Just the ticket: Adelaide advocate championing disability travel
Making travel videos for wheelchair users, Shane Hryhorec has tapped into a TikTok audience that is anything but niche, with almost 2 per cent of the world’s population using the mobility aid. His next stop is likely TV.
Disability advocate and entrepreneur Shane Hryhorec has more than 175,000 followers on TikTok and his travel videos collectively have had around 60 million views.
Now, he is in talks with producers regarding the possibility of bringing Wheel Around the World to television.
This is on top of his founding of successful disability-focussed businesses, co-able and Push Mobility, as well as the not-for-profit, Accessible Beaches Australia – enterprises where he applied his own experiences navigating life in a world designed for able-bodied people after a swimming pool accident in 2007 left him with a spinal cord injury.
“Wheel Around the World started because after my accident, I found travelling to be interesting and challenging,” Hryhorec said.
Unable to find any content on broadcast media, digital platforms or social media that focussed on inclusive travel for people with disabilities, he thought about filling the gap.
“The idea rattled around in my head for years … then I decided I would create a travel blog and document what it’s like for me travelling with a disability,” he said.
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“So, I started the page, booked a trip, bought a camera and off I went […] with a hope to inspire other people with disabilities to go out and explore the world.
“It’s really just about exploring and having a good time, but throughout that process, you see everything – the good, bad and the ugly, the barriers and the challenges.”
One video filmed on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean has had 17 million views, enabling his “fun, light-hearted entertainment” to raise awareness at all levels.
People with disabilities have shared with him how he has inspired them – including a woman, living an hour out of London, who gained the confidence to travel into the city with her children for the first time since she became disabled a decade ago – while some in the tourism sector have said they now “look at travel differently”.
The challenges he highlights in the videos are often issues he believes the tourism sector and the public “just aren’t aware of”.
“But because of the reach of the videos, they do bring about change, as people tag the cruise companies and tourism operators,” Hryhorec said.
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“You don’t necessarily need to advocate to the government because the community, by raising awareness of the video, usually do the advocacy.”
Hryhorec was recognised with the Game Changer Award at the InDaily 40 Under 40 Awards in 2024.
As well as working on taking Wheel Around the World to television, he is also planning to turn his pilot for the co-able health and wellness hub into a nationwide network of more than 50 sites and will be seeking investors later this year.
Meanwhile, his work via Accessible Beaches Australia has so far helped to make 140 beaches across Australia accessible, with the installation of beach matting to the water’s edge, beach wheelchairs, an accessible bathroom or Changing Places facility for people with profound physical disabilities.
With over 10,000 beaches around the country, he said there is a lot of work still to be done and he has spent the last year advocating for more funding to keep the rollout going.
This February, as a result of his and others’ work, the federal government committed $17.1 million toward making beaches more accessible around the country.
Accessible Beaches Australia will work with each local government to create the plans for consideration and approval by the state government.
Just like in his videos, Hryhorec is constantly on the move and he said getting projects off the ground was about building strong connections within his teams and externally.
“It’s important to keep really great relationships with those who are in the position to make positive change.”
Applications for the 2025 40 Under 40 program have been extended to 9am, Thursday 20 March. Click here to apply or nominate someone you know.
