USA Today, August 13, 1991

"Disabled Get More Attention at Hotels"

Some disabled travelers are getting a break. Embassy Suites Hotels opened a 280-room hotel in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., last month that features six wheelchair suites on the first floor and other options available at the front desk -- including talking alarm clocks, flashing smoke alarms and alarm clocks with large display numbers. The hotel says it's the only one in the nation that offers an extensive package of features for the nation's 43 million disabled people.

Paul Duke, a disabled co-founder of The Opening Door, a Woodford, VA, group that works to improve travel for the disabled, helped the hotel develop the amenities, which exceed new federal requirements. Says Duke: "It's going to make a great deal of difference. Other hotels offer things, but not as much. For example, I know that I'll be able to find a roll-in shower (showers designed to accommodate people in wheelchairs) at Embassy Suites."

Next year, the Americans with Disabilities Act will make it mandatory for hotels to offer special telephones for the hearing and speech-impaired. Also required: tape-recorded safety instructions and menus, amplified room phones, phone flashers and closed-captioned decoders, which print out on TV screens the dialogue and narrative of the programs. The far-reaching law also seeks to guarantee disabled people access to jobs, public transportation and stores.

But Embassy Suites says it has taken its role a step further. The hotel offers special etiquette training for its managers and staff in the USA. The classes show them how to assist disabled guests. The classes also give employees first-hand experience on what it's like to be disabled: During training, employees work in wheelchairs, wear goggles that simulate low vision and ear protectors that simulate deafness. Duke isn't surprised. He says that the hotel is the only one that responded to his suggestions to provide better accommodations for the disabled.

Paul Duke, cofounder of W. C. Duke Associates, an Opening
Doors® training with two Embassy Suites Hotels employees.

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