Cheryl Bischoff: Making Travel Journeys Autism Friendly

Making Air Travel More Accessible for Autistic Travelers: Cheryl Bischoff of Here I Go Travel
Host Tony Mantor introduces the podcast “Why Not Me: Embracing Autism and Mental Health Worldwide” and interviews Cheryl Bischoff, owner of Here I Go Travel Company. Cheryl explains how she became a Certified Autism Travel Professional through training offered by Sandals/Beaches Resorts and how she applies that knowledge by organizing airport practice events that walk participants through the full airport process—terminal check-in, TSA screening, gate procedures, jet bridge, and boarding—so travelers can desensitize and build confidence.
She discusses autistic-inclusive travel needs beyond basic accessibility, including managing sound, lighting, smells, and access to reset spaces like sensory-friendly rooms, as well as tools like TSA Cares (pre-registration for guided assistance and alternative screening options) and the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Program for voluntary identification. C
heryl shares that the certification landscape has expanded to include certified airports, airlines, destinations, and entire cities, noting Dubai as the first certified airport.
She describes serving all ages, providing preparation materials, recommending nonstop flights for first-time flyers when possible, and offering door-to-door travel planning while balancing the need for extra time with avoiding long gate waits.
Cheryl highlights growth of the events to include other needs (blind/low vision, mobility issues, wheelchairs, cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy) and shares an example of a child successfully riding an escalator for the first time during an event.
She promotes her new site and social channels (navigateevents.org; Navigate Events on Facebook and Instagram) for event registration updates, and says expanding to new communities requires sponsorship to keep events free and enough participants to demonstrate demand, citing interest in Kansas City ahead of FIFA 2026.
She closes by emphasizing travel as vital for family connection, jobs, medical care, and life experiences, and invites communities to contact her to bring events locally.

Welcome to ‘Why Not Me’ — Autism & Mental Health Worldwide
Meet Cheryl Bischoff & Here I Go Travel: Making Travel Accessible
Becoming a Certified Autism Travel Professional + The Airport Practice Event
Dubai, Certified Airports & the Rise of Autism-Friendly Travel Systems
What Truly Makes Travel Autism-Inclusive: Sensory Needs & Reset Spaces
Building Trust with Families: TSA Cares and Other Hidden Supports
Beyond Autism: Practice Events for Many Disabilities & Mobility Needs
Supporting Autistic Adults & Hidden Disabilities: The Sunflower Program
From Practice to Real Travel Days: Preparation, Timing, and Nonstop Tips
What the Industry Still Needs: Sensory Rooms, Training, and Keeping Families Together
Wins That Matter: Escalators, Confidence, and First-Time Flyers
How to Find Navigate Events + Expanding Nationwide (Sponsors & Participants Needed)
Final Takeaway & Closing: Travel as Connection, Opportunity, and Inclusion

https://NavigateEvents.org
https://youtu.be/Jcr2avKrep4
https://youtu.be/mfsP40HNNH4

INTRO/OUTRO: T.Wild
Mantor Music BMI

The content on Why Not Me: Embracing Autism amd Mental Heal

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intro/outro music bed written by T. Wild
Why Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Why Not Me, embracing autism and mental health worldwide. Hosted by Tony Mirator. Broadcasting from the heart of Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests share their wrong, powerful stories. Some will spark laughter, others will move you to tears. These real life journeys inspire, connect, and remind you that you're never alone. We're igniting a global movement to empower everyone to make a lasting difference by fostering deep awareness, unwavering acceptance, and profound understanding of autism and mental health. Tune in, be inspired, and join us in transforming the world one story at a time. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me? Embracing Autism and Mental Health worldwide. If these conversations resonate with you, I invite you to tap follow. It helps us reach more people who may need to hear them. Thank you for being here. Joining us today is Cheryl Bischoff. She's the owner of Here I Go Travel, a company with a powerful mission. Making travel accessible, thoughtful, and empowering for artistic individuals and their families. Instead of travel barriers, she saw an opportunity to create structure and personalized support so every traveler can explore the world with confidence. She has a great story, so before we dive into our episode, we'll be back with an uninterrupted show right after a word from our sponsors. Thanks for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Great. Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

For our listeners who may be discovering you for the first time, could you share a little more about what you do and what drives your work?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

So I am Cheryl Bischoff and I own Here I Go Travel Company. We're a full service custom travel agency, and we assist many people across the country in their travels, whether domestic or international, and all sorts of travel styles, from cruises to all-inclusive resorts to backpacking. Whatever their desires are is what we assist with.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

I understand your travel agency also specializes in supporting autistic individuals when it comes to planning their travels, correct?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yes. So a couple of years ago, I was approached by one of the travel vendors, Sandals Beaches Resorts, and they asked if I would be interested in getting a certified autism travel professional designation. And I jumped at the chance. So I pursued that certification, went through the training, and then I began to wonder what I can do with this training, right? How can I apply it? How can I really assist people with unique needs in their own travels? And so I began to pursue really an airport practice event where we can invite people out of the community into the airport, into an actual airport for actual experience. So we come into the terminal, we get a boarding pass, we proceed to TSA checkpoint, we go through the security checkpoint and we go to the gate. We experience listening to the announcements, being called up for our turn. We scan our boarding passes, we go down the jet bridge, we get onto the plane, we find our seats and we buckle up. We get to tour the plane, we get to look at restrooms, we get to, you know, really talk about the experience and see what it's like to sit in those otherwise very claustrophobic environments, right? With a lot of other people. So this really gives us a chance to get in there and give it a try and see if it might be an option for the participants.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Dubai is often mentioned as having a great travel system for autistic individuals. What's your understanding of that? And how does the work you do compare to what's available there?

SPEAKER_01 4:07

So let me just say that when I started my certification, it was only offered to people. And it was only offered to two segments of people. It was offered to medical professionals and it was offered to travel professionals.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Since I got certified, that program has completely blown up and grown. And now they certify places, and now they're certifying entities, and they're certifying entire cities.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

And so Dubai was the first airport to get certified.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Meaning that their staff, sufficient number of staff, had gone through this training process and could assist travelers at various points within the airport. And now we have an airline that has gotten certified. Now we have destinations that are certified. So now we know when we travel, if we can hit those airports, if we can hit those airlines, if we can hit those destinations, that we're going to have people that have been trained and are prepared to assist.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Can you tell me some of the steps that you had to go through in order to get certified for autistic travel?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

So it's a series of trainings that we have to go through and testing. So we do receive certificates upon completion that shows we've been through this process. And so it's really learning from others and what they know and how we can assist in our roles.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

In your experience, what are some of the factors that make travel autistic inclusive beyond meeting just accessibility standards?

SPEAKER_01 5:49

So what we really want to try to do is take, so everyone's unique in what they what they will present with, but we want to hit the big ones, right? So we want to hit sound, noise pollution, we want to hit light, we want to hit places to reset and a little bit of desensitization to that process. And so when I do the airport practice event, I do a full terminal tour and we look for those areas where we can get away and get away from those announcements. And more and more airports are offering sensory-friendly rooms where they can expect low lighting, less people, and not hear all the announcements and so on. We really work on, you know, smells. Airports and getting on an airplane and the jet fuel and all of that can be big sensory overload. So we really work with our participants on how to mitigate those issues and what tools in the toolbox can they use to combat those while they're traveling.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Now that the number of certified organizations has grown, has that made the process smoother for you? Or are there still gaps you're navigating?

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Um, I don't know that it's made it necessarily easier. It depends on how open the traveler is to their destination and if they would like to pursue maybe a city, an entire city that is on board, right? And just knowing that the community is aware of that. And so one of the things we look at is what community do we want to take this event to next? So when we started, we started in Wichita, Kansas, and now we're looking at where to go next. And so we look at Kansas City, who is bringing in FIFA for 2026. They're going to be hosting over 600,000 visitors over a little over 30-day period. And so we talked about how we can bring in community members to practice in their airport and also give their airport staff an opportunity to prepare for the influx of visitors into their own community.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Parents are protective by nature, and that often intensifies when raising a neurodiverse child. How do you build trust with those families and reassure them that with your certification and experience, their trip will be handled with care and understanding, completely different from someone that has no knowledge of autism?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

I think that just comes with time and experience and through testimonials of past travelers. And so being certified and really having an ear for what the needs are means that I'm on the lookout for how I can assist them with their travels. So I have tools in my toolbox that some people may not even know exist. And I'll give you an example. TSA has a program called TSA Cares. I go in, I take my client's flight information and I go in and I register them so that the TSA knows exactly what day and time they're coming to the airport. And I can list any special needs or requirements that they have. The TSA will meet them on one side of security and take them all the way to the other side of security, like a personal guide. And the TSA will assist with whether they need alternative screening methods. You know, many of them, many people cannot tolerate being touched. If they should happen to be picked to be padded down, this might be an issue. So we need to make everybody aware. And with the TSA guide, it can really slow down the process and really open it up for more QA time and what can we expect and how can we handle this? In general, we cannot impede the TSA and they still must do their job and make sure that everyone passes through security and that they feel you are safe to fly. There are lots and lots of ways to help you through that. I'll tell you one example of many. I have many, Tony. We could sit here all day. The TSA, when they take a wand to you and they're looking for metallic objects and it beeps if it has a hit, that wand can be set to vibrate only so that it doesn't have the sound effect and it still notifies the officer if they need to look at something more. So these are things that people just maybe are not aware of. I'm trying to get awareness out there that there are helps and assistance out for them all along their trip, all along their trip. And honestly, when I started the airport practice event, it was with an autism focus, but it really blossomed into blind low vision community, mobility issues, anyone in wheelchair. We've worked with cystic fibrosis, we've worked with cerebral palsy. Anyone who has something that they're just unsure of. How am I going to travel with this um compression vest? Is it okay if I bring it or not? So when we have our events, we invite that community in and we ask them to bring those things that they question so that they actually practice with them and see what's going to be needed to get that through.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Yeah, that makes total sense. As you know, autism is not a one-size-fits-all experience. Each person has unique sensitivity, strengths, and challenges. Yep. Like you mentioned earlier, sometimes there are visible signs that someone may need additional support.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

With autistic individuals, unless their support needs are more significant, it's often not immediately apparent. Yes. How does that dynamic change when you're supporting an adult? For example, someone in their mid-30s.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Who may function more like an early teenager in certain areas? How do you navigate that? Especially when others may see an adult and not immediately understand the level of support that person needs.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Yes. So very good question. I'm glad that you brought up age because as we know, children with autism become adults with autism. We don't have an event that's geared just towards children. I will say we've had events where only children have come. We've had events where only adults have come. We just do an invitation. We see who's interested in joining us and would like to learn and practice. We bring them in. So we do serve all ages. And one of the programs that's in place is the Hidden Disabilities Program. And I don't know if you're familiar with that. It's called the Sunflower Program. Some of the airports participate, some do not. Hopefully, over time and with more awareness, this will come to every airport. But our airport here in Wichita has the sunflower program. You walk in, you can go to the information desk and you can get a sunflower lanyard. You can get a bracelet, you can get a pen or a sticker, something that just identifies you as you go through the airport experience. And those staff have been trained for what that means. It means I have something hidden that you cannot see openly or outwardly that I may need extra assistance. And so we talk with our participants before we go through about identifying or not identifying. As we all know, identifying is not required. You do not have to identify, but I recommend identifying on a travel day, either through a lanyard or something that just sends a message. Now to our participants, I prepare lanyards. They can choose to identify or not. I have little cards made up that say something as basic as please be patient, or I'm sensitive to touch, or I'm sensitive to noise, or I need extra time processing. So if you're providing direction to me, I may need a, I may need a moment, or I may be nonverbal. If it's at all possible, I do recommend identifying for a travel day. As soon as you get on the plane, you want to take that off, fine. But when you're in the airport working with staff, trying to get through, I do recommend it.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

That makes total sense. Have you seen where it's been used and worked? Because let's face it, traveling can be very stressful.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

I will say, I do talk with the participants about how travel days are a higher stress level for every single person. It does not matter if you have autism or you do not have autism. A lot of people are late, hungry, tired. You name it, it's more stressful than sitting on your sofa watching your favorite movie in your sweats, right? You got up at 4 a.m., you didn't sleep well last night, you're exhausted, and you're trying to move 12 people through the airport. It's just, it's just a high stress level. So just sharing that with them and understanding everybody's at a higher stress level helps them to relax and calm down. I will tell you that through the course of an event, I will watch the participants relax more and more as we go through and really feel empowered by the end that this could be something that they could accomplish.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Do you stay with them through the entire airport process? Or is your role more about preparation? How do you assess when they're confident and supported enough to manage that experience successfully on their own?

SPEAKER_01 15:08

So, first of all, we will never know how their actual flight day will go. I won't be there holding their hand, but what I am doing is trying to have it be familiar. I've done this before. Now we are in an event airport, and I cannot guarantee how you might react when you get to your destination airport or when you get to a layover airport. I do recommend for first-time flyers, if at all possible, to choose nonstop destinations for that first attempt. So I can't guarantee, can't guarantee, but I am trying to prepare. And I do send home with each guest preparation materials, tangible ways that they can prepare for their travel days, tangible destinations they can choose that are nonstop from where we're having that event from where they live. Now, if they are trying to get to say medical care, or if they're trying to get to a family reunion where they're really not able to pick the destination. So they may end up with a layover or they may end up with longer flights than maybe is ideal. But by having gone through it before, the hope is you will desensitize a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Before they go to the airport and they're talking to you about the travel, what is the process that you go through preparing them and getting them ready to travel?

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Are you talking about an actual flight date or a practice event?

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yes, an actual travel date. They come to you and say, I want to travel on this day in time. They get the ticket. Once they have committed, what is your next step?

SPEAKER_01 16:46

So I do all of their travel arrangements for them for as much door-to-door service as I can offer. Now, some don't need every single thing that I offer, and they can certainly refuse that service, right? I don't need picked up. I have a friend who can drop me off or whatever that might be. But in lieu of flying with them, which I will not be able to fly with every participant, but having gone through the practice with them and them knowing exactly what's going to happen, really learning that TSA can meet them at the curb outside of the airport and take them all the way to the gate is really their liaison. And as we know, there can be a lot of really identifying with a person like as your anchor, like having that person as your anchor as you go through this process. I can't guarantee that it's not without higher stress, because it still may be. You know, I can't guarantee there won't be hiccups to the day, but we try to coordinate timing. And I will say, timing, it's it's a catch 22, right? So this is the group that I would say come early to the airport, give yourself extra time so that if you need time to reset, you can. This is also the group that might get really, really bored if they have more than an hour to sit in a gate. So we really have to talk through that and what's available in that airport for them. For children, it might be a playground area, or if it's an airport that has one, it might be a sensory room. We're seeing those more and more.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

In a field that's constantly evolving, where do you see the biggest opportunities for improvement to better serve families and individuals?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

I do believe that more sensory rooms are needed, that we don't need those in just the large airports. And so having even a small area that's available is great. Having more and more people trained and sensitive to the travel needs. And I've heard the stories, Tony, you know, in this industry, I've heard what they've gone through and not just their own travel days, but also what's happening in their homes when they're deciding to leave a loved one behind with a caregiver while they go on some trip. And then the family is separated. That family member did not get to experience or have that memory or be in the photos with them from their trip. And so I really want to mitigate that as much as I can. Can I reach every single person? Maybe not. Can I reach some? Yeah, I know that I can.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

In travel, we often hear about what went wrong, delays, mix-ups, things that didn't work out. What is a moment you've experienced that reminded you why this work matters so much to you?

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Yeah, really just having those families that stay together that give it a try for the first time. And it can be something small and unexpected. So at one of the practice events we had in the airport, one of the families went through and at the very end, they said that their child had never ridden an escalator and he was about 10, can't ride an escalator. And they stood at the escalator and tried and tried and tried until he rode the escalator. And that wasn't even the goal of the day, but yet it's part of the airport experience, right? We have moving walkways in the big airports. We have escalators and elevator options too. But it was just watching them try or feeling empowered to try.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

You brought up first-time airport experiences. What would you say to a family with an autistic child or an autistic adult who feels like travel simply isn't possible for them? How do you help them find the confidence to give it a try?

SPEAKER_01 20:31

So, as for as many airports as I can bring this to, and for as much community as I can reach, I will do that. I'm always looking for people within the community that have access to these families, whether it be providers, community resources, that sort of thing, where we can get the word out that we have an event coming up near you and we'd like you to come try. Now, there may be some that will look at that and say, nope, can't do it. There will always be some that say, yes, we can do that. I do try to bring in volunteers from the provider community for the event as support staff to assist if anyone should have a meltdown. And so far, has not happened. We haven't had a participant that didn't complete the day. But did someone look at it and say, no, I'm I don't even want to try? Possibly, possibly, but I want to be there for the ones that say, No, I think I think we're ready. Let's try this.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah. So how do people find you?

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Good question. So we just had a volunteer launch our website this year.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Very exciting. Uh, years in the making. And so we do have our www.navigateevents.org. We did claim navigate events on Facebook and on Instagram. So we're starting to build that social media presence and we're starting to build the website to give people a Place where they can register to attend, where they can find out what city we're going to be at next and when it will be. That's all in the process. And I will say, when I started this event, and as I've gone through, we've done probably four now. And I say every event we have, I always say, this is my first time to the rodeo. Because you know that phrase, this ain't my first time to the rodeo. Like, no, we are still very much forging what this looks like, how to get it accomplished, who to invite, you know, how to get them registered, which up to this point has been contacting me, reaching out to me, and I will get your name and number, I'll get your email, I'll email you the information, what time to meet, all of that. But we're trying to automate that a little bit more as we move into other communities.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

Have you ever worked with someone on the spectrum who initially said, I can't do this? But with support and encouragement, they were eventually able to say, Hey, I did this. Can you describe what shifted for them in that moment? And what did you see in them that showed you they were capable even before they believed it themselves? And what did this show you for the potential that you have to keep doing this and helping more people in the future?

SPEAKER_01 23:17

So, one of the things we talk about during our events, now, first of all, our guest we call a VIP. And then someone who can come with the VIP to just assist and be alongside them would be a chaperone. So we ask the chaperone what motivators are for your VIP. So we ask them to bring motivators, favorite whatever, a stuffed animal, favorite book, favorite blanket, something that comforts and motivates so that we can use that, we can leverage that to maybe get them through a rough situation. So, what are some of the rough situations, right? Maybe walking through the metal detection at the TSA checkpoint. So if we can get the chaperone on the other side with a favorite stuffed animal, here they come. They just walk right through. We just have to work strategically each of those scenarios. I will tell you one of the hurdles that I was maybe not expecting was the feel of the jet bridge under their feet. That when you go from the terminal onto the jet bridge, now you're not on terra firma. And that jet bridge is a little bit bouncy. And so we have to really work through that and talk through that and get them all the way down to the jet bridge and to the door. We really just talk through that individually with our participants and how we can do that.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Yeah, that's great. Now, what would you like to leave our listeners with that you think is very important that they hear about what you are doing and how you're trying to help those within the travel industry understand the needs of the autistic community?

SPEAKER_01 24:57

So I think the biggest thing that people need to know is that travel is no longer a luxury. It is vitally important in keeping people connected with family. It connects them with job opportunities, it connects them with medical care, and it connects them with world experiences. We want to keep families together, we want to keep people gamefully employed. You know, when it's time to go to a conference or time to go to another city for training, we want them to have that capability.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah, that's great. Now, can you tell us what is needed to help bring this to other communities around the country?

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Yeah, and if anyone listening is interested in bringing this to their community, I'd love to hear from you. My contact information is on the website. And we really need two things to have a successful event. We need sponsorship. We always keep this free to the participant, and then we need participants. So I have the necessary connections with airports and TSA staff. I can take this anywhere I want within the US, and we're ready to take it to new communities. But we need those two things. That's what we're lacking. We need sponsorship and participants. By keeping the participant number high, it really sends a message to the airport that it's needed and wanted.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Oh, I believe you are 100% correct. It is something that is definitely needed and wanted for sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Yes, yes. And I will say, I think people think that maybe travel is the least of our worries when it comes to autism. But in my world, I feel like this is an area of expertise where I can touch a life. I can't fix autism, I can't help them with behavioral issues. That's not where my expertise lies. I can take one thing, one thing, travel, and I can make it easier. And when you're passionate about it, you'll be able to talk about it. I could talk about it for two hours. I'm gonna condense it to a half hour, but hopefully it sparks enough interest in someone that they'll reach out to me.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Yeah, and I certainly hope they do. I can see where this is definitely needed. Well, this has been great. Great information, great conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time to join me today.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Well, thank you for inviting me. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Oh, it's been my pleasure. Thanks again. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to listen to our show today. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. If you know someone who has a story to share, tell them to contact us at why notme.world. One last thing. Spread the word about why not me. Our conversations, our inspiring guest, the Joe. You are not alone in this world.