In October I attended the Alaska Travel Industry Association’s annual conference, this year held in Sitka. (Speaking of, if you haven’t been to Sitka, put it on your bucket list. It’s stunning.) This was the travel association’s first live convention since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many other organizations, it has expanded its convention capabilities, creating a valuable experience for those able to attend in person while including those unable to make the trip through electronic conferencing.

That hybrid format allowed a wider array of guest speakers to share their insights at the event. I attended “Accessible Travel in Alaska,” a session featuring a panel that spoke about improving accessibility for guests who have specific mobility requirements. The four panelists, all of whom rely on medical devices to aid their movements while traveling, shared their experiences and advice via the internet.

I attended the panel primarily to get an idea of some sources to reach out to for a story we’re planning for our April 2023 issue. Since I framed my attention in that way, I missed that the message applies to our publishing business as much as any tourism-based enterprise.

Recently we were arranging a photoshoot for the magazine and proposed a specific location for the shoot to take place. The subject of the photoshoot asked why we chose the location we did. We explained our rationale, assuming the additional information would help the subject feel at ease. Instead, our subject explained that they would be unable to do a photoshoot at that location because it was inaccessible to them.

Immediately, I felt a pit in my stomach. Despite the fact that Art Director Monica Sterchi-Lowman and I have been working for more than half a year to make our website more accessible, and despite the fact that I had attended this panel not even a month prior, we had both failed to recognize that we have never taken the time to check in, before finalizing the details of a photoshoot, to ask if our subject had any accessibility needs.

It’s not hard to ask. It costs us nothing. There’s no excuse.

It was a stunning oversight, and the only silver lining is that the lesson finally landed. Moving forward, we will do better.

Although we don’t specifically address accessibility in this issue, in our special section we have expanded our coverage of the healthcare industry to look at a bigger picture of what care may mean. Being healthy and well requires a range of services and providers, and those needs can change for individuals over their lifetime. No matter the nature of the need, health-related or otherwise, all people are an essential part of our communities and economies. We need to include them.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26 percent of adults in the United States, which is approximately 61 million people, have some type of disability. Of those, 13.7 percent have challenges to their mobility; 5.9 percent to their hearing; and 4.6 percent to their vision.

Can your business afford to exclude a quarter of adults in the United States from your potential customer pool?

We know we can’t. The many costs of exclusion—to ourselves, our clients, our customers, and our community—are too high.