From transportation to hotels, through visiting cultural sites or accessing beaches, planning a trip is a real headache for people with disabilities. Although there are more and more local initiatives for adapted tourism, information remains hard to find as it is generally poorly disseminated. This is the challenge that the Brussels digital platform WheelTribe is tackling: aggregating all available information by destination to enable disabled people to prepare their next stay independently.
A Place for Exchange and Meeting…
Already at the helm of “Destination Everywhere” – a website that gathers accessible stays from tour operators – Eleonora Censorii has made “the freedom to travel for people with disabilities” her cause. With WheelTribe, she now aims to enable them to organize their next vacations independently and tailor-made. How? By bringing together travelers and local actors in adapted tourism on the same web platform. In addition to being a resource center by destination, WheelTribe is “a meeting place to exchange good tips and tricks“. Indeed, like what is found on other travel sites, each site visitor can in one click turn into a contributor, either to ask questions or to answer them. A win-win relationship since, while the interest of WheelTribe for the traveler is easily understood, it is also an obvious commercial opportunity for destinations wishing to expand their tourist spectrum.
“Opening up the realm of possibilities to hundreds of thousands of often overlooked travelers”
…for All Types of Disabilities
Launched in the spring of 2024, WheelTribe initially focuses on 3 destinations: the Canary Islands, Southern Italy, and of course Brussels. This test phase will allow adjusting the platform’s structure “based on how the community forms and interacts“. Which museums in Puglia offer tours in sign language? Are there specialized taxi agencies to take me from Zaventem to my hotel in the center? Which beaches in Tenerife are the most accessible by wheelchair? Simple but oh so essential questions that will find their answers in a dedicated discussion forum. Thanks to this system, travelers will quickly obtain precise information, tailored to the specific needs of each disability, and reliable since tested on the field by people facing the same challenges. In the long term, and thanks to the information gathered on the platform, Eleonora already envisions the possibility of producing specialized travel guides in print format.
What About Digital Accessibility?
Naturally, WheelTribe complies with all standards in this area to enable people with visual, auditory, or cognitive impairments to navigate and contribute on the platform. A high-contrast color palette, descriptions of non-text elements, ease of use via keyboard – everything is implemented “so that each visitor, regardless of their level of ability, can utilize the platform’s functionalities“. An approach more than essential since WheelTribe also offers the possibility to make reservations from the platform. A comprehensive solution that opens up the realm of possibilities to hundreds of thousands of often overlooked travelers.
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Wheeltribe is:
- a travel website dedicated to people with disabilities
- a space for discussion between travelers and actors in adapted tourism
- an integrated booking platform
