Three Levels of Certification
When a hotel, airline or airport is Autism Double-Checked, you can be sure that you’ll have all the tools that you need for planning your vacation trip.
You will also know that staff have been trained to be non-judgmental and so will understand many of the issues that face autistic people when traveling.
Communicating with your Travel Provider
If you need very specific information from your travel provider about their facilities and services, we have the Autism Concierge.
If you need to tell your provider about your loved one’s needs and challenges in advance, we have the Autism Passport.
Practice Vacations
Travel means experiencing innumerable unfamiliar challenges. To prepare your family – before you set off on vacation – we work with certified airports, airlines and hotels to give you and your loved ones a chance to practice navigating airport, boarding airplanes and staying in a hotel.
It’s so much better to know before you go!
Welcome to Autism Double-Checked
We looked. We looked for “autism-friendly hotels in Boston”. We found nothing. We then looked for autism-friendly hotels in Los Angeles. Nothing. Atlanta? Denver? Phoenix? Seattle? Nothing, nothing, nothing and , you guessed it – nothing.
We researched. We asked leading academics in the field of autism. We asked parents and caregivers in the autism community. What will it take to better equip the travel industry to serve the autism community?
We got our answers. For successful vacations, families need two fundamental things:
Answer # 1. “Non-judgmental, well-informed staff”. While the general public has heard of autism, most have no idea of the issues and their impact on individuals’ lives.
Our first step training, ‘Autism Aware’ teaches the special needs sensitivity training that you wish the whole world could have.
Our second step training ‘Autism Ready’ provides job-specific information that informs staff about situations that may arise and how best to assist autistic travelers in those situations.
Answer # 2. “Information, and more information…” Just as every person with autism is unique, every autism-friendly travel establishment needs to be one-of-a-kind.
For each resort, hotel, airline and airport, we prepare its own, unique Visitor/Passenger Guide. It provides all of the information that parents, caregivers or self-advocates could need for planning their trip.
Much of the information that you need can be found by practicing the experience before going ahead with the real thing. That’s why we work closely with hotels, airports and airlines to provide you with opportunities to rehearse these elements of the travel experience.
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