Podcast Summary:
Wellness Wednesday: Belonging: The Power of Choice in Accessibility
In this episode of Wellness Wednesday, Beth Gustin and Robin Ennis, joined by Jeff Thompson, explore the evolving landscape of accessibility through the lens of an upcoming all-inclusive hotel designed specifically with people with disabilities in mind. Inspired by entrepreneur Joe Morgan—who previously created a fully accessible theme park and water park—this hotel aims to go beyond ADA standards by offering individualized accommodations tailored to guest needs. The hosts reflect on the tension between inclusive design and over-specialization, raising thoughtful questions about whether hyper-accommodation can unintentionally lead to segregation. They emphasize the importance of choice, autonomy, and thoughtful design that includes, rather than isolates. Through personal stories and spirited conversation, the episode challenges listeners to consider how we can create spaces that foster belonging, equality, and dignity—without sacrificing individuality. It’s a rich dialogue on what true inclusion looks like and how it can positively ripple through communities and institutions.
Check out all the Wellness Wednesday episodes.
Show Hosts:
Robin Ennis on the web at www.robinennislcsw.com
Beth Gustin, LPC, NCC, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, CAGCS, PLGS
Www.transitioningthroughchange.com
You can message Beth and Robin by calling 612-367-6093 or by email. They are looking forward to hearing from you!
Full Transcript
Beth: So if you’re just joining us.
robin: We’re embarking on an interesting topic.
Beth: We’re in the middle of a conversation with Geoff Thompson, Beth Gustin and Robin Ennis.
{Music}
Wellness Wednesday with Beth and Robin, Gonna settle it down. Oh, yeah. Get your feet planted on the ground. Wellness Wednesday.
Beth: So if you’re just joining us.
Robin: We’re embarking on an interesting topic.
Beth: We’re in the middle of a conversation with Geoff Thompson, Beth Gustin and Robin Ennis.
Robin: A theme park. Water park. And now branching out to create an all-inclusive hotel for people with disabilities.
Jeff: If you go to a Six Flags, and then the teachers would have to huddle together and go, okay, how are we going to handle little Billy?
Beth: I think inclusivity also creates equality. I think we all just want to feel equal. Welcome back to Wellness Wednesday. My name is Beth Gustin, a licensed professional counselor here in Colorado with my co-host Robin, NASA licensed clinical social worker, also in Colorado. We really should meet in person one of these days. And we’re here with Jeff Thompson, who is the amazing person who’s usually behind the scenes, and we are grateful to have him here today. We are talking about accessibility and in particular, accessibility hotels. And this came up because of an article that Robin found. It brings up a lot, actually, because I think there are a couple of different schools of thought around this, meaning some people appreciate accessibility and extra detail and thought to accommodations and making things quote unquote easier. And other people would prefer not to have accommodations and would not like there to be a specific attention paid to disabilities. We want to figure things out for ourselves and not need things adapted. And I think there’s room for all of that. And so I really like the article, and I’m going to let Jeff and Robin explain further.
Robin: I do agree with you that is that it is a preference. So whatever people choose, but I want to go back to that. We should meet in person. And so yeah Jeff you’re all the way in Minnesota. I wish we could meet in person. And so Beth and I are in the same state, and we still have yet to meet in person. I think it’s been, like a couple of years. So, yeah, we have to. We have to get to together, put it into action.
Jeff: That could be a new beginning or a total end.
Robin: Right?
Beth: Maybe the three of us should go to this new hotel that Robyn read about.
Robin: There you go. Exactly.
Beth: Yeah, we’ll check it out.
Jeff: The Joe Morgan hotel.
Robin: Yes, in San Antonio, actually. And so it’s pretty cool. So Joe Morgan, he actually created an all-inclusive theme park, water park, and now they are branching out to create an all-inclusive hotel for people with disabilities. And it’s supposed to be finished in 2026. And the reason that he thought about this is that it goes beyond the traditional Ada that other hotels are required. It really is individualized for each person and really can be adapted so that people can feel more comfortable in traveling and navigating hotels. Depending on what your accessibility needs are, and it’s based off of you know, I feel like whenever people go into a certain profession or when they come up with different ideas, it’s always based upon personal experiences. And so for Joe Morgan, his daughter has a disability. And so that’s where he got that idea. So it was an interesting article.
Jeff: Yeah. When I read it, I was really intrigued because basically he said that the staff would be trained. Now how much and who’s doing the training? I don’t know that, but I think through his experiences with his daughter that he would train them for his own understanding of what people may want, may not want, how much they want, how little they want, but they do an intake. After you schedule your stay there, they ask about the disability, what supports and needs that you would need or expect. But you can take as much as or as little as you want, so it isn’t too much hands on or overbearing, but I think it really will leave a good impression on the employees that work there. They get trained in that type of atmosphere and they see the successes of some of the people who visit there, and even the people who don’t have disabilities that are there. They get to see other people partaking in swimming or whatever. The theme parks, the inclusiveness of all that. I think it gives a good impression on so many people. Just like the person that gets on a bus every day, goes to work, goes home with a cane or a guide dog. There’s 60 other people, approximately that see that every day. So it gives a different impression than never even encountering someone. So I’m glad that they have this theme park and have this opportunity to get people over that hurdle, that bump. Like, should I go there? Is it going to be inclusive? Yes, it’s designed that way a little bit. So there you go.
Robin: Right. And in the article and I want to hear both of y’all’s opinion on this is that it said Joe Morgan and his team initially went to Hilton and some other hotels to partner with them, but then they decided as a nonprofit to be independent in their venture. So I know that there can be, whether it’s disability or sexual orientation based or whatever it may be, that some people are against having ventures to where it’s geared towards one population instead of everyone per se. And I know that this hotel is insane for only people with disabilities, but that would be a large part of their consumers versus putting pressure on, like Hilton or those other chains to adopt this model, right? To be more inclusive and go beyond Ada versus having specialized.
Beth: Yeah, I am hopeful that and I have full disclosure, I have not read the article yet but I am hopeful that others will adopt a similar approach to make things more inclusive. And for me personally, I’d rather have things more inclusive than have them more specialized. I feel like if it’s taken too far, specialization can lead to dare I say, segregation over time.
Robin: Yeah, and that’s my fear too.
Jeff: Yeah, like you have to be this disabled to ride this ride.
Robin: Yeah, yeah, I feel like that’s how we learn from each other, right? Different perspectives. Different, whether it’s ability, status or thought processes. And so we’re not exposed to different diversity. Right. It goes back to if we’re not exposed to people outside of our circle then I feel like we don’t grow. So that is my fear to death is that it can lead to segregation.
Beth: But I’m hopeful the other way.
Jeff: I think accessibility is interesting. Sometimes it’s just like if you’re going to go down the waterslide that people assist in that point, like, put your hand out, I’ll show you where it’s at, or, you know, just that extra little bit, and I’m going to move over towards the ladder here. And you just climb up, there’s ten steps, and once you get there, you know, that have that little extra. Audio description in a sense in just the natural flow of things rather than, oh, shall we carry you up these steps or something? But I think if they just blend it in, I really noticed that when they just give that extra adjective or that extra little bit of information that makes you. Oh, I get it right.
Robin: That’s a good point.
Beth: Just for me. I appreciate those little things. I find that helpful. You know, I don’t want to be carried up anything. Thank you. Don’t don’t touch me. But you can describe my surroundings and describe what I need to do or what’s going to be happening. I personally appreciate that others don’t. And that’s why I like the ability that, you know, to have levels of support when they’re available, so we can decide what makes sense for us individually.
Robin: Hmm. Exactly. Levels of choice. Yeah. That’s the key. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff: I’ve been in groups of people or organizations as well where they’re all blind or visually impaired. But I wouldn’t say that one person is exactly like the other at all because of their disability. Everyone needs something. Either it’s large print or they need braille, or they need audibly. There’s a different book on everybody.
Robin: Yeah I agree. I think that good for Joe Morgan for, you know, giving people that that option. But I don’t think that it should be a model where people have to feel like they have. That’s the only thing that they can do. But you can still go to a national chain or whatever it may be. And national chains can be accessible by incorporating those things that Jeff and Beth mentioned. I know that I get super excited, which again shows that it’s not the norm when people are descriptive, when they are asking me, hey, do you need this? And again, giving me that choice. Yeah.
Jeff: I think it would be awesome if classrooms go there with the entire class and there may be a person who’s blind, visually impaired in the classroom, and they are accommodated in a sense that it’s almost seamless. So it’s not like if you would just go to a Six Flags and then the teachers would have to huddle together and go, okay, how are we going to handle little Billy? They’d have to take charge of something, and they may not be totally aware of how to do that at an amusement park. That’s true. Where? This amusement park. I’m sure it’s accommodating for sighted kids as well as now the disabled.
Robin: That’s true. Yeah, that’s a good point, Jeff.
Beth: I really appreciate that someone is out there who is trying to make things more inclusive. Um, I seriously would like to go check it out at some point and just experience it.
Jeff: Yeah, no, that could be our meetup.
Robin: Yeah. Although, I don’t know how to swim, but, you know, if we go to the water park, the whole nother story.
Beth: Yeah. And I don’t know if they have their. Well, we’ll find something we all can do. Right. But I do. I am hopeful that this is setting an example of what it can be and how it can be done, and that other larger chains will follow. Yeah, I’m hopeful for that.
Robin: I agree, because throughout this whole discussion, what made me think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and one basic need that every human being wants is that sense of belonging. And so I feel like the more inclusive people and organizations are, the more chances a person can feel like they belong.
Beth: That and equality. You know, I think inclusivity also creates equality.
Robin: Yes.
Beth: And it’s not in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but I think we all just want, in most cases, to feel equal.
Jeff: Yes, I think to the employees that learn this, that experience this as they go on in their careers and move on to other places, they’ll probably take from this and bring it with them and be more understanding when they encounter someone as well. Yeah, it’s a good educational thing too.
Robin: It is. I agree.
Speaker3: Yeah I agree.
Robin: Well, is there anything else that Beth and Jeff you want to say before we wrap up?
Beth: No. I’m good.
Robin: All right, so as we always say, if you have any comments that you want to make about Jo Morgan’s idea of the inclusive hotel and is already established, adventures of the water park and the amusement park, reach out. And if you know any other places like that, we want to hear from you, whether it’s through email or phone. Until next time, take care.
Beth: Stay grounded and take care.
Jeff: As always, thanks for listening. Until next time. Bye.
Speaker3: Oh, yeah. Well, this Wednesday with Beth and I’m gonna settle it down. Oh, yeah. Get your feet planted on the ground.
Jeff: For the podcast with the blindness perspective. Check us out on the web at News.com and be sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want to leave us some feedback, give us a call at (612) 367-6093. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks for listening. And until next time, Bye-bye.
{Music}
Wellness Wednesday, Gonna settle it down. Oh, yeah. Get your feet planted on the ground. Wellness Wednesday.
Jeff: For more podcasts with The Blindness Perspective, check us out on the web at BlindAbilities.com. Download the free Blind Abilities app from the App Store. That’s two words, Blind Abilities. And if you want to leave some feedback, give us some suggestions. Give us a call at (612) 367-6093. We’d love to hear from you. I want to thank you for listening. And until next time, bye-bye.
Outro Voices: When we share-
What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities