I first met Eli Meiri in Florida at the 1999 World Congress of the Society for the Advancement of Travel for the Handicapped (SATH) where we toured a cruise ship together to examine its accessibility features. Eli is an Israeli tour operator who specializes in disability travel and also a wonderful human being. We next met Eli ten months later when he and Louis from the Canadian Embassy came to the Ben Gurion International Airport to welcome me, my guide dog Quincey, my wife Marie and her guide dog Zena to Israel after an 11 hour flight from Canada. Our two guide dogs were glad to see the green grass of the Holy Land. They were two passengers who were not able to go to the bathroom as we flew over the Atlantic Ocean, across southern Europe and over the Mediterranean Sea to reach Israel.
This was the beginning of three weeks of enriching experiences orchestrated by Eli. Our first stop was the Canadian Embassy to make a presentation to the staff to mark the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Participants were particularly interested in Eli’s perspectives and insights about persons living with a disability in Israel.
Then it was time to tour ’till we dropped, as our adventure unfolded in a blur of varied, fresh experiences each day. Initially, tour companies were reluctant to accept us because we were people who are blind travelling by ourselves, but Eli’s gentle persuasion won the day and United Tours went to the dogs for us for a week as they took us from the north to the south of Israel.
Israel seemed like a never-ending journey of discovery. The tour guides are the finest and most knowledgeable we have ever encountered. They must complete a two-year course to be licensed and seemed to enjoy telling us about all there was to see, do and experience. Walking through an artist’s quarter in Safed, feeling the markings at a station of the cross on the Via Dolorosa, being guided into the darkness to hear the names and ages of children killed in concentration camps or tramping around the ruins of Masada were memorable experiences tastefully shared with us.
For five days, we were up at dawn and experiencing new things for the next 12 hours. The tours were cannily crafted into a mix of driving, walking and relaxing that maximized our ability to absorb the delights of this wonderful land. The constant change of pace became a rhythm of enjoyment. Thanks to the tour guides, we were freed from the hassle of getting lost, missing information because we could not read the exhibit descriptions and finding washrooms. Yes, they even seemed to be helping us manage bodily functions with frequent announcements of times between washroom stops. It was a fantastic human experience. The guides loved to talk and that was the major accommodation we needed to make the tours accessible.
We slept at a kibbutz, walked in the Dan Nature Reserve, learned about Syrian rock rabbits without long ears, visited the Jordan River baptismal site and saw the modern art (including the hundreds of coffins Yoko Ono had turned into art at the park of the Dead Sea scrolls). We also walked through the park at Herzel’s Tomb where we felt the little stones placed on the tomb as a mark of respect by passers-by and listened to the echo of singing in a Roman amphitheatre. At the Kennedy memorial, our bus broke down and so we made do with pleasant conversation in the peaceful woods as we awaited the repair truck. It had been summoned by a call on the ever-present cell phone which every Israeli seems to constantly use.
We next met Eli the evening we arrived in Eilat, the Israeli playground for fun seekers at the head of the Red Sea. We sipped wine from the Golan Heights and told him of our plans to take a six- hour cruise on the Red Sea which included a visit to an Egyptian coral island.
Our last meeting in Israel occurred near the end of our third week when Eli and his wife Anat shared a day with us. This gave us the opportunity to learn about everyday Israel. Anat, a teacher, qualified tour guide and soon to be qualified masseuse, made the Israeli culture bloom for us. We climbed Mount Carmel to overlook Haifa, visited the Israel National Museum of Science (which has a program to develop tactile exhibits) where we felt a real Israeli tank and walked along the shore of the Mediterranean among the Roman ruins at Caesarea.
A highlight of our time in Israel was when Eli took us to the Ramat Hanadiv Memorial Gardens. We felt a raised map of Israel carved in Jerusalem stone and strolled through the Cascade Garden, the Rose Garden and the Palm Garden. We also delighted in the scents at the Fragrance Garden, where we could walk around and pick herbs to experience their aroma. Marie was able to read some of the Braille inscriptions throughout the gardens.
As the day drew to a close, the Meiri family welcomed us into their home for a delicious Israeli supper. After the main course, they picked desert off a tree in their yard so that we could eat star-shaped slices of Karambula fruit. Quincey and Zena had a great time running around the Meiri’s backyard with Hith, a retired guide dog the family had adopted as a pet.
Even on this idyllic day, we briefly encountered at the Bahai temple the one inaccessibility feature that caused us discomfort in Israel. Throughout our stay in Israel, churches and other holy places, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, routinely refused us admission because we were accompanied by the miracle of sight – our guide dogs.
As in most countries around the world, the level of accessibility was inconsistent. The newer museums, sites and places of interest seemed to have some accessibility amenities like ramp access. Even most older sites, including those in the old city of Jerusalem, could be reached, although often by circuitous routes. We were told that the country’s passenger train service was not accessible by persons who use wheelchairs and there weren’t any accessible tour or city buses in regular use for all citizens. The tendency seemed to be to make “special” arrangements rather than integrated service arrangements. It was rare to encounter tactile signage in commercial establishments or accessible washroom stalls in public places.
A lot remains to be done but a lot has been accomplished. Usually, guide dog users have trouble with taxi access but in Israel this fear never materialized. It became routine to pile into a cab with two dogs and a roof rack full of suitcases and roar off to the airport or other destination. Despite these accessibility barriers, we can’t wait to
return to Israel. We are monetarily poorer, but spiritually richer and eagerly look forward to the First International Conference in Israel on Tourism for People with Special Needs, which we hope will be rescheduled in the very near future.