Interabled couple aims to overcome accessability barriers in travel

Kevin Penny and Dee Osmond have been quickly finding an audience with their Accessible Adventurers travel videos on YouTube since 2019

HALIFAXtoday \  Steve Gow

Interabled couple Kevin Penny and Dee Osmond are inspiring others to break down perceived barriers and get out to explore the province.

Through their YouTube channel, the Halifax-based Accessible Adventurers have been gaining a lot of attention for their videos featuring the pair participating in everything from glamping at Natura Wilderness Resort to sailing off the coast of Lunenburg.

“What’s cool is, we are in a small city like Halifax and we’ve really developed a bit of a presence to showcase accessibility and to showcase that what we do is really no different from anyone else,” says Penny. “And we have a lot of fun doing it!”

Actually, sailing has played a big part of the couple’s relationship. Unable to move most of his body since a cycling accident left Penny a quadriplegic as a teenager, he originally met Osmond through a sailing program aimed at individuals with disabilities in 2013.

“We travelled a lot, Dee and I did, so we often showcased pictures and stuff through Instagram,” explains Penny about how Accessible Adventurers started out.

Posting photos of their excursions, they slowly grew a following until one day they decided to create a YouTube channel.

“We just started filming a few videos once a week — just basic things of us, our travels, our adventures, going camping, into a restaurant — anything, really!”

Now with well over 2,000 subscribers, their channel is an amalgam of regularly updated videos ranging from fun travel tips to their various adventures around the province. There’s even a section titled Misadventure Mondays.

“We wanted to showcase to people that our life is great, but there are some challenging times that we have to go through too, and it kind of normalizes us with our audience,” says Penny about the videos that recount tales about such misadventures as being stuck in an elevator or a catastrophe involving a catheter.

“We have a list of about 20 other ones that we can pull from our coffers at any time, so a lot of planning is involved, but we like to showcase everything as much as we can.”

One the greatest assets of Accessible Adventurers is enlightening viewers to the many challenges that the disabled community encounters everyday while also showcasing destinations that may be worth exploring for those who use a wheelchair.

“Some of the comments we get are amazing,” admits Penny. “It’s not just about being an inspiration, because we don’t do it to be an inspiration — we just want to show people that this is out here and there’s a whole world out there and the more we showcase it, the more people do it, the more accessible it will be.”

Indeed, Penny is a firm believer not only in raising awareness of accessible travel, he hopes to change attitudes toward the disabled with Accessible Adventurers.

“In order for people to change, you have to change people’s attitudes knowing that (something) is wrong or unjust or whatnot,” says Penny.

“People think accessibility is about building ramps and elevators and curve cuts, and yes, those are important, but there’s bigger issues — access to services, access to what everyone else has access to within reason.”

For more information on Accessible Adventurers, visit their YouTube page.

This story was made possible by our Community Leaders Program partner.

Thank you to Wilsons Mechanical for helping to expand local news coverage in Halifax. Learn more