Hi Guys!

This is just too good to pass up.

We are adding this article to the Accessible Devices Website and felt that 
many of you would find the information useful.
Merry Christmas from,
Parker, Randy and terry
Travel Agency Is Catering To The Blind
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, USA Sunday, December 23, 2007
Travel agency is catering to the blind
Joan and Paul Patche wanted to take their children on a cruise, but weren't 
sure
if the kids would like it. "My daughter felt so comfortable, she went to the 
teen
center by herself," Joan said of her daughter, Robin. "She doesn't want to 
be with
us all the time. She wants to be independent."
That sounds like any mother and her 17-year-old. But giving their daughter 
her independence
is especially important for the Patche family. Both Mom and Dad are blind, 
and so
are two of their three kids, including Robin.
"I've been totally blind from birth," Joan explained. "My husband and the 
kids have
a condition called aniridia. They can see things, but they have to be pretty 
close.
They could see you as a person but wouldn't be able to recognize your 
features.
"Advertisement
The Patche family was able to enjoy its trip to Mexico thanks to Damar 
Travel and
Cruise of St. Louis, the official travel agency for the American Council of 
the Blind.
In the last four years, the agency has put together more than a dozen 
escorted cruises
for the visually impaired, taking as many as 120 people at a time, and 40 
guide dogs,
to the Caribbean, Alaska and Europe, where their entourage got special 
permission
to tour the Vatican.
Marsha Schuman, the agency's owner, said she had been a registered 
occupational therapist,
with a master's degree in rehabilitation, before getting into the travel 
business.
"I know what it's like to work with many challenges," she said. "By helping 
the blind
travel safely, I found I could put my two loves together."
ESCORTS OFFER HELP
Damar, which also offers tours for sighted clients, likes to have one escort 
for
every 12 visually impaired travelers. Schuman and director of leisure Dave 
Kronk
serve as escorts on many of the cruises, and both say the physical 
impairments don't
slow down their special clients.
"They've gone kayaking in Alaska, did a helicopter tour where they landed on 
the
glacier and did the dogsled run," Kronk said. "In the Caribbean, we went 
through
the Panama Canal and they touched the canal itself. In Belize, we went to 
the howler
monkey preserve and they got a chance to feed the little one. We've swam 
with the
dolphins in Cozumel, and with the sting rays in Grand Cayman."
Added Schuman: "At a federal park in Alaska, they had a young bear playing 
with a
ball behind a fence. We had 65 people, from 27 states, and 22 service 
animals within
three feet of the bear. There were Poodles, golden Labs, a shepherd, all 
lined up.
Not one dog growled; neither did the bear.
"We've actually had couples that met on our cruises and got married. We've 
had four
weddings. When they have formal nights on a cruise, some of the people dress 
up their
dogs, too."
Obviously, the group requires extra groundwork. Kronk fills out all the 
pre-cruise
paper work, including custom forms and veterinary papers for the dogs. Damar 
has
a computerized embosser that prints menus, daily activity newsletters and 
ship layout
information into large print or Braille.
Onboard, recorded information runs on a designated channel in the 
staterooms. "When
they fly in, we make sure there's somebody there to say, "Hi, welcome, we're 
here
with Damar," Schuman said. "Then we have staff at their hotel to get them to 
their
rooms. They have no way of orienting without a friendly voice guiding them."
RELIEF AREA' FOR DOGS
Schuman said some cruise lines - she mentioned Carnival and Norwegian - are 
eager
to accommodate her groups. And, yes, the cruise lines also accommodate the 
animals.
"Where do they go to the bathroom?" she said. "That's the first question I 
get every
time." Most of the travelers request balconies, not only because they enjoy 
the feel
and smell of the ocean, but also to hold a box filled with doggie litter. 
The cruise
lines also arrange to have a special "relief area" on deck for dog-walking.
A visually impaired cruiser pays about $75 to $100 extra for a ticket. Other 
than
that, they are treated like most others, which is the way people like
the Patches of California like it.
"The ship was awesome," Joan said. "We had deck plans in Braille, so I could 
tell
my husband, 'I'll meet you here.' We went on a shopping tour in Ensenada. 
The people
from Damar would tell you what's there. They also help with the crew. Like 
the waiters,
if they put something in front of you, they know to tell us what they're 
doing.
"We sat together in the dining room. You meet a lot of people that way, and 
they
don't care if you bump into them, literally. Most blind people are 
fun-loving, they
like to party. One night, I was dancing with a waiter. He was laughing. He 
said we
brightened up his day."
For more information on Damar's vacations for the blind, call 1-800-999-6101
or visit
damartravel.com.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/lifestyle/stories.nsf/travel/story/5CBED83D4C658C5B862573B60073A046?OpenDocument
www.vipconduit.com
and
www.accessible-devices.com

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