable commitment.

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7. PARIS PASSERELLES SUPPLEMENT ‘05

If Paris is in your 2006 itinerary, don’t miss Howard and Michele Chabner’s 2005 Paris Passerelles supplement to their 2003 Paris journey. Whether it’s transportation, sightseeing or museum hopping, their trip chronicle is rich with the kind of access details that disabled travelers treasure. Share the Chabner’s journey at http://www.globalaccessnews.com/parispasserelles05.htm

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Global Access News welcomes your travel reports, tips and comments at clearpath@cox.net
Thanks for sharing!

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