Lois Strachan

Lois Strachan speaks with Hilton & Loretta Purvis as they share their insights on their travels in South Africa & overseas, their thoughts on the concept of Universal Access, and the challenges they face as a married couple travelling where one person uses a wheelchair. The Travel Tech Corner features an app called Microsoft Seeing AI. The app uses artificial intelligence to make sense of print &...

In this special episode, our first anniversary of the podcast and our 20th episode, Lois Strachan chats to Larissa Sparg, the founder and owner of The Gallivanting Goose. The Gallivanting Goose presents a scavenger hunt, called The Wild Goose Chase Game, using an app, in various locations around Cape Town and Johannesburg. The game is popular for teambuilding, social celebrations and educationals....

Will Scott, of Will Scott Media, shares his insights on his on travels and his interventions in the hospitality and travel industry in South Africa. Will was born in South Africa and grew up in Port Elizabeth. At 16 years old, a gymnastics accident while preparing for world championships, resulted in him having a disability. He has travelled both locally and abroad and shares about the challenges...

In this episode Lois chats with Nikki Kemp, who has hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Nikki is trained and practiced as tour guide in and around the Cape Town area. She shares her insights about the level of accessibility of the tourism industry in South Africa. Our service provider spotlight features Walking on Waves in Jeffrey's Bay, a service provider who teaches adaptive surfing. This episode was edi...

In this episode Lois chats to the team from Edit Microsystems, a Cape Town based company providing assistive devices for people with disabilities The conversation provides valuable information about the role assistive technology plays in travel as well as the business case for making accessible travel a part of the hospitality industry We also introduce the partnership between Accessible South Afr...

In this episode, Lois speaks with Poonam Vaidya from Bangladore, India. Poonam is 30 years old and became blind 9 years ago, and then the travel bug bit and she went from being an introvert to becoming an extrovert. Her life's philosophy is to always have fun, always try to seize every opportunity and live every day to its fullest. She likes travelling alone, saying she feels more of a traveller t...

René Tembe is a learning & development practitioner and disability advisor. She started out in recruitment where her introduction to disability was when she was tasked to start a disability desk, creating a database of candidates with disabilities. René moved into training and development and is a registered assessor, facilitor and moderator, also working with people with disability in terms of di...

Lois Strachan chats with 8 x South African Surfing Champion, Roxy Davis about Surf Emporium's adaptive surfing clinics. Surf Emporium Muizenberg is the only officially SSA accredited Adaptive Surf School in South Africa. Roxy founded her Surf School in 2002 with an umbrella on Muizenberg beach and a clear vision of where she wanted to go with the concept. Her dreams became a reality far sooner tha...

Josh Grisdale, from Toronto, Canada but now living in Tokyo, Japan, Has Cerebral Palsy and is quadriplegic. He has been using wheelchair for 34 years and travelled extensively as a child with his family. Josh moved to Tokyo in 2000 in pursuit of his IT career and fell in love with Japan. Japan had just started to become accessible at that time, with some laws being passed regarding transport. Josh...

Our host, Lois Strachan, chats to Charlene Sunkel who is the Founder and CEO of the Global Mental Health Peer Network. Charlene was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, one of the most severe mental illnesses, which led to her career in promoting the rights of people with psycho-social disabilities with a strong human-rights focus. Charlene serves on a number of national and international boards and comm...

Rene Moses is the owner and founder of Travel with René, a tour operator who accommodates the needs of travellers with disabilities. Rene had a car accident in 1995, resulting in C6/C7 quadriplegia, and has travelled both within South Africa and abroad. Her travel experiences with a disability led her to start her tour company to assist other travellers with disabilities. Our service provider spot...

Our host, Lois Strachan, discusses universal access and travel with Ari Seirlis, the CEO of the QuadPara Association of South Africa (QASA). Ari travels domestically regularly and occasionally internationally and shares advice for having the best travel experiences as a person with a disability and the importance of planning in advance. Our service provider spotlight takes us on a trip through his...

Part 2 of the conversation between our host, Lois Strachan, and Marlene Le Roux. Marlene is a well known South African disability activist and a thought leader in the areas of inclusion and accessibility. Marlene is also the CEO of the Artscape Theatre, in Cape Town, which has been described as the most accessible theatre complex in South Africa. "We are whole people!" - Dr Marlene Le Roux This ep...

Our host, Lois Strachan, speaks with Marlene Le Roux, who is a well known South African disability activist and a thought leader in the areas of inclusion and accessibility. Marlene is also the CEO of the Artscape Theatre, in Cape Town, which has been described as the most accessible theatre complex in South Africa. "No one must be invisible. Everybody must have a voice. Everybody must be treated...

In this episode, Lois Strachan chats with Ilana Hermes who is both visually and hearing impaired. Ilana is a reflexologist and massage therapist, and has travelled to both the USA and UK. She shares her experiences travelling with a disability as well as some of her experiences navigating the world and her day to day life. Our service provider spotlight section focuses on Bugz Playpark, the larges...

Nicky has been travelling extensively in South Africa and internationally through her work as an inspirational speaker. Nicky is also a clinical psychologist and the founder of the non-profit organisation, Nicky's Drive that funds car adaptations for people living with disabilities.

Angelique Le Roux, co-owner of Ceres Zipslide Adventures, shares her insight into inclusive adventure for people with disabilities. Ceres Ziplines have hosted children with disabilities, amputees, blind, and deaf adventurers for a thrilling sky-high experience and Angelique speaks about the importance of making these activities accessible as far as possible.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to experience long distance train travel as a visually impaired traveller? This is what we discuss with Quinten Pendle who has been a train travel enthusiast since he was a young child. Quinten shares his experiences as a blind traveller, and how his visual impairment impacts on his enjoyment and ability to engage with train services.

Our host, Lois Strachan, chats with Christo de Klerk, who has travelled both locally and internationally to 15 different countries. Christo shares some of his experiences as a traveller who is blind. Christo was born blind, studied law and practiced as a lawyer, became a computer programmer, and later a teacher, before spending most of his career as an IT specialist. He has now been in retirement...

Our host, Lois Strachan interviews Briony Chisholm, a 40-something traveller who became quadriplegic after an accident on her way home from graduating as a pharmacist when she was 21 years old. Briony works part time for the division of clinical pharmacology at the University of Cape Town as an information pharmacist on the HIV & TB Hotline. She is also a blogger and writer, who has recently publi...

This is a podcast where we discuss travel in South Africa and beyond for persons with disabilities and special needs. With this podcast we hope to inspire other people with disabilities to travel more, to go out and explore and find out what the world has to offer. We’ll be sharing interviews with other travellers with disabilities, as well as with service providers in the tourism industry, and an...