Selma Blair on Touring With MS, Accessibility, and Inclusive Journey Experiences

If anybody is aware of the transformative energy of a very good journey, it is actor Selma Blair.

As Blair not too long ago defined whereas on stage at Journey + Leisure‘s 2025 World’s Greatest Summit, she was formally identified with a number of sclerosis in 2018, although she seemingly lived with it undiagnosed for 25 to 30 years, together with as a baby residing with optical neuritis. However all through all of it, she’s maintained her signature grace, mild, and humor.

“The one factor that bought me by childhood was nice holidays,” Blair mentioned with amusing. “Everybody simply feels higher on a trip. So whilst a sickly baby, that was all the time the beacon, the north star for me.”

Now, Blair defined, she’s residing relapse-free and again to touring the world, albeit in a really totally different trend along with her sidekick, Scout. “Fortunately, inns are actually canine pleasant, which is a plus and minus,” she mentioned. “As a result of I do enable my service canine to be fairly pleasant to folks. He thinks my job, now that I am lots higher, is to exit and be a service canine for anybody else that desires him. And he is pleased with that. And he nonetheless does his job for me.”

Blair famous that because of Scout, she travels with one fairly uncommon however useful merchandise in her carry-on: a squeegee. “I do carry a squeegee to get the canine hair off the bottom,” she defined, so she’s all the time prepared to wash up any fur from the ground of an Uber or a airplane.

As for the duo’s must-have for any journey, Blair defined she merely should have a gorgeous room, ideally one with a view. “I (do) be sure you have a room with a view,” she mentioned, explaining that whereas she might not have the ability to discover like she used to, she will be able to nonetheless get pleasure from new locations this manner. ” I all the time make it possible for I’ve a gorgeous room.”

She additionally famous that inns may higher serve their shoppers with accessibility wants by guaranteeing they, too, get an important view.

“It could be pretty if there’s room and also you see somebody with a incapacity coming, and ask your self, ‘Is there a view, is there a technique to make this just a little extra pleasant?’ As a result of this could be their trip,” she mentioned.

Blair was additionally fast to reward inns that get it proper relating to accessibility. “I used to be in a resort in Washington, D.C. that had probably the most unimaginable ADA room,” she defined, noting that it had added touches like high-end railings within the showers that had been removed from the common, low-budget chrome railings in most inns. “Disabled folks like just a little stylish too.”

She additionally emphasised the impression of small touches like flowers, blackout curtains, and even a easy deck of playing cards, which she all the time has in her bag in case the resort would not present them. “Easy issues that may be performed for a visitor to make them really feel seen and never like they’re an issue that nobody is aware of easy methods to take care of.”

Regardless of the added work that comes with seeing the world with a incapacity, Blair retains touring, and encourages others to do the identical, noting it is key to “hit a milestone of one thing you did not suppose you could possibly do.”

And whereas, certain, Blair, like the remainder of us, loves just a little high-end second, however for her, journey just isn’t about luxurious for luxurious’s sake. It’s about each survival and pleasure. “Journey to me symbolized vibrance and hope and journey,” she mentioned. “That’s value lots.”