One big click toward equal access to online travel bargains
Hotels.com and Expedia are two of the most popular websites for finding inexpensive hotel rooms and making travel arrangements. They have recently agreed to change their websites so that they will 1. define a set of commonly needed accommodations for disabled hotel customers; 2. make it possible to search for these when looking for hotel rooms; 3. reserve rooms with the necessary accommodations online.
See the press release about the agreement here:
For details on the agreement, click here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
CIDNY hasn't figured out a way for Outsiders to start a new topic, so I have to troll on the previous comment. If you want to know anything more about online travel bargains, stop here. This is not about that. It is about something I just posted to a rare disease talksite. I think it may also fit in here:
ReplyDeleteTOUGH LOVE ... EVEN FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Into each life a little tough love must fall. Sometimes that is exactly what people really need, however much they become indignant at the mere thought of being treated like anything less than fragile little flowers,desperate for the ministrations of government-funded agencies.
I found that out in two ways this past week. The first way has to do with a very specific problem. But people with all sorts of other specific problems can adapt this solution to whatever else they have:
First, I had almost forgotten that there is a simple solution whenever I begin to feel a little wobbly on the potassium front. But as I resume a much more active life, I think I may be burning up however much more potassium is floating around inside me because of the Inspra. So I reminded myself to pour some milk into the blender, peel a banana and drop that in, put the cap on, push the button, let it run for a minute, drink it down. And if I feel more than a little wobbly, I use orange juice instead of milk. That gives me 700 mg. of potassium in one delicious banana-orange smoothie. And it works. More than half the time. I don't know much about the metabolism of potassium, and why it may give me a bumpy ride now and then. A part of me doesn't want to know. But I know how to fix it. This works. Try it. Don't moan and groan your life away. And if it's not potassium for you, find whatever works for whatever else.
A more difficult problem: I set out to help someone with what seemed to be a very difficult problem dealing with health coverage and access to quality care for a person with a disability. That's what I do. I'm an advocate for people with disabilities. I don't get paid for it. I learn what I need to know to lobby effectively for better health services for people with chronic, rare, disabling health problems. I don't get paid for that either. Along the way, I help some people find what they need. I found two disability advocacy agencies within minutes of a particular person's home. A local phone call away. This individual had been posting horrifying accounts of desperate illness. So I sent this information to that individual quite a few days ago. Guess what? The horror stories stopped instantly. Everything stopped instantly. Not a word since then. Suddenly it hit me: Munchausen's Syndrome. You can look it up at
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2561446&blobtype=pdf.
This is not a few paragraphs that can be dismissed lightly. Or angrily. It is a detailed scholarly report written in language anyone can understand.
Two bits of tough love for this week: Stop flopping around like a fish out of water. Try a banana smoothie. And when you are hearing the next heartbreaking story of someone who has been screwed by the System and is desperately ill because of it, don't ask them for their life story. Because they will tell it. And tell it. And tell it. Offer some practical help. And if they suddenly disappear, you may have learned something.