Imagine that there was a place that you had always wanted to visit. Next, imagine that you had found a trip that not only took you to that place but also offered you the chance to visit another place that you have also always wanted to visit. Then imagine that this was at a price that you could afford; would you want to take that trip?

My wife knows all about my lifetime fascination with ancient history; Egypt, Greece, and Rome amongst them. She also knows about my impaired mobility and that I never let it limit me unless it becomes a question of safety. We have been to see various ancient sites in Greece and Italy, walked the streets of Ephesus and Pompeii for example, but I have always wanted to visit Petra and see Egypt. Being a genuine bargain hunter I was not surprised when my wife showed me a holiday that she had discovered that including visiting Jordan to see Petra, as well as some other interesting sites, and then took us to Egypt to sail down the Nile and visit Luxor, Karnak, and Abu Simbel, as well as the National Museum in Cairo. Even she was excited by it. We decided to book this holiday for next year and we contacted the travel company advertising it. Before agreeing to pay the deposit I mentioned my disability, telling the company representative that I use a walking stick to get about but that I did not use a wheelchair. They looked at the itinerary, which we had already done, and said that as nothing on there was listed above moderate they expected that I would be able to enjoy the activities. They also mentioned that they would put a note on our file to alert the various agents at the places we would be visiting, all of them by various transport options, to the fact that I did have a disability so that I would be offered any extra assistance that I might need. I was very grateful for this gesture. I was not so impressed when I received the email below:

Putting to one side the irony of someone using the job title of ‘Customer Success Agent’ to deliver such a negative message, I was initially annoyed that they had not taken the time to contact me directly, especially as they had all of my contact details to do so. The fact is that they had not even bothered to discover the extent of my disability, the coping strategies that I use, or the support that I receive, what I am actually capable of, or the kind of trips that I have been on previously; they had simply made a presumption that effectively excluded me from this experience after we had paid the deposit.

I saw this on social media recently:

We do belong wherever people go. I might not be Indiana Jones, but I am a traveller and adventurer in my own way. I have visited over 20 countries to date and I do not feel like stopping now. Indeed, one of the main reasons why I took early retirement was so that me and my wife could go places and do things while I still can walk beside her and hold her hand. I am not going to let a ‘Customer Success Agent’ stop me from doing that!