Category: Travel and Tourism

Travel magazine focuses on inclusion

Front cover of the magazine showing a family at the Vivid Sydney festival. The father is sitting in a wheelchair. His wife and two children surround him.A new magazine, Travel Without Limits, is specifically aimed at individuals and families living with disability. The first issue is 48 pages of information, personal stories of travel experiences from around the world, and of course travel advertisements. It also contains travel tips for people with specific disabilities from small children to older adults. The publisher is Travel with Special Needs which also runs a website with holiday information.

Editor’s Note: This online magazine is on the Issuu platform which, in my opinion, is not the most accessible. Even expanding the page size 200% did not help the small size or clarity of the font. I couldn’t see an option to download a PDF version. It will be interesting to see if the magazine improves matters for people with disability when they travel. My feedback about a successful trip has more to do with the quality and availability of the information about accessibility, as well as staff competence in welcoming guests with disability. Good to see this as an addition to the inclusive tourism sector. Perhaps we should have a magazine for older Australians as well?

I just can’t find it

screnshot of expedia websiteIt’s one thing to create accessible, universally designed places and spaces, it is another to let people know they exist. Being physically accessible is not enough. People who need access information require detail – and they need to be able to find that detail. The tourism industry is gradually realising this, but restaurants and entertainment venues have yet to catch up.  A recent study examined publicly available access information and found that it varied considerably across the board. In many cases information was provided but its accuracy was not necessarily correct or complete. 

The title of the article is, “Publicly-Researchable Accessibility Information: Problems, Prospects and Recommendations for Inclusion”.

Abstract:

Despite worldwide attempts to improve accessibility for consumers with disabilities, barriers still exist that exclude persons from consumer participation in daily life. Although legislation and lawsuits have addressed this issue, marketplaces designed for able-bodied persons are commonplace with minimal accessibility standards tied to costs rather than the needs of this overlooked group.

The present article examines a seemingly obvious, but understudied aspect of inclusion: the provision of publicly-researchable accessibility information. Ironically, businesses and public venues may create accessible spaces, yet fail to provide the level of detail needed by consumers with disabilities when planning a shopping excursion, dinner and entertainment, or travel and overnight stays. That is, the provision of factual accessibility content has lagged and is not required by law.

This article reports on an exploratory study in the United States that examined the accuracy and completeness of publicly-researchable accessibility information for restaurant and entertainment venues in a large metropolitan area in the Northeastern United States. Observations were gathered from websites and social media of specific venues, as well as travel rating services like TripAdvisor. Findings were mixed. While some venues provided full and factual accessibility information, others revealed just the opposite both in online and follow-up telephone interviews. Implications are discussed along with recommendations for future study.

Inclusive Tourism: Global Report

Front cover of the Inclusive Tourism Global Report showing a yellow two storey building with blue doors and shutters. A man sits in a tuk tuk outside.Inclusive tourism has two outcomes: individuals and their families can benefit from participating in tourism activity, and it can help with sustainable development and the reduction of poverty. The Global Report on Inclusive Tourism Destinations is a large document by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. It has practical advice and success stories from across the globe. Good resource for anyone interested in following the Sustainable Development Goals as well as inclusive tourism in general. In developed countries the same holds true – more participation equals more customers.

“The report highlights the need to foster discussion on and examine new approaches to inclusive tourism in order to drive long-term sustainability in the sector. The Model for inclusive tourism destinations presented in this Global Report is a formula for practical and realistic public action that can be applied to different types of destinations. It is a path towards inclusion that is adaptable, modular and scalable, and facilitates the transformation of tourism models towards socially and economically inclusive models.” 

Destinations for All: A Guide

man in a powered wheelchair looking out between Roman columns and across the water in the Roman BathYet another excellent resource for the tourism and travel industry – an industry now leading the way in best practice. Importantly, the principles and learning from case studies can be applied everywhere. The business world should take note of the good advice in Destinations for All: A guide to creating accessible destinations.

Included in the guide are several case studies, some statistics on the number of people left out if the destination if it is not inclusive, engaging with other businesses, and dispelling myths. It even challenges the notion that heritage issues make it impossible by showcasing the Roman Baths project. This guide is informed by research and can be applied as much to a day out in Sydney or Melbourne as a two week holiday in Scotland. 

Accessible but not usable: Mapping tourist destinations

Front cover of a tourist guide showing Trieste at twilight. A scene with buildings and water with small boats.Promoting tourism and making it more accessible is the goal of a group of tourism operators in Trieste in Italy. The University of Trieste is helping with a study focused on whole of journey information including facilities, attractions and destinations. They found that while some destinations were technically accessible they were only “usable with difficulty”. During the process, researchers found that some tourism operators, while supportive of accessibility, were reluctant to change anything citing heritage as a barrier. However, Italian legislation has allowances for accessibility requirements in heritage sites. The method involves mapping the usability of facilities using a process that gathers information from both academics and from representatives from the disability sector. The article covers the methodology, the development of tools and the processes for collecting data. The title of the article is, Tools to Upgrade Facilities for All: How to Improve Business Dealing with Tourism. 

Abstract: Providing quality services to any traveller requires constant efforts to
ensure that tourist destinations, products, and services are accessible to all people, regardless of their health condition, physical limitations, gender, origin, age. This entails a collaborative process among all the interested parties: administrators, tourist agencies, tour operators, and end users, who expressing their points of view can objectively contribute to reach shared and effective solutions. A single visit destination can involve many factors, including access to information: the project A Region for All, promoted by Promoturismo FVG in collaboration with CRAD FVG and the University of Trieste, focused on this issue. Promoturismo FVG is a semipublic destination management organization. Its mission is to develop the regional tourism system collaborating with all the active subjects to improve the promotion and to optimize the resources by concentrating the efforts. The organization pursues its objectives by planning and organizing the offer through specific tourism products. In 2016 a mapping process has been started to investigate the usability of the relevant services to tourists / visitors with special needs along the itinerary of eight tourist centers of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. To date, more than 200 facilities (bars, restaurants, pharmacies, cash machines…) have been detected. The paper will present the development of the work conducted by TrIAL – Trieste Inclusion & Accessibility Lab at Department of Engineering and Architecture within the University of Trieste for the management of the mapping process. On the strength of the mapping experience developed during the previous project LabAc (Laboratory of Accessibility) for the Province of Trieste and the project Trieste for All for the Municipality of Trieste (from 2013 to 2016), the research group has adopted and set a series of digital tools, has identified specific indicators and has focused on an efficient return of data to Promoturismo FVG. The overall project is still ongoing: collected data have not yet been published by the organization. Overall monitoring and evaluation activities are still lacking and will be part of a future phase of research.

The article is from the proceedings of the UDHEIT 2018 conference held in Dublin, Ireland, an open access publication.

Mapping Access: People and Place

picture of a Google map with icons for parking and transportCreating access maps using data collected from individuals is part of a Google Maps project. But there is more to this than just knowing how to get from one place to another when you are a wheelchair user. What does it say about architecture and how we value citizens? Codes for architectural compliance do not include the human perspective of how people actually use places and spaces and relate to each other. 

Example of a step-free transport map

Bottom right hand corner of the tube map showing the legend of all the different level of accessThis isn’t something from Transport for London, it’s from a blog site, Step Free London. It shows what can be done with transport maps when users know that attention to detail is everything. The personal experience sets it apart from other maps. An access icon can mean so many things, and this is shown in the legend of the map. For example it could be either: Full step-free access; Step-free access via ramp; Step-free access towards one direction; Out-of-station interchange; and Separate entrance for each direction, plus other combinations of partial access.

The blog site has good information for map designers. It also contains all the latest information about travelling by train in London. There are similar maps available in Australia, such as City of Sydney accessibility map. The Citymetric site shows two tube maps for Paris – one for the general public and another with all the stations taken out that are not accessible. Then you see what a map really looks like to a wheelchair user or pram pusher for that matter. 

England and Scotland Guidebooks for the accessible way

A street scene. Cobbled roadway between five and six storey heritage buildings with Scottish flags flyingMany places in the U.K. offer accessible features for guests with disability. But 63 percent don’t promote the fact according to Bill Forrester in his TravAbility newsletter. VisitEngland and VisitScotland have launched a website for tourism businesses to produce accessibility guides to help overcome this problem. People with disability and older people rarely travel alone – at least no more than the general population. So it is not just one person avoiding inaccessible places – it can be a whole family or travel group.

There’s good advice in Destinations for All: A guide to creating accessible destinations. Included in the guide are several case studies, some statistics on the number of people left out if the destination if it is not inclusive, engaging with other businesses, and dispelling myths. It even challenges the notion that heritage issues make it impossible by showcasing the Roman Baths project. This guide is informed by research and can be applied as much to a day out in Sydney or Melbourne as a two week holiday in Scotland. 

Tourism operators can use the new, free website, www.accessibilityguides.org, to produce and publish their accessibility guides. These guides should also be useful for Australian tourism operators as well. 

Comprehensive Universal Design

Indian hotel swimming pool at sunset.Comprehensive Universal Design is a concept from India. It refers to the classic principles of universal design, concepts of sustainability, and culture. It takes a “country-centric approach which considers poverty, caste, class, religion, background both rural and urban”. Weaving in cultural aspects such as poverty and religion takes universal design thinking another inclusive step forward. 

A Conceptual Framework for Barrier Free Hotels in Smart Cities covers most of the basics written in many other papers about universal design. It links it to the hotel and tourism industry and all the economic benefits that can bring. The article proposes a conceptual framework to explain.

Abstract: Cities are key for business, Job creation, and the growth of society. The Government of India planned to develop smart cities which are sustainable, inclusive and act as a reference for other aspiring cities. Smart cities in India will work on four principles such as wellbeing of habitants, equity, foresight and efficiency. Existing laws and design principles can act as a hurdle in achieving the four principles laid down. The principles of Universal Design (UD) are user centric, work on the social goals of inclusion, equality and independence. Universal Design India Principle (UDIP) is a set of design principles that focus on a country centric approach which considers culture, caste, poverty, class, and religion. There is an overwhelming need for environmentally sustainable designs for hospitality services. Considering the current requirements, a conceptual framework ‘Comprehensive Universal Design (CUD)’ has been proposed which includes principles of UD, UDIP and environmental sustainability. Adopting comprehensive universal design principles in the hotels in smart city will help the planners to realise equity, quality of life, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

The article is by Partho Pratim Seal *, P. Senthil Kumaran

Barriers to travel not the same for everyone

People are carrying heavy luggage up 56 steps at a train station. A platform lift remains folded at the bottom of the steps.The latest article on inclusive travel by Bob McKercher and Simon Darcy presents a range of barriers affecting the ability of people with disability to travel. It is classified into a four tier framework from generic to specific. Below is an excerpt from the abstract explaining more about the four tier framework:

“Previous studies tended to aggregate barriers into a single group … The failure to recognise the complex, yet subtle interplay between tourism and different types of barriers results in the tendency to see people with disabilities as a homogeneous group where a one size fits all solution applies. In reality, they are a heterogeneous cohort who face the same types of barriers as everyone, some barriers that are common to all people with disabilities, those that are unique to each disability dimension and specific impairment effects that are individualistic.

The full title of the article is “Re-conceptualizing barriers to travel by people with disabilities”, and is available from Science Direct, or directly from Simon Darcy on Research Gate.  Published in Tourism Management Perspectives.   

A smart hotel room

Hotel bathroom with walls decorated with line drawings of palm trees and other plants. There is a shower seat, hand held shower and a toilet pan that only allows for side transfer.Travability’s travel blog has an article about Accor hotels and what they are attempting to achieve with their smart hotel room designs. It features many of the design aspects that you would expect in a room compliant to disability access requirements plus a bit of design polish – something else you would expect with an up-market hotel chain. Accor calls it their “smart room”. 

A closer look at the picture of the bathroom might make an access consultant question a few things – particularly the juxtaposition of some elements with each other and placement within the room. Maybe it is just the angle of the pictures. Accor claims the room to be universally designed, and it is, from the perspective of almost anyone could use it provided the bathroom suits. Some of the really good things are in the technology – this is what makes the room smart and where the biggest gains have been made. See the article for the full description and pictures.   

Accessibility Toolbar