
Canadian City Parks and Inclusion

You might have heard of Easy Read or Easy English for documents. They are great examples of how to reach a wide audience of people regardless of their level of literacy. Now there is a great example of an Easy Read Website from Women with Disabilities Australia.
People can have low literacy skills for several reasons such as a brain injury through a stroke or accident, or a cognitive condition. People with English as a second or other language, and people not used to navigating websites also find Easy Read helpful. So we are not talking about a few people.
This particular website is focused on girls and women with disability. However, the information is good for boys and men as well. Large clear font, graphics, short headlines and few words make this easy to navigate. At the top of the page is a link to turn Easy Read off. But this doesn’t mean lots of words in tiny font. Also very easy to read.
The tabs list key topics: Your Rights, Lead and Take Part, Life Choices, Sex and Your Body, Safety and Violence. The also have a section on the other accessible functions of the website. It includes other languages, screen readers and Auslan.
At last someone is living the message and has truly joined the dots between people with disability and website design.
In response to a second review of the accessible public transport standard, the Australian Government produced a whole journey guide. In-depth consultations and workshops underpinned the guide’s development. Here are some key points about the Transport Standards from the guide:
Download The Whole Journey: A guide for thinking beyond compliance to create accessible public transport journeys from the Department of Infrastructure website.
There’s a good section on universal design that shows how it captures other terms.
“The principles of universal design can also be applied to the design of programs run by government, businesses and non-government organisations. This will result in greater efficiency by maximising the number of people who can use and access a program without the need for costly add-ons or specialised assistance.”
All state and territory transport ministers endorsed The Whole Journey Guide in 2017. In depth consultations and workshops included disability advocacy organisations.
The guide is for policy makers, planners, designers, builders, certifiers and operators. The aim is to encourage thinking beyond compliance and focus on accessibility across the whole journey.
There’s a growing realisation that accessibility does not equal inclusion. Getting in and out of somewhere is only the beginning. Being able to participate on an equal basis requires inclusive thinking and design. This includes the tourism sector. Being accessible is not the same as being inclusive.
Martin Heng, formerly of Lonely Planet, has an article in New Mobility that addresses this issue from a tourism perspective. He argues that the term “Accessible Tourism” is unhelpful. It has helped identify a market segment in economic terms, and some operators are on board. But it only goes so far. Change is slow and piecemeal.
Heng’s article is titled, “It’s Time to Move Beyond Access to Inclusion“. He concludes his article by saying we need to go beyond market segment ideas. We need to encourage the tourism industry to adopt an inclusive mindset.
Language and labelling is important. Choosing the right terms can make a big difference. “Accessible” is strongly linked with disability – particularly wheelchair users. “Inclusive” makes us think more broadly – families, people from diverse backgrounds, children and older people.
There are more articles and guidelines on inclusive tourism on this website.
Image courtesy of New Mobility showing Martin Heng interacting with an elephant.