Travel Without Limits: How I rediscovered my love of the outdoors as an austistic wheelchair user

Welcome to Travel Without Limits, a limited series dedicated to all things accessible travel. For World Disability Pride Month, we’ve asked some of our favourite Disabled travellers to share their most impactful experiences and transformative travels.

I’ve always loved being in nature. There is just something about the quietness, the fresh air and the wildlife that helps my brain to switch off. For me, nature allows me to put my everyday struggles into perspective. It allows me to think through problems and makes it easier for me to make sense of my thoughts.

I became a wheelchair user around four years ago. Before, I would often go out on long hikes and spend a lot of time outside. I started noticing that it would take me longer to recover from these activities. Or, for that matter, most activities – seeing friends, going shopping, travelling, all of it would take it out of me. I am also autistic, which means that I can find certain things, like going away on holiday, pretty difficult. Travelling involves a lot of new, different experiences that I find hard to process.

When I started working a 9-5 job, I began to really struggle. I regularly took sick days or begged to work from home (this was before the pandemic, when working remotely was a rare concept) and I would spend most of my weekends recovering. As time went on, my health declined. My medical team decided that getting a wheelchair was the next step in order for me to be able to live with more independence. This prospect made me very nervous for many reasons, but the one resounding thought I couldn’t shake was, “how will I go out in nature?”

Finding accessible nature isn’t the easiest thing to do. First of all, I live in London, so big green areas aren’t hugely available, and those that are tend to be quite busy and can feel overwhelming. Beyond that, the great outdoors aren’t the most accessible for those with mobility impairments – rocky, unstable territory is naturally not the easiest to navigate on wheels.