The Guest Who Couldn't Get In Won't Tell You Why
I'm the person who will. I have the experience and credentials to earn your trust, and I move through your spaces to give you honest feedback about what's working and what's not.
What I See (That Often Gets Missed)
Most spaces are close. Close isn't the same as working.
What I notice isn't usually dramatic. It's the moment a guest has to stop and figure out how to make something work. The pause before they decide whether to ask for help. The quiet calculation about whether the effort is worth it.
Most of the time, nobody says anything. They just don't come back. They don't bring their family next time. They quietly recommend somewhere else.
I move through spaces in a power wheelchair, which changes what I notice — and what I can't help noticing. The entry that technically works but requires a detour nobody told you about. The restroom that passed inspection and still doesn't function once you're actually in it. The table that's available but positioned so you're eating next to the kitchen door while everyone you came with is across the room. I can't turn this off. It's just how I move through the world, and it turns out to be useful.
I work across wineries, tasting rooms, lodging, restaurants, shops, and local attractions throughout the Verde Valley and surrounding communities. I take on a limited number of in-person evaluations each year. The scope depends on the property — a single tasting room is a different conversation than a full resort.
How I Work
I'm not there to check a box or find something to cite. I'm there to find out whether a guest can move through the full experience on their own — arrival to exit — without having to stop, improvise, or ask for help. That's where access either holds or doesn't.
I move through your space the way a guest would. I pay attention to how the experience unfolds — where things work easily, where they require a workaround, where the friction is invisible until someone runs into it. Sometimes I ask questions. Sometimes I just watch how things function when nobody's adjusting for me. It depends on what will give the clearest picture.
After the visit, you get a written report. What's working, what isn't, where the friction lives, and specific recommendations for addressing it. Not a checklist. Not code language. Something you can actually hand to the person who needs to fix it.
Two things inform how I see: I'm an ICC-certified ADA architectural barriers specialist with formal training in assistive technology — and more than three decades of navigating spaces that technically work and practically don't. Those two things together are what make this different from a standard compliance review.
Why This Matters
Your guests already know. You just haven't heard it yet.
When something doesn't work, guests rarely say so. It's a pause. A decision made quietly on the way out about whether to come back, whether to bring people next time, whether to mention this place when someone asks for a recommendation.
Those moments are easy to miss. They're also the ones people remember and talk about on the drive home.
People with disabilities spend nearly $50 billion on travel annually in the U.S. — over $100 billion when you include the people who travel with them. That number surprises most people when they hear it. It doesn't arrive all at once. It arrives in decisions: where to go, where to return, what to tell a friend. And most of those decisions are shaped by small moments that either hold or quietly don't.
The Verde Valley runs on people wanting to come back. The guests who can't fully participate won't explain why they didn't.
How to Work Together
In-Person Evaluation
I come to your space and move through it the way a guest would. Arrivals, entries, restrooms, transitions, seating, flow — the full arc, not just the obvious checkpoints. I pay attention to what works and what requires effort a guest shouldn't have to spend.
After the visit, you get a written report with specific findings and practical recommendations. No jargon. No citations. Just a clear picture of what's working and where there's room to do better, written for the person who actually has to act on it.
In-person evaluations are limited each year, and the scope depends on the property. If you're interested, the best first step is a conversation.
Remote Review
Not every question requires a site visit. If you want a review of your website, your booking process, or how you're presenting accessibility information to guests before they arrive — or if you're in the planning stages and want a set of eyes before something gets built — we can start there.
See What I See
The Cost of Almost Accessible
I've been paying attention to something for a long time. Exclusion rarely arrives dramatically. It doesn't announce itself. More often it arrives wrapped in good intentions — a space that technically meets requirements but only works if you're willing to ask for help, an accommodation that was approved and documented and still didn't work when the moment arrived.
It's almost always something that looks minor until it isn't.
Start a Conversation
If you're curious what this would look like for your space, we can start there.
Making Waves for Good
Based in Arizona wine country, working across the Verde Valley and surrounding communities.
CONTACT US
+1 602-962-2042
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© Copyright Making Waves For Good 2022-2026 -- Accessibility and Policy
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