Greetings fellow travelers.  When we last got together we spoke about accessibility in hotels.  I told you about guidelines that have been set up to afford guests with a wide range of disabilities the features they need to make their stays comfortable.  Now I would like to talk to you about a different kind of accommodation, house trading.  For many years avenues have been open that allow able-bodied people to exchange their homes with travelers around the world, granting them an alternative to high priced hotels.  Up until recently that option was not available to people with disabilities.  Fortunately, several agencies have come into existence, which match accessible homes and their owners with travelers with disabilities.  Typically the listings these agencies provide include descriptions of the accessibility and disabled-friendly features of member’s homes.  The benefit of these programs is a higher degree of comfort for the disabled traveler than might be found in a standard hotel.  Even though the ADA requires hotels and motels to make accessible accommodation for their guests with disabilities, those accommodations are often not at a comfort level equal to that which is found in a private home.

As a wheelchair user I often find that hotels are not truly set up for my needs.  Sometimes the physical plant includes steps, as I found while trying to get my free breakfast in a hotel in Amsterdam. At other times the doorways, particularly for bathrooms, are too narrow.  And, almost always the light switches or thermostat controls are in some way out of my reach.    Presumably these problems would not exist in a house that was owned and modified by a wheelchair user.  Such a person would have made the changes in his living space that would make daily living less of a challenge.  If this person lived in a place I wanted to visit, and offered his home in an exchange program, I would jump at the opportunity.

One of the agencies working to help disabled travelers find accessible homes to trade is UK-based MatchingHouses.com.  According to its president, Theo Blackmore, the agency was set up because “it seemed like a really good idea.  I am a disabled man myself and access is always an issue.”  MatchingHouses has only been in business since 2004 but has already acquired 511 members in 34 countries.  Their philosophy is simple, “If my accessibility needs match yours, our houses will be accessible to one another.”

Another agency that offers homes to disabled travelers is the Independent Living Institute. Founded in 1993 in Sweden, the purpose of the agency is to promote the growth of the independent living movement within Sweden and internationally.  Their website includes a worldwide listing of disability-friendly tradable homes.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about the information in this article please feel free to send me an email.  When next we meet I will be discussing alternative ways of getting from here to there, including bus and train travel. 

Until then, happy traveling.