Necessity has driven humankind to strategise, design, create and innovate. This need has resulted in contributions, both beneficial, and at times detrimental because we have always strived for ways to fulfil a real or perceived need.

I didn’t always fly, drive and travel with a disability. I took the ease of the booking and travel process very much for granted until Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD) forced me to reconsider how I travel, where I travel, and whether travelling was actually worth the effort, in an ablest world where processes, planes and accommodation is very rarely designed for disability.

As a newbie to this wheelchair game, I was feeling a little reticent and self-conscious about using a beach wheelchair during our recent visit to Noosa in beautiful Queensland. It really had been ages since feeling sand and water under my feet and why else would we be at this Aussie iconic beach destination (apart from food and champagne of course, but I can get that in Melbourne)?.

We tracked the wheelchair down at a nearby hotel, and for a mere gold coin donation this rubber-wheeled jalopy was ours and I was on the pathway to salty watery freedom with a small dose of terror.