One year ago, I brought the Wheelchair Travel Newsletter to the Substack platform in search of a new way to share (and find support for) my work in the world of accessible travel. This anniversary is a great opportunity to reflect on what led me to Substack and where I would like to go from here.
A series of curveballs and something I haven’t shared before
In March 2020, as Covid lockdowns commenced, I was in Washington, D.C. for a meeting with the Department of Transportation. I left the nation’s capital prepared to hunker down with my family in Florida, and expected to be back up in the air within a few weeks. Well, we know how that turned out!
When the harsh reality of the global pandemic became clear, traffic to WheelchairTravel.org cratered and revenue sources dried up… fast. After six months of lockdown, I was spooked. Recovery seemed so far away and I questioned whether the dream of dedicating my life to making travel more accessible was realistic.
The uncertainty led me to embark on a new journey at the University of Florida, where I earned an MBA during the pandemic. After graduating in 2022, demand for accessible travel had still not sufficiently recovered and I accepted a senior role at a big company in Boston, Massachusetts. While I never planned to abandon my website, I needed to earn a living and find a sustainable path forward.
In a cruel twist of fate, Corporate America proved not to be sustainable either. One week before my start date, the company announced a hiring freeze and my job offer was rescinded. Over the next several months, thousands of employees were laid off. The corporate gut punch forced some soul-searching and I decided to bet on myself and my belief in accessible travel — returning my full focus to WheelchairTravel.org.
Where things stand with this newsletter
My bet on the future of accessible travel is how we ended up here. By moving the Wheelchair Travel Newsletter from Mailchimp to Substack, I was able to cut thousands a year in fees (newsletters are expensive!), all while developing a critical stream of support through paid subscriptions. Now, in addition to the 100,000+ people who visit WheelchairTravel.org each month, more than 28,000 have subscribed to this newsletter, and hundreds of you have elected to support my work with a paid subscription.
The support of paid subscribers has been invested into my work and advocacy, and I’ve been able to report on important events like these over the past year:
- First Look: Air4All Wheelchair Securement Space by Delta Flight Products Unveiled at Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany
- Attending the Rights on Flights Reception at the House of Commons in London
- Recap: All Wheels Up Global Forum on Wheelchair Accessible Air Travel
I’ve also published a host of new travel guides, including the following:
- Boston, Massachusetts Wheelchair Accessible Travel Guide
- Bruges, Belgium Wheelchair Accessible Travel Guide
- Budapest, Hungary Wheelchair Accessible Travel Guide
- Richmond, Virginia Wheelchair Accessible Travel Guide
- Tallinn, Estonia Wheelchair Accessible Travel Guide
That’s just the tip of the iceberg on new content published on the website and in this newsletter over the past year, and I consider it to have been my most productive yet in content development! I still want to do more, which leads me to the next point…
Where we’re going and what’s next
Before I lay out my vision for the next 12 months, it is important to note that what is possible depends almost entirely on the resources available to me. There are costs associated with each trip that I take and meeting that I attend — nothing is free and, while I am able to do more with less thanks to “travel hacking” and my frequent flyer miles hobby, there are still meetings that I would like to attend but pass on due to budgetary constraints.
Over the course of the next year, I hope to see the number of paid subscribers increase by 300 to 500, which will give me the freedom to take the message of accessibility to places where it can make a difference.
I hope for 2024 to be a banner year for WheelchairTravel.org and accessible travel as a whole. Here are a few things to look forward to in this newsletter:
- Expanded newsletter issues with new perspectives (in addition to my own)
- I promise to (finally) reengage with social media, starting today, with daily posts, pictures, stories, and occasional live video streams highlighting accessible travel from around the world
- More frequent Accessible Travel Chats with travel industry and government leaders, as well as other disabled travelers who will share their perspectives
- Opportunities to meet-up with me and other Wheelchair Travel readers in cities around the world when I’m visiting (This is a bold goal, but I’m optimistic since it happens informally already)
This vision depends on your support so, if you are able, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription or, if you are already a subscriber, upgrading to the Founding Member level which will allow you to schedule a one-on-one chat with me.
If you’d like to make a monetary gift to support my work, you can make a one-time or recurring donation through PayPal.
Your support means the world to me and enables critical advocacy on accessible travel, including the trip I am taking today — to London for an important discussion about the laws governing accessibility in air travel around the world.
Next month, I will be returning to the Aircraft Interiors Expo to report on new products and technologies that promise to make airplanes more accessible. That’s just the start of conference season, with many others to follow in the summer and fall. Each new paid subscription brings me closer to the next event.
Given that this is the one-year anniversary of the Wheelchair Travel Newsletter on Substack, many subscriptions are or will soon be up for annual renewal. While I anticipate some “churn,” I hope you will consider renewing your commitment to support this important work.
What it’s all about
I have always been a passionate traveler, both before and after the car accident that introduced me to life with disability, and I am driven by the belief that travel should be accessible to everyone. Too many barriers keep members of our community from pursuing the travel experiences that we all dream of, and I’m focused on plotting an accessible path through the morass while advocating for equal access everywhere.
Thank you for being a part of my journey over these past 12 months. Let’s wheel forward together to create a better and more accessible world that we can all enjoy.
Talk to you soon,
John
