Early last year, Joyce Brock, who works for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Philadelphia, was named the agency`s Outstanding Employee With a Disability for 1990.
She was invited to Washington for an award ceremony, but that presented a problem for Brock, 40, a wheelchair user who has cerebral palsy. For her-and thousands of disabled people-travel was not something to be relished.
”I could take the train,” she said, ”but for me it`s uncomfortable. They jiggle and rock-because they`re trains-and there`s all the stopping and starting. I`m not knocking Amtrak, it`s just the way trains are.”
So Brock began looking around for alternative transportation.
”I was frantically calling all over, trying to find a van or something to get me down there,” said Brock. ”I really wanted to go.”
Then someone from a local disabled-veterans organization told her about Ed van Artsdalen, president and founder of Wheelchair Getaways Inc. in the nearby suburb of Newtown, Pa. Van Artsdalen`s firm rents custom vans specially equipped to transport wheelchair users.
”I called him and he was wonderful,” said Brock. ”I went to Washington, had a great trip down in a very comfortable van with a great stereo system. I was down and back in the same day and I actually had some energy when I got where I was going.”
A niche found
In an era of niche marketing, J. Edward van Artsdalen, 41, has definitely found a niche for his van-rental operation.
And, on Sunday, when the provisions on public accommodations of the new Americans With Disabilities Act take effect, that niche might begin to look more like a Grand Canyon of opportunity for Wheelchair Getaways Inc.
Basically, the act, which President Bush signed into law last July, should open up a new world of travel for the disabled. With hotels and restaurants now required to provide wheelchair access not only to their premises but also to their rooms and restrooms and other amenities, travel will become far more attractive for many of the disabled who have long struggled to get around in a world built and operated for the able-bodied.
”For many people,” said Van Artsdalen, ”getting out of a wheelchair and into a car is impossible.”
For those folks, travel opportunities were few and far between-even when they could find wheelchair-accessible hotels and restaurants.
There are, of course, paratransit operations-private vans that transport wheelchair users and other disabled people. But laws prohibit them from crossing county lines. ”They`re really intended just to take an individual to a doctor`s office and back,” said Van Artsdalen.
Paratransit veteran
He should know; he operated a paratransit service for several years in Bucks County, Pa. He got into paratransit after selling the private school bus company he ran for 18 years outside Philadelphia.
”It was the paratransit operation that gave me familiarity with transporting the disabled,” Van Artsdalen said.
”There really wasn`t any way for a disabled person to, say, visit a friend in New York or go to a niece`s wedding in Baltimore,” Van Artsdalen said. ”We looked all over and found that nobody was doing this sort of thing- at least, not on any large scale.”
So, in 1988, he and his wife, Jean, began putting together Wheelchair Getaways as a franchise operation, with the first outlet in Newtown.
It took three years of organizing, finding potential franchisers and selling the concept before things began to take off. But, last year, take off they did.
”We`re now serving 25 cities-Orlando, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco-all the major cities in the country,” Van Artsdalen said. ”And we expect to have franchises in 25 to 30 more cities by the end of this year.”
Eyes 200-van fleet
Wheelchair Getaways has a fleet of 75 full-size Ford and Dodge vans and, Van Artsdalen said, is adding to the fleet as demand increases. He said he expects to have ”at least 200 vans” on the road by the end of the year.
The vans are equipped with power lifts, tie-down systems for the wheelchairs, raised roofs and, in addition to ”great stereo,” separate front and rear air conditioning systems. Large enough for most family trips, they can carry one wheelchair user and five other people or two wheelchair users and three others. The vehicles are not equipped to allow the wheelchair user to drive; renters must provide their own drivers.
Rental rates vary slightly around the country, Van Artsdalen said, but average $75 to $85 a day (rates are lower for rentals of one week and longer), including insurance and unlimited mileage.
One of the aspects of the business of which Van Artsdalen seems particularly proud is that ”half of our franchisees are disabled. And every one of our franchisees is disabled or has a member of the family that is a wheelchair user.” Thus, Wheelchair Getaways is not only providing a much-needed service for disabled people, but is also providing several of them with a career.
And it`s a career that, with the Americans With Disabilities Act about to go into effect, seems very promising indeed.
”Because of the ADA, more people can and will travel,” Van Artsdalen said. ”Even in these economic times, our business is booming.
”We`re a young company and we`re the only one in the country doing it. So we`re just taking the ball and running with it.”
One plus for his business provided by ADA is its requirement that many services available to the unimpaired also must be available to disabled people.
Boon to hotels
”We can help hotels meet their ADA requirements,” Van Artsdalen said.
”If a hotel offers a shuttle service to the airport, we can provide that service for their disabled guests. And the hotel doesn`t have to go out and spend $30,000 or $40,000 for a van” that may not be used very often.
Of course, if it`s a hotel that`s dealing with Joyce Brock, it might find it needs a van fairly frequently. Last year she made not one but three trips to Washington, each time in a Wheelchair Getaways van.
Her second trip was to pick up a presidential award in recognition of her work as a federal employee with a disability.
Her third, last July, was to be present when Bush signed the ADA into law.
”Thanks to Ed, I got there, and it was wonderful,” Brock said. ”All these experiences are things that I`m going to remember for the rest of my life.”
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For more information, contact Wheelchair Getaways Inc., Box 819, Newtown, Pa. 18940; 800-642-2042.
