An American woman has set the world record for travelling to the most countries in a year in a wheelchair.
Renee Bruns, 38, was diagnosed with diastrophic dwarfism when she was 16 years old and spent much of her early years travelling around the US with her mother to see medical specialists.
By her 16th birthday, she had already visited all 50 US states, an experience that inspired her to see more of the world.
After experiencing burnout, Bruns took a sabbatical from her job as an insurance executive in 2022 to pursue a year of “intense full-on travel”.
While she’d previously travelled with a companion or her partner, Bruns opted to travel alone on her big trip, booking a one-way ticket to Bali, Indonesia.
“It was a very scary and liberating experience for me,” she told CNN.
“I don’t have a dedicated medical assistant or a helper, if you will.”
Bruns says that while there is more awareness of wheelchair users compared with when she was growing up, there are still challenges, saying: “it hasn’t been easy to navigate a world designed for people who use two legs”.
She said: “What I have seen in my lifetime is just a lot more awareness. People are much more willing to help. There’s not this scariness factor of someone with a wheelchair.
“I experienced that a lot in my younger years and I don’t get it so much anymore.”
She cites Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand as the countries with the most inclusive infrastructure, noting that more historic destinations tend to be poorer on this front.
While she accepts that the process of making a historic temple in Indonesia more accessible might be a challenge, she describes air travel as the biggest disappointment when travelling, stating that airlines have “a lot more to do” when it comes to making travel more inclusive for people with disabilities.
“In the past two or three years, it’s gotten slightly better,” she says. “And I hesitate to even say ‘slightly,’ because I don’t want to give the airlines too much credit.
“There is an immense amount of work that can go into flying for people with disabilities, and the airlines have a huge, huge responsibility to make it better.
“It is one of the most frustrating parts [of travelling] and just the treatment that the airlines give to people with disabilities.”
Despite this, Bruns says…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at The Independent Travel…