The travel industry certainly has a long way to go to make travel accessible for all. But, because of women like these content creators, those barriers are slowly being torn down. These women are showing that travel can and should be available regardless of accessibility needs and they’re constantly inspiring their audiences and the industry to do more!
Sharing their personal stories, featuring others in the community, and advocating for accessibility in travel…these women are leading the way. Follow their adventures and support their work!
1. Deafinitely Wanderlust (Stacey Marlene)
Stacey Marlene is a deaf Latina who shares stories to challenge your perspectives about Deaf travel and Deaf communities. She talks about accessible travel, Deaf and disability awareness, and creating accessible and relatable content for the Deaf population. Deafinitely Wanderlust also aims to empower others by creating spaces for diverse Deaf travelers and Disabled travelers to share their stories, as well as sharing her own personal experiences.
Read Stacey’s Wanderful article on traveling while Deaf
2. My Blurred World (Elin)
Elin created My Blurred World in April 2015 in the hope of building the very platform that she could have benefited from when she was younger. In her blog you’ll find a selection of features that share her personal experiences of growing up with a degenerative eye condition, accompanied by a few accounts of navigating life with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME, the occasional diary entry, along with some tips and advice she has to offer.
3. Jayonlife (Jay)
Jayonlife focuses on the different countries and cities Jay has visited, and the different attractions available to travelers. Her YouTube videos feature her thoughts on how other places compare to her home in London both in terms of accessibility and the attitudes of the people towards disability as a whole. It also includes her thoughts on topics that affect disabled people at home and abroad.
Wanderful members: Catch the replay of the WITS Online session “Making Our Travels & Our Content More Accessible”
4. Life of a Blind Girl (Holly)
Holly created Life of a Blind Girl in 2015 as a way of sharing her experiences of living with a vision impairment in a predominantly sighted world. Over the last six years, she has written guest posts for various charities and organizations including Scope, Able Magazine, Victa UK’s Parent Portal, Attitude Is Everything, and RNIB NB Online Magazine. Holly is also Co-founder of Access For Us, a non-profit blog aiming to raise awareness about the lack of access for disabled fans at entertainment venues across the UK whilst highlighting the barriers that disabled fans face when purchasing disabled access tickets.
5. Sanna Kalmari
Sanna’s blog and podcast are all about accessible tourism. It is Finland’s most popular accessible tourism blog and information source! Sanna is also an accessible travel specialist and shares her experiences of traveling around the world on an electric wheelchair with readers, students, and with tourism companies and professionals.
6. Laurita Tellado
Laurita is a freelance writer, editor, blogger, and voiceover artist, and the founder of the Espresso con Leche blogs. She is also the Founder and President of The Laurita Spina Bifida Project, a non-profit whose mission is to promote positive awareness of spina bifida and unite spina bifida communities across the globe.
7. Tatiana A. Lee
Tatiana A Lee is the founder and editor of Accessible Hollywood, where she highlights her journey as an actress, model, speaker & lifestyle influencer born with Spina Bifida. She harnesses the power of social media to speak boldly about accessibility and inclusion in mass media.
8. The Chronic Entrepreneur (Kelcie Miller-Anderson)
Kelcie Miller-Anderson is an innovator and social entrepreneur based in Calgary. She is a dedicated environmentalist and fierce industry advocate, with her sights set on changing the way the world remediates. Kelcie has been recognized several times as an up and coming leader in both oil and gas and sustainability as well as receiving numerous awards for her work as an environmentalist, innovator, and scientist. She is one of Canadas Top 20 Under 20, Next 36, and a Manning Youth Innovation award winner. She frequently uses her platform to discuss accessibility and to educate followers on disability needs.
Read next: Why I Finally Wore My Hearing Aids Traveling
9. Sylvia Longmire
Sylvia is the founder of the award-winning Spin the Globe travel blog, on which she shares her adventures traveling around the world in a power wheelchair. Her mission is to share information about the accessibility of her destinations with fellow wheelchair users around the world and inspire them to explore the world around them. Her accessible travel writing has been featured in The New York Times, New Mobility magazine, The Orlando Sentinel, and Lonely Planet, and she has published three accessible travel-related books.
10. Simply Emma Blog (Emma)
Emma is the founder and writer of ‘Simply Emma’. She has Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy, which means her wheels are her legs, but that has not stopped her from traveling and living life exactly how she wants to. Simply Emma shares her life experiences, the blog combines her personal stories with accessible travel guides, accommodation reviews, live event reviews, travel tips and resources. She also loves to discover unique experiences and accessible activities to fuel her adventurous side.
Read next: 39 Black Women Travel Creators to Follow Right Now
11. Have Wheelchair Will Travel (Julie Jones)
Julie is an avid traveler and, after her son was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at 5 months of age, she decided to use her blog to share all of her research, accessible tips, family travel ideas, and helpful discoveries with others who are either planning a trip or are feeling nervous about traveling with children with disabilities.
12. Wonders Within Reach (Jennifer Allen)
Jennifer is a lover of travel and now her children have the same boast! Her blog is all about sharing accessible adventures for all types of families. Exploring, expanding her worldview, understanding different cultures, and learning through experience are all fuels to her personal fire, and now they shape the way she parents and teaches her children. Jennifer is a big advocate of the fact that age and disabilities change the way people explore, but they just make the journey that much more rewarding!
13. Wheels No Heels (Gem Hubbard)
Gem is a content creator and YouTuber focused on living life to the fullest on wheels after suffering a Spinal cord injury. She is a disability activist who uses her platform to inspire wheelchair confidence, and she also shares lots of hacks, skills, tips, and tons of content to raise awareness and offer inspiration.
14. The Chronic Traveller (Jenny Wren)
Jenny is a British writer, currently living in Barcelona. She started her blog The Chronic Traveller in 2018 to talk about traveling with chronic illnesses, disabilities, and invisible diseases. She has Ulcerative Colitis and Arthritis, which can make traveling a little challenging at times. She has always loved to travel, she has lived in 9 countries across 5 continents, and traveled in 30. She is determined to keep up with her travels despite her chronic illness. Jenny’s blog is for the love of travel, and to help raise awareness of IBD and other chronic illnesses.
Read next: My Struggle for Accessibility in Travel
15. Sassy Wyatt
Sassy challenges stereotypes through education and humor, empowering others to be more disability confident. She is very passionate about changing the landscape of accessible tourism, imploring destinations, brands, and tourism boards to consider the needs and requirements of disabled travellers. Living with both arthritis and blindness she gives a unique perspective of her local and international explorations.
16. Emily Rose Yates
Emily is an accessibility consultant in the UK. She is the inclusive design associate at CCD Design and Ergonomics, and has most recently worked with Heathrow Airport to update their Access and Inclusion Standards for passengers and staff. A wheelchair user herself, Emily is also a disability awareness trainer for Enhance the UK and manages their Undressing Disability campaign, championing the right for disabled people to have access to sexual expression. She recently delivered a TEDx talk on this issue and is currently studying for a PhD in Women’s Studies at the University of York.
17. Planet-Abled (Neha Arora)
Neha Arora grew up without family holidays; her father is blind and mother is a wheelchair user. Her goal when she left her corporate career to create Planet-Abled was to make travel accessible for people with disabilities, one trip at a time. Planet-Abled provides accessible travel solutions and leisure excursions for people with different disabilities, providing the only organization in the world where people of all disabilities mix together into one group and travel together.
18. DeafJourney (Lily)
Lily is a proud Deaf Asian-American woman living in Southern California with an extreme case of wanderlust. She works full-time but maximizes her vacation time by traveling around the world. She shares her travel experiences, helpful tips, beautiful photographs, and videos from her journeys to try to empower and give back to the Deaf community, showing that they have possibilities to accomplish what they want to do in life, break barriers, and fulfill their dreams.
Read next: Plan a trip to Washington DC with this expert guide
19. Flight of the Travel Bee (Cherie King)
Cherie is a Deaf travel blogger with a passion for traveling the world. After having encountered many difficulties as a Deaf traveler, she decided to start a blog in order to enlighten others about the Deaf and hard of hearing. Cherie posts about her experiences and offers tips to ensure you get the best out of your travels.
20. The Globe on Wheels (Jasmine Marchand)
Jasmine has a spinal cord injury, at the C6-7 level, which poses certain challenges. She started her blog for those who have a disability and are interested in travelling, but aren’t sure how to go about planning it. Her blog answers all those daunting questions you may have and more!
21. Nurul Humairah
Nurul Humairah, who goes by Mairah, is a Deaf freelance photographer and traveler who often travels solo. She defies stereotypes just as she disregards stereotypes about countries and cities, choosing to visit them herself instead of listening to what others might say. Follow her on Instagram to see her beautiful photos!
22. Travel Breathe Repeat (Sarah)
Sarah is a co-founder (with her husband) of the popular blog Travel Breathe Repeat. Originally from New York but currently calling the Netherlands home, over the past 13 years Sarah and her husband have travelled to 60 countries and spent one whole year on the road! Sarah also has a rare lung disease called lymphangioleiomyomatosis (more commonly known as LAM). They have learned ways to travel and live well with a chronic illness and want to share them with their audience. They have raised awareness for Sarah’s disease and connected with members of the LAM community throughout the world. Together, they also started a business called Accessible Itineraries that helps people with accessibility needs travel to Europe.
23. Christ0phine (Stéphanie)
Stéphanie is a wanderluster at heart. A Deaf solo traveler, she is the creator of the blog 2 Hands, 1 Backpack, where she shares her stories and photos from here to somewhere. She grew up speaking sign language and, with few subtitles on TV during her childhood, she was drawn to the images of travel shows her dad watched. She now travels the world sharing her own images and inspiring others to travel, too!
Did we miss anyone? Share their details in the comments!
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