Tips to Decrease Stress when Traveling

Originally presented November 18, 2019

by Judith Millman, LCSW, MBA

Flying can be extremely anxiety provoking for families of children with visual impairments and other disabilities.  We will discuss strategies that can make air travel easier for both parents and children. 

Transcript

Sheila

Okay, welcome to the Lighthouse tele-support calls. Today we’re going to be having a guest speaker, Judith Millman, who will be talking about traveling with your low-vision child. And she’s going to be giving us lots of good tips and ways to decrease stress. And Judith has been working in the field of vision rehabilitation for most of her professional career. She was retired from the Lighthouse as the Vice President for the Hudson Valley after 30 years of service. She has been facilitating the CVI tele-support group for well over 100 participants since the inception of the program about 14 years ago. She also facilitates the tele-support group for parents of children with rare genetic diseases in her spare time. And I’ll let you tell us all about yourself if you want to add something to that. But thank you very much for presenting today.

Judith

Well, thank you, Sheila, and hi, everybody. Yeah, I can’t believe that it’s been about 15 years since I’ve been facilitating the tele-support groups for CVI and for actually for Leber’s congenital amaurosis, which is the rare disease group that I work with. And it has been a great pleasure to be dealing directly with parents after many years of having a more administrative job and Lighthouse Guild, although I started as a social worker part time, and wound up being full time and a half as the head of the Hudson Valley region of the Lighthouse. 

So, I’ve really enjoyed my contact with parents of children with these two different and very different conditions. And still keeping a finger in the field and, you know, retaining our professional interests. So, I’m very happy to be talking about traveling with your blind or low vision child, and Sheila, you can do slide one, if it’s not up yet. 

So, what I wanted to start off by saying is that the stress that parents have when thinking about traveling with blind kids, is really not that much different than the stress that they may have in thinking about traveling with their typical kids. There are so many logistics to considering taking a trip. And, they may be a little bit different for blind kids and for typical children. But you know, travel often equals stress in the minds of parents who are already busy and stretched to the max. 

So, I have to kind of sayings when you think about traveling or starting to travel. And the two hints that I would suggest or pieces of advice are – be flexible, and nothing goes exactly according to plan. 

So, travel strategies may be different for children with ocular blindness and children with CVI, which is a neurological condition, as well as children with other disabilities, or concurrent disabilities, such as maybe mobility impairment, or autism. So, you know, that’s a caveat that there will be differences and there’s no one strategy for all kids with vision impairment. So, I think in getting started to think about planning a trip, I would say, plan, plan, plan. Get organized very early. Prepare your kids for the trip by discussing where they’ll be going. providing verbal descriptions, perhaps making a tactile map of the destination. 

This is, you know, I’m sure every parent is aware of this – carry snacks, carry medicines, prepare, bring with you comfort objects, toys, books, whatever will make it easier on the child to be in a different environment. And start out with the idea that you can and you’re allowed to take it slowly, you won’t be able to see everything. 

I’m going to talk a little bit about traveling by air, traveling by rail, and traveling by car on a road trip. So those are three modalities that we’ll just cover. And the thing about air travel, it’s often the most convenient way to, to travel a long distance, whether you’re going to visit a theme park, or visit family on the other side of the country or take a vacation. To families with children who are blind or have a vision impairment, or, and other disabilities flying can be extremely anxiety provoking. And I’ll just say, by the way, you know, there are plenty of people who are stressed out by the thought of flying, even if they’re doing it without any children or without children with any disabilities. Some parents have actually described having panic attacks, just contemplating air travel with their children. 

So, changes, you know, be aware changes in routine. Being in unfamiliar environments can all be very disruptive and difficult for some children. But there are strategies that make air travel easier to deal with. Again, including describing what will occur at the airport, to your child well in advance, role playing, and, of course, packing those familiar toys and snacks. 

For air travel, if possible, book your flight with your children in mind, that might be trying to book a flight with as few stops as possible. And in some cases, if it’s a long flight or an overseas flight, some parents have tried to coincide their flight with their children’s bedtime. So, you know, hopefully that a child can sleep throughout most of the flight.

Then, of course, arrive early at the airport, just to, again, lessen stress. I do this myself, even when I’m just traveling with my husband or even if I’m travel traveling by myself, I would rather wait an extra hour at the airport than be sitting in traffic, wondering if I’m going to make it to the airport in time to go through security, etc. 

So, one thing I learned in my research is how helpful TSA can be. TSA has developed something called TSA Cares. And that’s a helpline for travelers with disabilities. So, TSA agents have received special training to provide specific information about the screening of travelers with disabilities. We suggest that you call to the TSA helpline. And you’ll see that at the end during the last slide, that their telephone number is 855-787-2227. 

And if parents call that line with questions 72 hours before traveling, they can be very helpful. If you provide TSA Cares with your flight itinerary, they can assist parents with even having somebody there to help them when they get off their flight. So, the TSA Cares agent that you speak to will notify TSA officials at the airports to allow them to prepare for your screening before your flight and to assist you through the process. So, TSA passenger support specialists, they call them PSSs, will assist passengers with disabilities and other medical conditions. And more than 4500 TSA officers have received training to serve as PSSs.  And parents can request one of these PSS personnel from a checkpoint or officer or supervisor. So, the TSA cares program, it doesn’t exempt you from the screening, but the PSS can help you get through the process much more seamlessly and with a lot less anxiety for both parents and children. And anecdotal reports on the TSA cares program have been really positive. So, I would urge anybody to avail themselves of it. 

One of the parents that I spoke to recently mentioned something interesting. She has a child that travels in a wheelchair. And she said that if you go through the airport with your own wheelchair, that does not help you get through the line quicker, that in order to get priority and going through the line, you must use a TSA escorted wheelchair rather than your own. So, that’s good to know. 

So, this one I called “Airlines Can Help.” And they can and they will try to be helpful as far as they can. When you make your reservation make sure you mention your special needs. Airlines have wheelchairs although call them aisle wheelchairs for transferring non-ambulatory children to and from their seats on the plane. Those are available. 

Most airlines offer pre-boarding for passengers with a with a disability who need extra time or assistance to board or stow accessibility equipment or to be seated. So, let the airline also know if you need help and a wheelchair at either your destination or if you have to make a connection. And connections can be very stressful. Sometimes a schedule doesn’t work exactly the way you thought it would be. Planes can be delayed and if you don’t have a lot of time to make your connecting flight. If you have the trams waiting for you when you get off your flight to take you much more quickly to the connecting flight that can be helpful and you can ask for that. 

But certainly, to make sure that you have wheelchairs at every end where you might need them. And again, to avail yourself of pre-boarding and make sure to take advantage of the extra time that you need to get on the flight and to stow any of your equipment. And to make sure your personal wheelchairs are tagged and getting on the flight with you. Even though your personal wheelchairs can’t be used to go down the aisles there. They’re too wide. 

So, I don’t have too much to say about rail travel. But reservations can be made on Amtrak for blind parent passengers and those who need extra space for wheelchairs or accessible seats. There’s a number that they have you call. I think this is just for reservations. 1-800-USA-RAIL, which is Amtrak and you certainly should let your booking agent know what kind of special service requests you might have. And I think they will try to help you insofar as possible. 

I call this “How to Survive a Road Trip.” And that may be the most common kind of traveling people do with their kids. And again, surviving a car trip can be equally stressful with sighted kids or blind kids. But there are some strategies. Again, share the plan with your kids. If it would be helpful for your child, map it out. If your child uses a tactile map, they can follow the trip. With a tactile map, you can let them know where you are, if you’re going to different states. It could be a very interesting and learning situation for them. 

Any parent of a child, I’m sure knows, create travel bag with activities. It could be braille cards, it could be an audio player, toys, electronics, sensory activities, an iPad, an iPod –  whatever is going to work for your child. If you’re going to any kind of historic destination, whether it’s the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Mount Rushmore, the Golden Gate Bridge, you can get replicas of those buildings or those, you know, bridges or whatever, from local gift stores. I’m sure it’s something you can get online in advance. And that way, your child can tactically get a sense of what this site will look like, you know, where they’re going.  It will give them a sense of what they’re going to be, where they’re going to be visiting. 

With any site that you’re going to, if it’s a tourist site, ask about accessibility accommodations, ask about verbal descriptions, is there an audio descriptor of the site, whether it’s a museum, or the Statue of Liberty. Because many of the tourist destinations do have recordings with verbal descriptions. Ask if there are opportunities to touch a landmark. And sometimes they have that, also. 

I think it’s often helpful if you’re especially in a crowded space to make sure your child is using his or her white cane for identification if they’re cane travelers. As far as what to do and what your itinerary is going to be, whenever possible if your kids are of the right age, let them choose some of the activities according to what their interests are. Some parents, with car trips, will travel at night, so that a child, especially young child, will probably sleep for most of the trip. And, you know, as ever have plenty of snacks available. 

And one of the pointers I read was, this is not the time to just concentrate on nutritious snacks. So, even though we may all do that, as a matter of course, in our everyday life, when you’re on a road trip with a possibly cranky kid, maybe that’s not the right time to be insisting on that. 

So, I decided to include a little bit about Disney World because, in talking to the parents on my groups, it seems that much of their travel, when it’s long distance, is going to Disney World. And everybody, that seems to be where all kids, if you ask them, you know, where would you like to go on a family vacation, Disney is right up there. So, I have heard parents in my group talking about their experience at Disney. And, as I will mention, shortly, you know, Disney does have a lot of good accommodations that they make that can make life easier when you’re a Disney visitor. I personally think Disney is overwhelming to anybody. But they can make it a little bit easier. 

But, I had one parent who adamantly said, I am not going to use any of the accessibility features of Disney, we’re gonna stand online just like everybody else. I know, my child has to live in the real world. And this is a way to drive that home. Well, most parents don’t feel that way. And if they can make it a little bit easier for their child, they certainly want to do that. 

So, even before you get to Disney, when you’re planning it, you certainly can contact their disability services. And there’s a phone number, and that’s 407-560-2547 or by email, disability.services@Disneyparks.com. So, that you can do in advance, and they will probably send you some material that lets you know on the types of services that they do they do provide. They have audio descriptions. They have braille guidebooks; they have portable tactile maps that you can carry with you. They have stationary braille maps throughout the park. They have visual disability services that most of the activities, so, if they’re it’s always good to check out their website, which is http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/index. But, this will be on on the last slide with the sources. So, they have a lot to offer in terms of help for parents who are traveling with blind children. 

So, now you’re at Disney, you have arrived, what to do? On the very first day, it’s strongly suggested that you stop at Guest Relations, get an official Walt Disney World guest assistance card, which will outline any assistance you may need while visiting the park. And it identifies that you have special needs. You can also pick up the guide for persons with disabilities for information and that guests with disabilities. And once you have the card, ask every cast member at the entrance to each attraction where the handicapped entrance is.  This is a really good tip, because the handicap entrance is almost always shorter, less winding, and allows you more time to access the ride or the space that you’re going into. So, I think that probably is one of the best tips that that I can give you. 

Another tip is do not expect to see everything. The park is huge. And there are so many things to see. And maybe this has something to do in advance with your kids. Pick out what is most important to you. You know you’re not going to be able to see everything. So, maybe if you have several kids in your family, have each one pick out what they would want to make sure that they see. It’s also helpful if you can plan your visit to Disney during the slow periods at the park. You know, not during Christmas week or not during Presidents Day week.

Sometimes it’s not possible to do that. If possible, get to the park early and stay later. This doesn’t mean that you should get there when it opens and stay till it closes. Many families find that it’s really helps everybody if they get there early, but go back to their hotel for afternoon rest, and then go back to the park later on. Because the earlier and later times are generally much less crowded. 

So, my final thoughts are, plan, prepare, share with your child, and relax, have fun. And again, remember, you’re not going to be able to see it all. So, on the very last slide, I have the sources of some of the pointers that I’ve mentioned. And we have the TSA Cares helpline and Disney’s website. So, I think that these sources you can check on your own and get even more information than I was able to tell you. But hopefully this will get you started. And you know, this is certainly a time of the year that travel may be on many people’s mind. We’re looking at, you know, the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is often a very busy travel, travel time. People go home to family at different parts of the country for Thanksgiving, or for Christmas or Hanukkah. So, I think travel may be on a lot of people’s mind. And hopefully, this was timely and hopefully a little bit helpful. So, I know we have lots of time, left over and Sheila, your suggestions on where we go from here.

Sheila

I was gonna open up for comments.

Woman

I know you talked a lot about wheelchairs, and they’re great for people that need them. But, even today, when you deal with TSA, they’re not totally sensitive to the fact that everything is not resolved with a chair. People don’t always need that. People may need an arm, or, or something else or those little carts that they take you from point A to point B. It’s very humiliating to ask a blind person that walks everywhere and travels everywhere. Oh, you need to sit in a chair because it’s easier for us. Well, guess what? It’s not easier for me. And it doesn’t meet my needs.

Judith

That’s a good point. And I would hope that doing that call before you travel and calling TSA Cares and explaining what you do need might alleviate that.

Woman

Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. And, many times they’ll show up with one chair. And then when they see that my husband and I are both visually impaired. They say we need another chair. And then I say well, you don’t need any. So let’s just travel with you by a sighted guide. So, there’s a little more education that needs to take place with these sorts of things because I know that chairs are wonderful, but not for everyone.

Judith

Of course. Good point. Very good.

Sheila

Any other people have comments that might be helpful to for others to know what their travels – people they know?

Woman 2

Yes, I think that this same way Disney has a disability service, most of the amusement parks have them. I know, places like Six Flags and the zoos. It’s good to check, because they probably have some kinds of services. So, they some of them might be more limited than others. But they’re pretty good about servicing visually impaired or any other disabilities. So, I would suggest not just limit calling Disney. If you’re going to an amusement park, a zoo, checking with them. 

Judith

Oh, yeah, I thought I had tried to cover that and saying that so many museums and parks do have special accommodations for different disabilities. Yeah, absolutely.

Sheila

The museums in New York are very good about that.

Judith

Yes, yeah. And other parts of the country that I have been to as well. I’m thinking about a museum that I visit with my grandkids in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a museum in Oregon. You know, I have seen the accommodations that they that they make. So again, if you have the luxury of planning your trip in advance, and giving yourself enough time to check this out, and to make those contacts it will certainly make your trip go smoother.

Woman 2

Also with the theater and movies, many of them now offer audio describe. And also, if you go to the theater and they don’t happen to have it, you can go on this app called GalaPro. And many, many, many of the theater performances are on GalaPro. And once you sign in, you can listen to the audio description as the play is going on.

Judith

Oh, that’s good to know. How do you spell that?

Woman 2
GalaPro