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this year s 12th annual sath world congress was perhaps the largest in its history likely due to a the location of the event orlando florida previously held in miami the world congress is a conglomerate of speakers panels a short exhibition show presentations and nightly events different from any other expo we ve been to the 300-350 congress participants spend the week relatively as a group sharing their experience expertise and ideas truly more of a congress than an expo this annual event is primo for networking and we were thrilled to attend it for the second time not only in attendance access anything provided mediation for a speakers panel on adventure travel and presented this new topic to many eager ears topics discussed included alaska and hawaii adventures and how to encourage adventure travel as a travel agent as well as stories from miami city councilman and ibot user myron rosner and a video from world traveler and former paralympic skier muffy davis who was also representing disaboom.com in addition we organized several activities for attendees to try including hot air ballooning air boating kayaking fly fishing and golf unfortunately this mature group was not as interested in these activities at an additional cost as we d hoped they d be perhaps because of the plethora of activities that orlando s theme parks offered as evening activities this year however we plan to continue to cut down the options next year and lead a group of adventurers kayaking through the river system next time around other panels included the destination panel which highlighted cancun the uk south africa and new york s accessibility an airline panel which usually consists of a q&a regarding access suggestions and more a universal design panel a financial panel as well as other presentations such as traveling with oxygen service animals and deaf travelers one of the best presentations of the event was royal caribbean and deaf passages travel s display of their cooperative trip for over 3900 deaf deaf-blind and deaf wheelie travelers for an all-deaf cruise on freedom of the seas truly inspiring this presentation showed the immense work that went into planning this first-ever travel event including hundreds of interpreters and signers special activities such as deaf comedians and theatrics and even the safety sessions needed in order to ensure the safety of these unique passengers hats off to tabitha and mac partlow of deaf passages travel for initiating such a wonderful event the highlight of this trip for us as it was for everyone were indeed the theme parks the first evening we spent watching 4 january-february 2008

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shamu s family show at seaworld and riding their polar express ride ending with a stroll through the polar exhibit viewing a sleeping polar bear and active beluga whales and walruses evening two took us to universal studios after-hours for a couple of rides on men in black and jaws to check out their amazing accessibility we vowed to return to this park the final night of the congress the group was shuttled to epcot for the most amazing fireworks display we ve ever seen also a very accessible park epcot s size made for some sore arms and legs the next day if you spend the whole day in this park and worry about your shoulders definitely rent a scooter once the congress was over we had a few days to explore the area on our own and indeed as we vowed returned to universal studios with our own vip concierges suntastic tours thanks to murray krasnoff and david and colin we had a very vip day in the parks with professionals that know 100 about access at universal studios and islands of adventure we managed to get on all the rides despite the wheelchair some needing a little bit of help such as on dudley dorights ripsaw falls where we got a little more than wet see murray s video from that one you name it we rode it from the tamer spider man and revenge of the mummy rides to the tummy-taming incredible hulk and dueling dragons roller coasters everything at islands of adventure and universal was accessible outside the parks we did manage an airboat ride through the gator-infested swamp waters of kissimmee with brent at big toho airboat rides one sixteen-footer reminded us the need for a big metal boat that makes a lot of noise we saw dozens of varieties of birds alligators and miles of waterways as for the rest of the activities we researched if you re in the orlando area make sure to check out the following adaptive-friendly companies adventures in florida for kayak tours www.adventuresinflorida.com bob s balloon flights with seats in the baskets www.bobsballoons.com fly fishing with orlando outfitters www.orlandooutfitters.com and five of the pga-style golf courses in disney resorts have adaptive golf carts that are just begging to be used lake buena vista at disneyworld eagle pines at disneyworld magnolia at disneyworld osprey ridge at disneyworld palm at disneyworld www.disneyworldgolf.com all photographs are ©access anything and may not be used or reproduced without permission 5 january-february 2008

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