How did Hands On Travel start? While I was growing up, I loved to travel and my family instilled into me the love for travel. I loved visiting new places, learning new things, different cultures, foods, people, languages. It was very fascinating to me. After graduating from Gallaudet I moved to Rome, Italy, where I worked for the Deaf Olympics Committee for the 2001 Deaflympics to be held in Rome.

During the Deaflympics, many deaf people from all over the world came to Rome and I assumed that everybody would have loved Rome because I lived there and I knew how wonderful and beautiful the city was. In the end, I was shocked that some people had a bad experience in Rome. I asked them why and I found out that they did not have the right information necessary. They didn’t know what to do exactly and that made me realize that it is important to have a local wherever you go so that you can get the local experience and viewpoint because they live in that place so they know it better than anybody else and know how to show it the right way. Without a local, things are missed and that is not what you want when you travel. Communication is the key.

So, Hands On Italia was established in 2002 due to that motivation. We had our booth at Gallaudet’s Deaf Way 2 and started advertising our services in Italy. After several years we noticed exponential growth since I believe our company was the first one providing authentic and accessible travel experiences for the deaf as the market at that time was dominated by hearing tour companies providing interpreters.

It got to a point where we needed to offer tours in other countries because customers were asking for that experience. So, in 2005 we changed our company name to Hands On Travel which meant we could expand our offerings to offer tours all over the world. Ever since 2005, we have been appreciative of our customers’ satisfaction. We believe it is due to three factors. First is direct communication, meaning all of our guides all over the world use sign language, and we don’t do tours through interpreters. Second is unique experiences, meaning we don’t always go where the mass tourism traffic goes. We seek out lesser known places where you can have more authentic experiences. Third, we operate small group tours. Being deaf, it is not wise to do tours with 30 or 40 participants as it is impossible to provide equal communication access to everybody in sign language. With smaller groups we can provide better quality and more accessible experiences for everybody.

In 2009, Dan Brubaker joined our team and gave our services a wider scope as Dan is a world traveler and has experience in so many countries all over the world. In 2013, Darren Frazier joined and also brought even more variety and breadth to our offerings. The three of us have been a team ever since and we have a lot of different services and experiences that have been instilled into us that we are happy to share with you.

Hands On Travel has reached the milestone of 20 years of business in 2022 and we look forward to many more years of providing you with awesome travel experiences!