The number of travelers in the older Baby Boomer population is growing. According to a 2012 Metlife study, Oldest Boomers, 66-year-olds “[are] not necessarily working till they drop.” While a Gallup poll reports that older boomers make up approximately one-third of the American workforce, Metlife states it is also true that over half in this age group are retired The 2012 U.S. Census reports that “since 2007, the median household income declined for all age groups, except those 65 and older.” Today’s older baby boomers are a growing population for the travel sector. Older adults are not only living longer and healthier lives than their predecessors, they also have the finances to enjoy it.
Who is travelling?
Dr. June M. Fisher is an 82-year-old San Franciscan, is deeply involved with health, safety, and aging issues. Dr. Fisher is an internal medicine physician, specializing in occupational health since 1978. She is currently a senior scientist at the Trauma Founda
tion, San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Fisher founded and heads the Training for Development for Innovative Control Technology Project and The Muni Health and Safety Study, which reflect her research foci on health and safety in user-based design. As an outstanding mentor and contributor to ageless design (Stanford Center for Longevity and Aging 2.0, respectively), she is currently working with CITRIS, UC Berkeley on an analysis of environmental factors affecting mobility in the aging population.
Dr. Fisher has travelled extensively throughout the United States and abroad, sharing her research relating to product design and development of safer technologies for home care nurses. She always tries to book a few extra days in her trips to explore local art and culture. However, with each passing year, travel becomes more challenging for June because of the physical limitations she has developed. The requisite walking, public hotels (even handicapped access rooms), and mobility demands have slowed her down prematurely, as far as she sees it.
Is “handicap access” really for the disabled?
During our interview with June, she cited several areas that were lacking support for people with mobility issues. She said that when businesses in the United States are compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and advertise as having “handicap” access, the implemented solutions are often really not at all practical for the disabled. “The legal box is checked off,” she said, but these legal guidelines may not truly address the needs of the disabled.
How were her challenges dealt with?
When June chose a hotel room online, which claimed to have access for those with mobility issues, she arrived to face challenges that were often met with impracticable solutions:
- The height of the bed was too high, and she could not climb on to the bed. At one hotel, the manager addressed this issue by bringing a narrow and very small stepstool into the room for June to use. The stepstool only created a newer problem – June was not able to balance herself on a stepstool that had nothing to hold on to.
- The sides of the bathtub with shower were too high, and June could not climb into the bathing area. At another hotel, June was not able to safely enter the bathtub because there were no safety bars on the walls of the bathtub and the sides were too high. The manager instead offered her a walk-in shower with no rails to hold on to.
Airports were also full of obstacles for those with mobility issues. Some of the issues June experienced were:
- Wheelchair attendants were often late. June cited times where she waited for over an hour for a wheelchair attendant to come and take her to her connecting flight. There was no direct number June could call to check on the status of when she could expect her wheelchair attendant to appear.
- Communication between gates of connecting flights was difficult. During one of these delays with a wheelchair attendant, June requested communication be made to the gate of her connecting flight to let them know she was on her way. Unfortunately, the communication between the gates of her connecting flights was not completed and she ended up missing her flight.
Airports and hotels were not the only places ill-equipped to address mobility issues. June experienced challenges at museums, restaurants, and with public transportation.
- Handrails are poorly designed. Many handrails are not designed with functionality in mind. They are either too slippery or too wide – making them ungrippable with one hand. Though the business may have been compliant with the American Disabilities Act, “the inspector may not have been an ADA person because the rail was not placed properly,” she said.
- Elevator access can be one block away from front entrance. When June visited a museum and asked for elevator access to the 2nd floor exhibit, she was directed to an elevator at the end of the building – one city block away.
June offered some suggestions to address some of the difficulties she has during her travels. Here are some of the things June would find helpful during her travels:
- How high are the beds in the hotel rooms?
- Does the hotel have walk-in showers or safety bars in the bathtub?
- If climbing steps is necessary to access the hotel lounge or other hotel areas, how many steps are there?
- If elevator access is far from the main entrance, how many steps away is it?
As older adults continue to travel more, technology can be used to address their unique challenges while traveling. Many, like June, are interested in being informed about exactly what solutions for their particular obstacles are, from transportation to buildings. If technology could provide this type of information for older adults, traveling would be much easier.