How to Travel: A guidebook for Persons with a Disability

There are about 43 million persons in the USA with someform of disability. Many of these people are concernedthat they may not be able to enjoy the same activities,such as travel, that people without a disability do. Thisbook is written as a guidebook to your rights and willpresent information on how to travel to accommodatevarious disabilities.Prior to 1986, little or no attention was paid to a personwith a disability who wanted to travel. Since 1986, twoacts have been passed by the Congress of the UnitedStates mandating that travel should be made equallyavailable to all persons, disabled or not.The first act, the Air Carriers Access Act (ACAA), passed in 1986, defined what air carriers and airports must do to make aircraft and airports accessible to persons with disabilities.The second act, the Americans With Disabilities Act(ADA) of 1990, defined, among its many regulations,what public transportation and accommodations must offer to make their facilities accessible to persons with disabilities.The Act also states that facilities must be madeaccessible if it is not too difficult or expensive. The ADAdoes not mandate that the facilities be made usable.Fred Rosen has systematically defined rights and precautions to make traveling with a disability more accessible, affordable, and safe

Fred Rosen was born 1926 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He and his wife, Gertrude, are the parents of a son who has been diagnosed as having Down's Syndrome. Since the birth of their son Robert, Fred has been active in helping persons with disabilities, serving on various boards and committees for over 30 years. As a Board Member and as Chairman of the Legal Guardianship Committee of the Missouri Association for Retarded Citizens. As a Board Member and on the Recreation Committee of the St. Louis Association for Retarded Citizens for 27 years. As a Board Member of the Kirkwood Disabled Advisory and Awareness Commission, City of Kirkwood, Missouri, from 1984 to 1991. As an Assistant Scoutmaster for a troop of mentally retarded Boy Scouts, Special School District, St. Louis, Missouri. Upon retirement from the wholesale shoe business in 1991, Fred decided to become a travel agent. His goal was to develop a travel program for persons with disabilities. He studied Tourism and Travel at Forest Park Community College, St. Louis, Missouri, and earned an Associate Degree in Tourism, with honors, in 1993. Since 1993, Fred has been a travel consultant for persons with a disability. He is also a contributing editor for The Independence, a Saint Charles, Missouri newspaper for persons with a disability, and has contributed articles for The Montage, a campus newspaper of Meramec Community College, Saint Louis, Missouri. The articles that Fred writes concern forms of travel as well as accommodations, dining out and cruising for persons with a disability.