A good night’s sleep. That’s all a traveler really wants when he or she arrives at a hotel room after a long day of travel. Some people are more picky than others about the mattress type or pillows, but most just want to sleep. For travelers who use wheelchairs, however, a good night’s sleep in a hotel room – even one designated as wheelchair accessible – may be a pipe dream depending on a multitude of factors. In this post, I take a look at the debate over the appropriate bed height in wheelchair accessible hotel rooms, the apparent lack of two-bed accessible rooms for families traveling with a wheelchair user, and what hotels can and can’t (or won’t) do to make things easier for wheelchair travelers.<\/p>\n
No two people with physical disabilities and\/or the need for a wheelchair are the same. That means that their daily living needs are totally different as well, which includes how they sleep. We’re able to customize our homes, and specifically our bedrooms, to meet our particular needs. I’m a power wheelchair user who can’t walk at all or lift my legs, but I can stand, plant my feet in one spot, and pivot to transfer. Many manual wheelchair users have no lower body control, but have good upper body strength and can also self-transfer. For people like us, lower beds make it much easier for us to transfer safely and comfortable from our chairs to our beds.<\/p>\n