By Renee Martinez, Founder of Raising Boys World
Traveling with children requires a fair amount of planning and patience. If you’re the parent of a child with disabilities, you may wonder how possible it is to plan a trip that can be enjoyed by children of varying physical needs.
A little research will help you reveal which destinations will be more accommodating to meet the needs of your child. Some vacation spots are more accommodating than others. A child’s needs may vary from sign language interpreters to enjoy a show, to ramps and physical assistance to get around or on and off of rides.
One option to consider is to take separate trips. This is not to the exclusion of any child, but rather to provide focused fun for every child in the family. Several shorter trips with each child and then one for the whole family is a nice option. Often families do this based on age (such as families with a young baby), but it’s appropriate for families with a child with a disabilities.
After choosing the general vicinity you want to visit, start with researching the services available. You may also want to find reviews or contact other parents for first-hand experience.
Here are a few very helpful websites to get you started:
Internet Special Education Resources
Travel Experiences with Disabled
Bring Help Along
You may consider bringing an extended family member or babysitter to help out with one child when you need an extra set of hands. For example, you may want to have one child (or children) cared for while the other child (or children) explores with parents. Bringing help gives you more options. Perhaps the outing of the day is for the child with special needs and the siblings just want another day on the beach. Oftentimes, professional services are available for extra help when traveling.
The benefits of travel apply to children with special needs too!
Special needs kids who travel learn an array of valuable skills that will serve them well throughout life. Including problem solving skills, navigating unfamiliar territory and interpersonal communication. Traveling connects kids to the world. In turn, parents will see their child in different environments that will help them understand their child’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide insight into new interests. Lastly, it’s important for the greater community to see that children with disabilities are not sheltered.
Travel should be fun and interesting. Putting a trip together with a need for special accommodations for physically or developmentally disabled people requires a fair amount of planning in order to make your trip enjoyable – but in the end, you’ll be glad you did it!
About the Author: Renee consults and speaks professionally on social media marketing, integrated marketing communications, public relations and branding. She is the president of Ruby Marketing Communications (www.rubymarcom.com), a boutique marketing communications company that specializes in providing branding, social media strategy and integration, and creative services. Her blog (www.lisac95.sg-host.com), provides resources on everything marketing and social media for her active audience.
Renee has contributed as a featured monthly columnist in the monthly jewelry industry publication, JCK, on matters related to internet marketing as well as in InStore Magazine as a featured blogger where she writes about developing effective marketing strategies for the jewelry industry using social media. She is the founder of: Social Media Biz Summit (www.socialmediabizsummit.com), the first large-scale SM conference to come to Buffalo, NY; #jewelrychat, a weekly twitter chat for the jewelry industry and www.RaisingBoysWorld.com. Renee teaches social marketing courses at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY for the business school as well as offers small group social media marketing training and educational seminars for businesses in Western New York and beyond.
Renee has dabbled in the internet marketing arena since the early 90′s and is not ashamed to call herself a “marketing geek”. From chatting in AOL, “sharing” music on Napster, and teaching HTML classes before it was considered “cool” to developing comprehensive social media strategies, effective public relations campaigns and managing online communities (most recently Chevy Girls Buffalo).
She enjoys being able to help people find their voice online and to create buzz about their product or service that will give them the results they desire.
Renee can be found on Twitter (@reneemmartinez) and Facebook (http:/www.facebook.com/RubyMarCom).
