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BUSINESS TRAVELLERS WATCHING BBC WORLD NEWS on TV in their hotel room may have noticed Ade Adepitan pre- senting The Travel Show. The Paralym- pian basketball star and broadcaster is a high-profile wheelchair user – and a frequent traveller. Like Adepitan, there are many more business travellers who are disabled, as- sisted in no small part by the UK’s Equality Act 2010. This made it illegal for employers to discriminate against those with dis- ability. Employers are obliged to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure that someone with a disability is not put at a disadvantage in doing the same job. And


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that means the ability to travel if that’s what the job requires. But a surprising finding in writing this article was how much under the radar this issue remains in mainstream business travel management. A number of travel organisations approached for this feature were unable to help. That is not to say that these organisations do not cater for disabled travellers, but it does suggest that for some, solutions may be ad hoc rather than formal strategies. However, we spoke to a few travel management companies (TMCs), with non-commercial clients, who shared their insights into managing this requirement.


MEETING THE NEEDS OF DISABLED TRAVELLERS CAN MEAN LOOKING BEYOND CONVENTIONAL TRAVEL PROGRAMME STRATEGIES


THE BACKGROUND “Make sure that policy doesn’t get in the way of that person doing their job – we shouldn’t stand in the way of their travelling.” This is the advice from John O’Sullivan, marketing director at Key Travel, which has a large number of clients in the humanitarian sector. Click Travel’s senior account manager,


Tracy Beer, agrees: “We want to give the traveller choice and accommodate their requests. They want to feel that this is just normal procedure.” Disabled travellers or – as Sean de Lacey, head of sales for Diversity Travel, says – “travellers with special requirements” do


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