ACCESSIBILITY AND TOURISM:

The Personal Impact of Tourism

TOMG200

How do disabilities impact on the ability to communicate (and mobility)?

DIMENSIONS OF DISABILITY

Mobility

Sensory Communication Intellectual/

Mental health Hidden

Restricted physical mobility

Deaf; blind Impaired speech Behavioural

disorder

Heart problems; diabetes; epilepsy; breathing difficulties

DEFINITION (UNCRPD, 2008)

“Those individuals who have long-term physical, mental, cognitive, or sensory impairments that, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”

(cited in Freeman & Selmi, 2009: 472)

The Silence of the Lambs “experience”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1IayQ9MAl4

INACCESSIBLE TOURISM (Darcy, 2012)

Air travel practices routinely contravened disability discrimination legislation, resulting in ‘(dis)embodied’ experiences for PwD.

PwD includes mobility, hearing, vision, intellectual, sensitivities, mental health, etc.

Principles of the UN’s (2006) CRPWD:Dignity; independence; participation; respect;

disability as part of human diversity; equality of opportunity; gender equity; rights of children.

Responsibility placed on governments and businesses to identify and eliminate barriers.

STAGES OF AIR TRAVEL (Darcy, 2012: 5)

A. Pre-travel planning

B. Boarding & disembarking

C. Seat allocationD. Personal care

issuesE. Equipment

handlingF. Customer Service

Segregated booking system for TwD; inequity

Separated from equipment; loss of dignity

Safety procedures; anxiety No onboard chair;

dependence Damage; helplessness Inappropriate language;

de-valued

FRANCE & CANADA (Freeman & Selmi, 2010)

Financial barriers Communication barriers e.g. leaflets Medication guidelines, need for rests, lowered

ability to cope with stress during delays Poor sound systems announcing stops on trains,

non-use of sign language, seating of physically disabled individuals, removal of wheelchairs and/or canes

Limited wheelchair access on trains, inadequate signage, negative attitudes of staff

Few historical buildings wheelchair accessible Few hotels can accommodate vision & auditory

disabilities

AIR TRAVEL FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED (Richards, Pritchard & Morgan, 2010)

Approx 314 million people worldwide live with low vision and blindness; feel they are treated as a homogenous group; disregarded and ignored

3 themes: embodied tourism encounters; inhospitable tourism encounters; navigating tourism environments

Airline forced 2 travellers with low vision to sit in a wheelchair to be assisted through the airport and to the aeroplane; they were left in the dark to wait for boarding; loss of dignity; feel a “fraud”

Room lighting, reading signs and menus can be problematic, as well as navigating unfamiliar environments (– physical and psychological toll); anxiety, frustration and embarrassment

AIR TRAVEL & OBESITY (Small & Harris, 2012)

Airline policies relating to obese passengers e.g.: Southwest Airlines require “customers of size” to

purchase 2 tickets Ryanair’s consideration of a “fat tax”

Termination of employment of overweight flight attendants (BBC News, 2009)

Negative attitudes of flight attendants when passengers had to ask for seatbelt extensions

Financial barriers (having to pay for two seats) Embarrassment, fear, discomfort of the “one size

fits all” airline seats; “Walk of Shame” Litigation by travellers who received injuries from

being seated next to a passenger who was obese.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHG86on7dlg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

‘No Go’ Britain

BARRIERS TO TOURISM

Intrinsic (physical) Interactive Environmental (sociological)

THE TOURISM SECTOR Despite inclusive government regulations, few

studies look at tourists with disabilities as a whole (focus on type of disability)

A TwD has special needs regardless of his or her country of origin or travel (technical definition)

Assumed that people with disabilities do not travel; do not work in travel

A ‘holistic’ approach is called for (Freeman & Selmi, 2009)

Despite legislation mandating equal access, a country’s tourism industry rarely has developed effective policy to accommodate TwD

Coordination of the industry for the disabled is lacking

ACCESSIBLE TOURISM (Buhalis & Darcy, 2011. Accessible Tourism: Concepts & Issues)

Inclusion, disability, the ageing population and provision of tourism increasingly important

Accessible tourism is socially constructed A systems approach is important Implementation of international human

rights conventions and national legislation (e.g. UN (2006, 2008) Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities)

Disability is multi-dimensional; understanding of a person’s embodiment is central to developing enabling practices, accessible environments and attitudes

ACCESSIBLE TOURISM (Buhalis & Darcy, 2011: 10)

“Accessible tourism is a form of tourism that involves collaborative processes between stakeholders that enables people with access requirements, including mobility, vision, hearing, and cognitive dimensions of access, to function independently and with equity and dignity through the delivery of universally designed tourism products, services and environments. This definition adopts a whole of life approach where people through their lifespan benefit from accessible tourism provision. These include people with permanent and temporary disabilities, seniors, obese, families with young children and those working in safer and more socially sustainably designed environments”

STAKEHOLDER GROUPS

Accessible Tourism

1. Disabled individuals/tourists

2. Disability organisations/charities

3. Health organisations

4. DMO’s (NTOs, RTOs)

5. Tourism suppliers

6. Accommodation suppliers7.

Intermediaries e.g. Travel agents

8. Providers of Destination Management Systems

9. Government

(Michopoulou & Buhalis, 2011: 263)

SOCIAL TOURISM

The benefits of tourism for deprived and marginalised groups e.g. tourism poverty

UK (Sedgley, Pritchard & Morgan, 2012: 952): 13% of couples unable to afford a day trip; 21%

cannot afford a week away from home 40% single parent families unable to afford a day

trip; 60% cannot afford a week away from home UK Govt spending cuts will result in 200,000 more

children in child poverty between 2013 and 2014.

“A social approach recognises that it is not the person’s impairment that is disabling but the environment and hostile social attitudes” (Darcy, 2012: 2)

Q: What methods/practices might be effective for changing attitudes and removing structural barriers to transform disabled environments to enabling environments for travel?How do we make elements of tourism accessible to all people?

CONCLUSION Tourism participation is a right of citizenship Discriminatory practices have a significant impact on

individuals beyond the structural elements of travel (Darcy, 2012; Freeman & Selmi, 2010)

Tourism delivers personal impacts Personal impacts can be understood through

embodied understanding (critical inquiry and ‘reflexivity’ - McIntosh, 2010; Ren et al., 2010)

Opportunity to learn from inaccessible environments, practices, procedures and service attitudes

Elements of accessibility are important for legal, service-related and operationalising sustainability (triple bottom line) reasons

Requires the tourism sector to be reflexive.

READINGS http://www.disabled-world.com/travel/ -

Accessible Disability Travel Information

Darcy (2012) – on recommended reading list