Firms should expand their horizons

I was disturbed to learn that, in 2017, a tour company would tell a blind customer that she couldn’t travel with them (“Fighting for her spot on the tour bus,’’ The Fine Print, Page A1, July 25). If they hadn’t simply assumed that, as a blind person, JoAnn Becker would be incapable of traveling alone, they would have learned what your reporter, Sean P. Murphy, discovered: that she is a seasoned traveler who needs no more than to occasionally put her arm through that of a tour guide.

Kudos to the Globe for highlighting this story, though the company should have realized its error without prodding from a reporter. I hope that they, and other companies that make automatic negative assumptions about disabled customers, will take this opportunity to engage with diverse people and expand their horizons. After all, isn’t that what travel is for?

Shane Snowdon

Cambridge

Editor’s note: The chairman of the company later apologized to Becker and offered her and a companion a free trip of her choice.

Tour company is clear about what it expects of its travelers

I found Sean P. Murphy’s front-page story concerning JoAnn Becker’s complaint to be unfair to Overseas Adventure Travel, which specializes in physically active itineraries, often in remote areas of lesser-developed countries.

The article should have mentioned that, for every itinerary offered by this company, the print and online descriptions of each trip clearly state the physical requirements expected of every traveler. The tour company’s Inside Vietnam trip description provides the following, under physical requirements, for every participant in this itinerary: “Not appropriate for travelers using wheelchairs, walkers, or other mobility aids; you must be able to walk 2-3 miles unassisted and participate in 4-6 hours of physical activities each day; agility and balance are required for embarking riverboat, wooden ‘drawing boats,’ and cable car; trip leaders reserve the right to modify participation, or in some circumstances send travelers home, if their limitations impact the group’s experience.’’

Overseas Adventure Travel clients expect this company to limit their fellow travelers to those who meet these requirements. If they were not to do that, they would be degrading their itineraries and diminishing the brand image.

Richard Richmond

Peabody

An unfortunate incident for a firm that has served customers well

The article “Fighting for her spot on the tour bus’’ correctly suggests that trying to send JoAnn Becker home from a trip to Cairo was a mistake. Becker should be able to explore the world, as my wife and I have done for years with Grand Circle Tours, parent of Overseas Adventure Travel, leading us to Antarctica, Africa, the Amazon, China, the rivers of Europe, and on and on.

If necessary, practical financial arrangements for a companion could make a trip smoother for everyone. On every trip, we were gracefully accommodated — missed connections, special needs, illness, you name it — by Grand Circle and Overseas Adventure Travel. We would hate to see that image tarnished by this unfortunate incident. Perhaps we can all learn something here — that we are, in a sense, all travelers in this world and we must take care to be understanding of our fellow adventurers.

Stephen S. Walker

Exeter, N.H.