We'd done a couple of road trips with my big chair, and it was such a hassle if we didn't have the van with the foldout ramp. I figured: There's got to be some option that I can use on the go. Now I can go anywhere with my friends, which is a big, life-changing thing. I can sit on it for as long as I need to.

Zach Anner

Categorized in : Long Couple Life Changing

There's a tendency to treat anyone with a physical disability as inspiring. I call it a pedestal of prejudice, in that you're lifting people up to dismiss them. My whole thing is bringing us down to everyone else's level and saying we're all the same. The struggle is the same.

prejudice struggle people

I think that's where it comes into play, when you are just looking at a document or whatever and you see the word "disability." Does that automatically trigger something in you that denies someone their personhood?

doe play thinking

If everything was perfect, it would always be a person-first conversation, but whenever I have the opportunity, I lead with my personality. If they're looking and seeing the disability first or the chair first, I know that I have the ability to change that.

personality perfect opportunity

You can never walk a mile in someone elses shoes, but you can walk a mile in your own and be proud of it.

miles shoes proud

You really just have to have a good attitude, challenge yourself, and you can accomplish great things.

challenge-yourself challenges attitude

We did a book signing and people came up to me. There was an expectant mother who was like, "I think we might name our child Zach because of your work."

mother book children

When I read the script [of Glee], the whole premise was that all the high school kids were being cruel to this kid in the wheelchair, and then the quarterback comes along and has a heart of gold and takes him out of a Porta Potty. That's too often what I see in media, that the characters with disabilities are there to make other people seem like heroes for treating the character with a disability with respect. Those are the kinds of roles that are out there.

hero heart school

You want the world to be set up for you, but sometimes it just is... by Zach Anner

You want the world to be set up for you, but sometimes it just isn't.

want sometimes world

I just love all the music. My grandma was a church organist for 40 years, and she got me into jazz music and great songwriters, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, all those folks. I can't do it, but I have a profound respect for it.

grandma profound years

You may not have a physical impairment, but you have things, whether it's finances, self-esteem, it doesn't matter. It's cut from the same cloth.

cutting self-esteem may

No Atlantis is too underwater or fictional. by Zach Anner

No Atlantis is too underwater or fictional.

atlantis underwater

What I don't like about the way the media portrays religion is that they seem to weaponize it and use it as a tool to divide people.

media tools people

I feel that religion can be used as a tool to guide your life and help you connect with other people.

tools helping people

Even if you have an ADA room, every disability is so different that people need different things. A lot of times they'll put something on the toilet to make it higher, and for someone transferring from their chair that's fine, but I transfer from the floor so it causes more problems.

different people needs

I thought this should be a travel show, because a lot of people with physical disabilities get discouraged.

discouraged disability people

My experiences of traveling abroad and going to Italy with my father, having to break down a gigantic electric chair to get on trains. You've got three minutes. You go to Pompeii and there are shockingly few accessible hotels in a city that was covered in volcanic ash.

three cities father

I would love to get an international version of Riding Shotgun going, because that's what I've been angling at ever since I wanted to do a travel show in the first place.

shotguns riding firsts

What's great about this hotel [Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City, CA] is that I stayed here for a month when I was competing on the Oprah reality show. So it's like coming home.

cities home reality

It's up to us to make the accommodations for all sorts of different travel scenarios. It's amazing how many companies aren't really in tune to the needs of different travelers. There's just so many embarrassing situations that you go through when you travel. You have to have a sense of humor about it and take it in stride. My whole approach is to embrace spontaneity.

different tunes needs

Nothing like quoting Silence of the Lambs for people to question... by Zach Anner

Nothing like quoting Silence of the Lambs for people to question what kind of disability you have.

lambs silence people