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Families with disabled children encounter a range of mobility constraints when travelling for tourism purposes, yet how such constraints affect their ultimate destination choices is currently not well understood. This paper applies a destination choice set model to explain how families with wheelchair-bound children with cerebral palsy choose their holiday destinations. Interviews with 13 parents revealed that these families find many destinations unavailable due to various mobility and travel constraints, such as inaccessible modes of transport and accommodations. The destination choices are trade-offs between constraints and desires of the disabled child and other family members. The findings suggest that the destination choice set model for this particular target group should also consider an ‘accessible set’ of destinations with universal design when exploring travel-related decisions of these families. Finally, the paper argues for a more differentiated approach towards identifying and responding to travel constraints of families with disabled children.

There is a norm assuming high mobility in the Western world today, which can increase the social and geographical exclusion of those who have limited possibilities to travel, such as people with disabilities. When it is a child who has the disability, travel-related constraints are likely to affect the whole family’s travel patterns. This study explores travel constraints among Swedish families with children with cerebral palsy who use wheelchairs. A time-geographical framework is employed. Interviews with parents show that these families’ everyday mobility is affected by authority, capacity and coupling constraints, and that it is often a combination of these constraints that makes travelling difficult. The families use different strategies to negotiate these constraints. In addition to strategies controlled by the families, the findings suggest that there is also a need for governmental support and a barrier-free transport system to enhance their mobility.

Mobility can involve many barriers that make it challenging for individuals with disabilities to travel. When it is a child who has a disability, the whole family’s mobility practices can be affected by those barriers since families’ mobilities are often intertwined. This paper is based on time-use diaries and interviews with parents of wheelchair-using children living in Sweden. A time-geographical framework is used in the paper, especially focusing on the concept of coupling constraints, which can emerge when individuals need to be together to perform an activity, such as mobility. The main focus is on how coupling constraints between parents and the disabled child affect mobilities, but the findings show that couplings also exist with authorities and things and these can increase coupling constraints within the family. However, if being eligible for personal assistance and special transport service the coupling constraints within the family can decrease, indicating that such support systems are fundamental for these families’ mobilities. This paper also shows that time geography can be useful for disability studies and add new dimensions to the relational perspective on disability.

La movilidad puede implicar muchas barreras que dificultan el viaje de las personas con discapacidad. Cuando se trata de un niño que tiene una discapacidad, las prácticas de movilidad de toda la familia pueden verse afectadas por esas barreras, ya que las movilidades de las familias a menudo están entrelazadas. Este artículo se basa en diarios de uso del tiempo y entrevistas con padres de niños que utilizan sillas de ruedas que viven en Suecia. En el artículo se utiliza un marco temporal-geográfico, centrándose especialmente en el concepto de restricciones de acoplamiento, que pueden surgir cuando los individuos necesitan estar juntos para realizar una actividad, como la movilidad. La atención se centra en cómo las limitaciones de acoplamiento entre los padres e hijos con discapacidad afectan la movilidad, pero los hallazgos muestran que también existen vínculos con las autoridades y las cosas, y estos pueden aumentar las limitaciones de acoplamiento dentro de la familia. Sin embargo, cuando se opta por asistencia personal y servicio de transporte especial, las restricciones de acoplamiento dentro de la familia pueden disminuir, lo que indica que dichos sistemas de apoyo son fundamentales para la movilidad de estas familias. Este artículo también muestra que la geografía del tiempo puede ser útil para los estudios sobre discapacidad y añadir nuevas dimensiones a la perspectiva relacional sobre la discapacidad. 

Pour les personnes en situation de handicap, la mobilité peut impliquer beaucoup d’obstacles qui compliquent leurs déplacements. Quand c’est un enfant qui est handicapé, ces obstacles peuvent entraîner des répercussions sur les mobilités de toute la famille, puisque celles-ci sont souvent imbriquées. Cet article se fonde sur des journaux consignant l’emploi du temps et des entretiens avec des parents d’enfants en fauteuils roulants qui résident en Suède. On s’y sert d’une structure de géographie temporelle, qui cible en particulier le concept des contraintes de couplage : celles-ci peuvent apparaitre quand des personnes sont obligées d’être ensemble pour entreprendre une activité comme la mobilité. Il se concentre principalement sur l’effet que les contraintes de couplage entre les parents et l’enfant en situation de handicap a sur leurs mobilités, mais les résultats montrent qu’il y a aussi des couplages avec les autorités et les objets et que ceux-ci peuvent augmenter les contraintes de couplage au sein de la famille. Cependant, avec l’accès à l’assistance personnelle et à un service de transport adapté, ces contraintes peuvent diminuer pour la famille, et cela indique que ce type de système d’accompagnement est fondamental pour les mobilités de ces familles. L’article montre aussi que la géographie temporelle peut être utile pour les études sur le handicap et ouvre de nouvelles dimensions pour la perspective relationnelle sur le handicap.