Wright, son of Beacon Journal retiree Ken Wright, frequently writes about wheelchair-accessible travel and has won several awards for covering the subject. Steve and his wife, Heidi, are authors of the Accent Press book “Ideas for Easy Traveling: Timely Tips for Those with Limited Mobility.” They were featured in the Feburary, 2001 issue of New Mobility magazine.
Heidi Johnson Wright and Steve Wright, both writers, met at Kent State in the 1980s. Heidi, who has rheumatoid arthritis, has had two lengthy hospitalizations since they've been married.
Steve and Heidi shared the byline for the main article titled "Unobstructed View" which lists 10 diverse wheelchair destinations across America.
"Travelers who use wheelchairs have travel tastes as diverse as all vacationers," the lead states. "Wheelchair users simply have to search a little harder to find barrier-free fun."
There are photos of Monument Valley in Utah, the Brooklyn Bridge's barrier-free pedestrian pathywaty, Detroit's Eastern Market and Utah's Zion National Park.
A second article with Steve's byline is headlined Call to make sure place truly accessible.
Here is the lead on the article:
When your spouse uses a wheelchair, your travel options aren't so much limited as they are dependent on creativity and flexibility.
Long cross-ocean flights, for example, are not out of the question. But a wheelchair user with stiff joints, constant pain and prevalent fatigue due to severe rheumatoid arthritis will cope much better with eight-plus hours of flying if he or she can be accommodated with the roominess of a business-class seat.
The same goes for a place to sleep far from home. On a trip to Spain, we found there are barrier-free hotels, hostels, palladores and apartments, but that only about one in 50 is wheel- chair-accessible and about one in 10 of those advertise the fact that they can accommodate a disabled traveler.
And some places somehow come to the conclusion that they are wheelchair-accessible even though the only route to the front door is via eight steep, slippery steps.
Ask any "wheeler" who has booked a room purely on the inclusion of the wheelchair symbol on a property's brochure or Web site and you probably will hear a near horror story of arriving weary from an all-night flight only to find that the room is on the third floor of a property without an elevator.
So, rather than rely on a vague checkmark in the "property is wheelchair-accessible column," anyone planning a trip with a disabled family member is strongly advised to pick several options via Web sites. That list of supposedly accessible properties is then the starting point for phone calls made directly to the property to determine exactly what kind of barrier-free accommodations are offered.
And Wright concludes:
The hunt for a wheelchair-accessible apartment, be it in old Barcelona or any place far from home, can produce a result filled with unique sights, scents and spaces that simply cannot be found in a soulless hotel room.
With planning, perseverance and a sense of adventure and adaptation, a wheelchair user can win the hunt and savor the flavorful fruit of the pursuit.
Click on the headline to read the full Plain Dealer story by Steve and Heidi.
Click here to read Steve's story
Click here to access the New Mobility magazine containing the profile on Steve and Heidi.
Click here to read about wheel-chair accessible spots in Barcelona.
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