A new television program is being launched by an Arkansas native who aims to educate short-term rental landlords on ways to make their properties more accessible to people with disabilities.
Conway-native Lorraine Berry Woodward is developing the show, called Becoming rentABLE, in partnership with the national Easterseals organization.
Woodward, who has muscular dystrophy, says the inspiration for the show came from the number of guests visiting her own accessible short-term rental property.
“They tell me, ‘Lorraine, there’s nothing else like this!’ And it’s like, no, there has to be more properties that are fully accessible, I can’t be the only one,” Woodward said. “So I started researching and found out, wow, there aren’t a lot of places like ours.”
Berry, a native of Conway, says the home improvement-style show will seek to inspire landlords to make disability-friendly modifications, like installing ramps and widening doorways.
“These inclusionary features can reach a lot more people. And so we’re hoping with all of those elements that we’ll draw viewers into watching the show. And I think that the timing is right, we’re coming off COVID, people are wanting to travel, there’s still a lot of apprehension about going into traditional hotels,” Woodward said.
She says her team is currently renovating a house in Conway to serve as an example of accessibility in short-term rentals, featuring multiple features to accommodate all tasks of daily living. Woodward says she is working with a team from Harvard University to create a new certification for accessible properties that goes beyond the guidelines laid out by the Americans for Disabilities Act of 1990.
“We have, through the survey that we’re doing, through months of research, have identified 46 elements that we’re looking for in accessible properties that deal with self-care, mobility, hearing, vision and intellectual and developmental disabilities,” Woodward said.
The show is currently in the pilot stage, she said, and is being pitched to numerous networks.
