Travel Unity engages in advocacy when decisions affecting travel intersect with our work to make travel welcoming to people of all backgrounds and abilities.
Travel Unity engages in advocacy when decisions affecting travel intersect with our work to make travel welcoming to people of all backgrounds and abilities. The role we play depends on the issue. Sometimes we take a position. Sometimes we support work led by partners. Sometimes we are still listening and learning before deciding whether we have a role at all.
On this page, each example says which of those it is.
Our advocacy has taken six forms.
Taking a specific organizational policy position when it is appropriate.
Participating in advocacy led by industry or community partners.
Listening to affected communities and researching an issue before deciding what role Travel Unity should play.
Communicating with policymakers and other people who make decisions affecting travel.
Highlighting examples of successful advocacy so people can see how change actually happens.
Giving travel organizations and individuals tools to advocate effectively.
Formal positions Travel Unity has taken, and what we did about them. We will add to this section as we take new positions or actions.
Formal Position
Travel Unity supports the Keep America Flying Act (S. 3031 and H.R. 5851), which would keep FAA and TSA personnel paid during a government shutdown.
Why: asking the people who run air traffic control and airport security to work without pay is not fair to them, and it is not a good way to keep airports working well. When airports struggle, travelers carry the stress.
What Travel Unity did
Partner-Led
In 2025, Executive Director Roni Weiss joined the African American Motorcoach Council’s Capitol Hill Fly-In and its meetings with policymakers.
The effort was led by AAMC. Travel Unity’s role was to take part and support it.
Listening & Research
Travel Unity and New Disabled South have held strategy conversations about the barriers disabled travelers face, and which policy, enforcement, transportation, and regulatory responses could address them.
Travel Unity has not taken a position from this work. It is how we learn what role, if any, we should play.
In Our Standards
Advocacy is part of what Travel Unity asks of travel organizations. Our Standards expect organizations to advocate for travelers of diverse identities and abilities, including communicating with government officials, participating in external forums, and engaging community groups.
Outside Example
Traveler and parent Emily Calandrelli spoke publicly about the treatment she received at TSA screening while traveling with breast milk. Rep. Eric Swalwell took up the issue, and her experience and advocacy became part of the push for the BABES Enhancement Act, which became federal law in 2025. The law strengthens how TSA must handle breast milk, formula, and related equipment at airport security.
Travel Unity was not part of that effort. We point to it because it shows how one traveler’s experience can become a change in federal policy.
The Advocacy Leadership Program is one way Travel Unity helps people learn to advocate. Participants take a real issue from problem to action. The first pilot is a Youth Cohort for high school students in 2027.
If a decision affecting travel intersects with our work, tell us about it.
