GirlGI | Girl Gone International Issue 8 | Page 42

Tromsø, Norway

In some countries they have laws that
require places be accessible to all, but
many countries do not. How do you
face these challenges?
I am very independent, I trust in other people
and I’m quite fearless; that is my strength when
travelling with a handicap. Accessibility is the
hard part when traveling and there will always
be situations in which I cannot
participate. Then you need to flip the situation
around and think - what can I do to make this
just as fun but with a different approach.
Finding a hotel with reasonable access can
be difficult. I remember countless times when
arriving at a new place we get our backpack stored, usually at the first hotel we inquire about an accessible room - they always
agree to store it because they are ashamed
that they don’t have accessible rooms. Then

we walk up and down the streets until we find
something good. We never book a journey
through a travel agency, neither have we ever
tried any travel packages.
Pre-booking a room is also something we
hardly ever do, except if we know the hotel or
are booking through a hotel chain we already
know of. When it comes to an understanding
of what an accessible room is, everybody has
a different opinion and that’s the reason we
rarely book a room in advance.
There are many things non-handicapped
people don’t think of, small things like going
through a narrow door or entering a building