The world is not that scary, just do it

Paralympic gold medal winner Michael Johnson is no stranger to travel but he finds accommodation is often lacking in one particular area, writes Siobhan Downes.

With five Paralympic Games under his belt, and countless world championships, target shooter Michael Johnson is as much a veteran in travel as he is in his sport.

‘‘It’s kind of funny because I’m a bit of a homebody,’’ he says on the phone from a managed isolation hotel in Auckland, having just returned from the Tokyo Games.

‘‘I get a bit of that travel anxiety. I’ll spend the two weeks prior in this perpetual motion of packing. There’s always something else I need.’’

Johnson was 22 and halfway through the recruitment process to become a police officer when he became a tetraplegic after a car accident in 1996.

It was, as he puts it, ‘‘completely life changing’’. But just as life changing would be his decision to pick up an air rifle a few years later.

What started out as a hobby has turned into a career that has seen him travel the world, ticking off the likes of Athens, Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro, and now Tokyo in pursuit of medals.

As memorable as each destination has been, it’s the bathrooms that stick in Johnson’s mind.

He recalls travelling to South Korea for one of his first international competitions in 2002 and checking into his hotel, only to discover his room had a step down into the bathroom.

On subsequent trips to Europe, he would find many hotel bathrooms have showers over a bath – making showering an ‘‘almost impossible’’ task for wheelchair users.

‘‘Many times I’ve flooded out the bathroom and had to call the manager’s office,’’ he says.

‘‘Or what I used to do was take a small paddling pool that you blow up. I’d put my shower chair in the middle of it and shower in that, then the paddling pool would have to be emptied into the bath by my helper.’’

Over the past 20 years, he has seen little progress in making travel and accommodation more accessible to those with disabilities. Instead, he says, he has become more diligent in ensuring his needs are met.

To plan his trips, Johnson uses Google Maps to search for hotels within the vicinity of where he wants to be.

‘‘I’ll go to each hotel that is closest, and slowly work my way out, finding which ones give me the best rates, which have the best accessibility, and which services are at the hotel.’’ Hotels with restaurants are a bonus. ‘‘It’s just another thing I won’t need to worry about.’’ He also recommends contacting accommodation in advance to see if they can send detailed photos of the room. That is one thing that would have improved his stay in MIQ, he says. While he had been assigned a room with what was supposed to be an accessible bathroom, he was surprised to discover it had a bath in it.

‘‘Just because it says accessible, doesn’t necessarily mean it is accessible.’’

Johnson has found some destinations to be much better than others. He points to the United Arab Emirates as being ahead of the pack.

‘‘They are way more set up for looking after people with disabilities,’’ he says.

‘‘It’s really good. And they don’t say ‘people with disabilities’ – it’s ‘people of determination’.’’ Johnson says he has also generally run into fewer issues while travelling in New Zealand as a wheelchair user.

‘‘You can get an accessible hotel or motel room or bathroom so much easier than you can overseas,’’ he says.

‘‘We’ve also got lower kerbs, so you can wheel up on them, whereas you might go somewhere like

Korea and the kerbs are twice the height.

‘‘It’s by no means perfect. It’s just that little bit better.’’

On his travels in New Zealand, Waitomo Caves was one of the unexpected highlights.

‘‘They’ve got an accessible path all the way down through the cave.’’

While Johnson, who lives in Waiuku, has no immediate travel plans once he gets out of MIQ, he is keen to tick Queenstown off his list.

‘‘That’s the funny thing, I’ve travelled [to] all these different places around the world, but I haven’t seen all of New Zealand.’’

He acknowledges it takes a lot of courage to travel with a disability. But he is encouraged by the growing number of resources out there – blogs, articles and Facebook groups on accessible travel – and says as long as you put in the research, and make sure you have everything you need, it can be done.

‘‘I’m a big chicken when it comes to this sort of stuff, but I actually do it,’’ he says.

‘‘When you can be a little bit brave and go outside your comfort zone, it will make you realise there’s so many other things out there – the world is not such a scary place. So just go for it.’’