Vacations or a need for wheelchair friendly accommodation! Frustrating it can be!
In the last 4 years I’ve had to find wheelchair friendly affordable accommodation in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. It starts with me scanning the available wheelchair accessible accommodation online. I then run through to find the affordable rooms, one with 2 separate beds, a bed for me and the other for my carer. I then search for pictures they may have of the room and most importantly of the bathroom. Just because they advertise wheelchair accessible rooms, check check and triple check before you book your room.
I don’t book a room through the internet. I call, I speak with someone and ask questions. Firstly – if they say wheelchair accessible, I ask if the bathroom is an open planned wet area, no screens, no bath and can I wheel a shower chair into the shower area. My next question is how may beds are in the room. I’ve stayed in a few places that only have a king size bed in the room. Some beds can be split apart to make 2 singles and some don’t. I think some places think that only disable couples like to go on vactions, not us singles and not us singles who need the help of a carer. Times are changing people. Single people with carers are getting out there too. Our government is all about community access for us wheelies.
I recently stayed at the Meriton Southport on the Gold Coast. I didn’t stay in an accessible room, I chose the 55th floor over the only accessible room which was on the 5th floor. So you can see my dilemma, 55th floor over 5th floor! …. hard choice …. NOT ….Seriously before I made the decision to take the view over bathroom, I actually viewed the room first to make sure I could use the bathroom and get in and out of my bed from my wheelchair okay. It worked for me.
My room had a Queen side bed with plenty of access to both sides of the bed. I could transfer using my slide board with very little effort. The bathroom wasn’t an open planned wet area, although it had ample space for me to use my shower/toilet commode. The couple of things it didn’t have was grab rails in the shower or near the toilet and the mirror was too high up to use. Remembering though this was NOT a wheelchair accessible room.
I’ve been in rooms that are wheelchair accessible and still can’t use the mirror, this is why I travel with a mirror. I have other things I don’t leave home without.
- My slide board – a MUST
- Portable Mirror – a MUST
- An extension lead (small) and a power board – a MUST
- A plastic shower caddy that hangs in the shower – makes it easy to reach your shower toiletries
- Wire ties – come in handy for all kinds of things
Oh and did I mention a slide board …. lol My slide board gets me out of a lot of sticky situations. For example … when I CAN see in the mirror and all that is around me is just a sink, which is pretty much all you get in a wheelchair friendly bathroom, no bench to put stuff on, well this is where my slide board comes in handy. I place it across the sink and use it to hold my makeup, brushes for blow drying my hair, its even somewhere to rest my straightner on while doing my hair. There’s no compromising just because I’m in a wheelchair. Hair and face must be done before we take to the outside world … lol
I hope this helps you when deciding to take a vacation. Its not that hard and I’ve never had a problem, just be friendly and don’t forget to ask questions before you book.
Don’t forget live life like there’s no tomorrow …….💜💜💜
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Life's Journey on Wheels 