Access Tourism NZ TOURISM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, AND AGEING BOOMERS IN NEW ZEALAND AND WORLDWIDE

Unless travellers with disabilities have good information, they never know what they are up a against until they arrive. And relying on business owners and service providers to tell you about accessibility at their restaurant, motel, or office can be fraught as they often do not know what true access is.  Now an app has been developed to find an accessible local business or service worldwide.  Developed by Raul Krauthausen of Germany, a wheelchair user himself, the free iPhone is called Wheelmap, and shows wheelchair access places around the world and rates them on their accessibility.  A red tag shows  there is no wheelchair access, yellow has partial wheelchair access and green is totally accessible for wheelchair use. Gray locations mean that place has yet to be rated.  And users can have input to the app.  Travekkers can rate locations on their accessibility and even share tips. At the moment, most of the cities are in Germany, but any place can be rated.   You can rate locations without registering, but must log in to add specific comments and share tips, and help the site grow.  The project uses the Openstreetmap API to retrieve (and in the future also save) accessibility data.  The website has been developed using Ruby on Rails.  Currently the source code isn’t open source, but they are thinking about doing that in the future.  Wheelmap is an initiative of “Sozialhelden e.V.“, a German non-profit
association.  To learn more go here.

Manchester Airport has launched a pioneering new access guide designed to provide disabled customers with all the information required to plan their journey through one of the UK’s busiest airports with confidence.  The guide has been developed in partnership with respected disability organisation DisabledGo.  The airport points out that this is the first time an airport has been given its own guide. The new guide talks visitors to the airport through their journey; from the car park to their departure lounge if they are flying from Manchester, or alternatively from arrivals through to the car park if Manchester is their final destination. Every piece of information on the airport guide has been collected in person by a trained DisabledGo access surveyor. The information includes everything from details of the fixtures and fittings in accessible toilets, to hearing assistance systems, lighting levels and the dimensions of parking bays.

Speaking about the development of the guide Dr Gregory Burke, Chief Executive of DisabledGo said: “We are delighted to have worked in partnership on this pioneering project. It has been clear throughout the whole process that Manchester Airport is committed to providing the best possible service to disabled travellers and recognises that disabled people are a much ignored market. As a wheelchair user and a frequent flyer I know how incredibly stressful air travel can often be. This guide will be a step-change in making every journey better for disabled people and anyone else. All credit to Manchester Airport.”

Andrew Harrison, Manchester Airport’s Managing Director, said: “I am delighted that we are the first airport to have helped create a DisabledGo guide. We want to make every customer’s journey stress free so this World-first guide is just another way of us helping take away the worry for passengers with reduced mobility. By launching this guide in the Summer season, I am confident that passengers will find it useful in navigating their way around the airport.”  The information is easily searchable by using a range of icons and is complemented by interactive 3D maps of the Airport site. In addition to the guide DisabledGo will supply Manchester Airport staff with disability equality training and advice on how access can be improved in the future.

Recently, Tourism New Zealand launched its new-look New Zealand Travel website that is the official site for Tourism New Zealand (TNZ).  TNZ is the official organization responsible for marketing New Zealand to the world as a tourist destination.  However, the site is not very user-friendly for people with disabilities. Here Chris Lona, of CL Design, demonstrates how the site could look if access issues were taken into consideration.

While the existing official Tourism New Zealand site engages visitors with imagery and contains lots of “content”, it does not engage all of the senses for people, or accommodate people with disabilities the way it could.  On the NZ site, a visually disabled person would probably need to use their screen reader to access the text information. A baby boomer might need a magnifying glass to be able to read the text.   Most screen readers sound like a computer voice and are OK for accessing data but don’t provide the best experience. People don’t talk to people that way. Seems like a fabulous destination like NZ would be promoted in the most engaging and human way possible.

To show what could be achieved in making the website accessible to all, we created a demonstration New Zealand tourism multimedia presentation (demonstration only)to show how people with disabilities (and everyone else) can start their NZ experience when they go to our online presentation rather than when they arrive in NZ.   With our presentation they can hear the human voice describing a full screen scene with pleasant background music and see large type as another option.

On the NZ site a hearing impaired person would probably have no problem reading all of the information. If they go to the YouTube channel or watch videos on the site however there is no closed captioning of those videos.

With our presentation they can see the motion of the full screen presentation with access to large type with the click of a mouse, the press of the “T” key on their keyboard or the press of a large button on a mobile/touch screen device. Our presentation provides the interactivity and information of a website with the motion and audio of video.

The NZ site is geared, as most sites are, toward visitors using a mouse to navigate the site with standard buttons and links.   A physically disabled person may have difficulties using a mouse. Our presentations can be accessed with a mouse but also with the press of a key on a keyboard or one of our large buttons on a touch screen.

A person with ADD or Dyslexia has problems with focus. Too much copy and text can make it difficult for them to absorb information. Our human audio narrated presentations eliminate the need for a lot of copy and text that has to be read by people with these types of disabilities.

The NZ site is designed for browser viewing and is severely compromised on a mobile device. To remedy this, there would need to be a separate application developed or a site redesign with mobile in mind.  Our presentations function exactly the same on a mobile device as they do on a browser (device must be Flash enabled).   No need for a separate application.

While the NZ site is innovative in certain ways it is very typical, and even trendy, in others.   The larger images are the best feature; a place as beautiful as NZ should certainly be highlighted in this way.   However there is obvious pandering to the popularity of the social media trend. The option for people to write and edit articles is an obvious attempt to leverage this trend. Not surprisingly – as of July 2011 – there are seemingly few visitor articles and no “likes” or “tweets”. If a visitor does wish to write an article they are required to set up an account and/or login in order to do so. In doing this social media functionality they are contributing to the over- abundance and glut of data instead of focusing on making the visitor’s experience the best it can possibly be. It does not seem likely that someone considering a trip or move to NZ would come to this site, create an account and write an article. Time will tell…

Our presentations can include social media “gadgets” below the presentation so that people can leave comments and provide their input if desired.

The best of both worlds would be an augmentation of the NZ site with the types of presentations we create. Any of the existing presentations on the NZ site could be augmented with “click here for the access-enhanced, multimedia version of this presentation”. When clicked the visitor would be taken to one of our presentations for that topic. Able-bodied visitors would still be able to use all of the features of the existing NZ site and the disabled and baby boomers could access the benefits of a more experiential version of the page. It would also show a definitive commitment by NZ to accommodating people with disabilities and older visitors.

For information about Chris and how to contact him, and for other demonstrations, see here.

More and more people with disabilities or people who are seniors (Access Tourists)  are travelling in Japan.  There is plenty of information available for Japanese-speaking Access Tourists, but until recently, very little for speakers of other languages.  In January, a non-profit organization called the Japan Accessible Tourism Center  (JATC) set up a website which provides such information in several languages, including English to provide information about the many barrier-free tourism products available and about universal design tourism centers. The website provides information about transport, accommodation, shopping, eating, and attractions, amongst other things, and is constantly being added to.  JATC also assists with making arrangements for care attendants, booking accommodations, offering tips for travelling, providing assistance in case of emergency problems, and other services, which are all free of charge. They also can plan and coordinate group tours or study tours.

The Taranaki Daily News reports that New Plymouth art gallery The Govett-Brewster received the Arts Access Aotearoa Big ‘A’ Creative New Zealand Arts For All Award in recognition of its continuing work with disabled people to better understand their needs in relation to art appreciation. The gallery provides:

• audio and touch tours
• large-print exhibition guides for the blind and partially-sighted
• sound enhancer to make audio clearer for the hearing impaired
• sign-language tours with an interpreter for the deaf
• easy access for those who are physically disabled
• disabled-friendly website
• Staff trained in disability awareness
• discussion forums with the disabled community

Gallery Director Rhana Devenport was thrilled with the award but said it was only the beginning.  ”It’s good that they recognise we’re making a sincere and genuine effort, but we know we’ve got a long journey ahead and lots of learning to do, it’s a continuing conversation with the disabled community,” she said.

In awarding the Govett-Brewster, the judges said: ” The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery’s commitment to accessibility is underpinned by the New Plymouth District Council’s Disability Strategy – an example of best practice that gave the Govett-Brewster the edge. This nomination was a fine example of an arts organisation developing its audience by increasing access, and we look forward to seeing the next steps on its journey to accessibility.”  Presenting the award at a ceremony in Parliament, Creative New Zealand Chief Executive Stephen Wainwright said, “engaging New Zealanders in the arts and ensuring they have access to great art experiences is a priority for us. This award sits at the heart of what Creative New Zealand wants to achieve”.  Creative New Zealand id the national arts development agency.

The European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) reports that the European Union Access City Awards applications for 2011 are open.  The Access City Award sets out to showcase and reward cities with over 50,000 inhabitants which take exemplary initiatives to improve accessibility in the urban environment.  In the context of a steadily ageing population living in European cities and its correlation with disabilities, accessibility has important social and economic benefits.  Cities which are proactive supporters of accessibility for persons with disabilities should apply by 20 September 2011. The winner will be announced at the Award Ceremony in Brussels on 1-2 December 2011. The award is given to the city that has demonstrably improved accessibility

• in fundamental aspects of city  living
• the built environment and public  spaces
• transport and related infrastructure
• information and communication,  including Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
• public facilities and services; and
• is committed to continued  improvements in accessibility in a sustainable way
• can act as a role model and encourage  the adoption of best practices in all other European cities.

Contact
European Secretariat of the Access City Award
Email: secretariat (at) accesscityaward.eu
Tel / fax +48 22 826 84 05

Guest blog: Chris Lona

Chris Lona of CL Design, visually disabled from a brain tumour 22 years ago, is designing and developing innovative web presentations that provide better accessibility to people with visual, audio and physical disabilities. Each site is a multimedia presentation that complies with and surpasses US standards for accessibility online.   No assistive technology such as a screen reader is required and each presentation provides innovative benefits for people with disabilities (and everyone else!). These include:

• Human voice narration and audio

• Audio menu for the blind and visually disabled

• Mouse, keyboard and touch screen controls

• Full screen view

• Large, optional text

• Augmentation, rather than replacement, of an existing web presence

This approach is creative and innovative because it incorporates the interactivity and information of a website with the motion and audio of video, all as a full-screen presentation with multiple controls (mouse, keyboard, touch screen). The presentations are transforming the tourism, travel, hospitality, leisure and healthcare industries by beginning a customer’s experience not when they arrive at their destination, but rather when they visit the organization’s website. This commitment to customers’ experiences begins to build loyalty from first contact and definitively differentiates organizations that use these presentations from others in their industry.

Lona started designing brands and websites after a brain tumour in his final year of Architecture school caused double vision and an ensuing auto-immune condition made it impractical for him to pursue a normal career. Now his intent is to create the “curb ramps of the internet”.

“When a person in a wheelchair comes to a curb, they’re not expected to bring their own ramp. Why should a visually disabled person, for example, be required to have a screen reader when they come to a website? Besides, have you ever heard the inhumane computer voice of a screen reader? People don’t speak to other people like that. Also a majority of sites these days look like they all used the same template for the design and then filled it with a lot of data for the search engines. I am trying to bring humanity and experiences to the web.” says Lona.

For samples of these online presentations, turn on your sound and visit:

www.cldesign.biz/resortriviera (hospitality)  and  www.sitellites.com/seattle (tourism/travel)

Contact: Chris Lona • Principal Designer • CL Design 425.462.7824  info@cldesignonline.com

The 13th International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons (TRANSED 2012) scheduled to be held in New Delhi, India September 17-21, 2012 will have as one of its themes “Accessible Tourism: Conservation, Access to the Historic and Natural Heritage”. Hosted by Svayam in partnership with the Ministry of Transport, Government of Delhi and Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, the conference is co-sponsored by Transportation Research Board (USA). Held every three years, TRANSED conferences are milestone events in the field of accessible transportation, attracting researchers, policy-makers, transport operators, consumers and other specialists from around the world to share innovations and best practices in order to make transportation and mobility accessible to everyone.  The theme of the Conference is “Seamless Access for All: Universal design for transport systems and infrastructure as a key element in the creation of liveable cities”. Other sub-themes are:

• Role of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) •  Best practices and innovations • Environmental impact, sustainability, and accessibility of integrated multimodal systems • Accessible Public Transport (Bus Rapid Transit, Metro, Para-transit systems etc.) • Highway design and safety • G. Pedestrian mobility & safety for livable communities • Rural access and mobility • Implementation, monitoring and enforcement • Potential of Technology in Accessibility for all (Information Technology, Accessibility aids, etc.)

Deadline for abstracts is July 31, 2011. For more information, visit the conference website or contact secretariat@transed2012.in

American Baby boomers and seniors age 50+ are increasingly likely to have a cell phone, a laptop, or a game console, representing the fastest growing age segment to adopt social networking technology (Rhodda).   The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) sees this as an opportunity to provide a connected lifestyle that blurs boundaries across home, work, leisure, and retirement, smoothly connecting online and offline lives.  Twitter use by 55-64 year old Americans doubled between November 2010 and May 2011, and also increased in 45-54 and those 65 or older (Pew International).  In Canada, those aged 55 or older are the largest drivers of social networking growth.  Canadians age 55 or older experienced 36% growth in unique social networking visitors and 48% growth in total social networking visits. Canadians 55 and up represent a combined 18% share of total social networkers. In contrast, social networking actually declined among Canada’s youngest consumers in the same time period. Canadians age 2-17 reported 9% fewer unique visitors and an 18% reduction in total visits (European Travel Commission).  Increasing tech use by older people will be important to tourism too.  A PhoCusWright report notes that by the end of next year, travellers will book one third of the world’s travel sales online.

In spite of these increases, the tech-enabled lifestyle is not yet widespread among older age ranges, and this is caused by  technology choices that are complex and devices and software that are difficult to use, even as their use becomes a necessity.  What is true for all technology is that there is good design, for example, new tablet computers, and there is bad design, for example TV remotes (AARP). Good design is intuitive and easy to use at any age.   To enable a connected living and social aging experience, vendors need to step up and begin to design for all, enabling user experiences that can appeal to all age groups (AARP).

The ageing market is a big market.  This year (2011), the leading edge of the nearly 80 million Baby Boomers in the United States will turn 65 and become “officially” senior citizens. But the Boomer generation isn’t just big — it’s made up of people who think and act differently than previous generations. As Boomers confront “old age,” they will certainly defy what we think it means to “get old.” It will “challenge us to rethink how we use the web and how we engage older people with newer technologies” (Jamie Carracher).  With the ageing of the population, “accessibility has to be built into the planning processes for new projects from the beginning, including consideration of design, text size and physical usability.”

The European Commission is funding an online survey looking at eAccessibility.   The survey will provide an overview of the status and progress of eAccessibility-related policies and technologies in 12 selected European countries and three non-European countries.   It aims to contribute to the development and implementation of the European Union’s policy of eAccessibility by providing useful information about the approaches, practices and the impact of measures to promote eAccessibility.   It will look at the ways that people with disabilities and others (such as older people) overcome the technical barriers and difficulties they experience when trying to participate on equal terms in the information society. 

The opinion of organisations representing people with disabilities and users is very valuable for the aim of this study, even if eAccessibility is not a core feature of their activities.  The survey asks about the everyday eAccessibility experiences of end users and people with disabilities, and does not require any specific technical knowledge.  The information collected will be processed anonymously. It will be used to make comparisons between countries but will not be linked to any individual organisations, and will be used for non-commercial purposes.  The results of the survey will be compared with the data collected from ICT and policy experts in order to have the widest possible view of the current eAccessibility context.

To access to the survey, please follow these easy steps:
- Go to http://www.eaccessibility-monitoring.eu
- In the section “National experts” in the bottom right hand corner, enter the following user and password: Name: User066 and Password: User066_01
- Click on “Survey”
- On the left side, click on “add” and after that, click on “Continue”.

 Technosite (which is running the survey) has provided a glossary of the key terms used in the survey.

 For more information, contact users66@technosite.es

The John F. Kennedy for the Performing Arts and partners are holding a conference on Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) in August.  LEAD has been engaging cultural administrators from around the world in a conversation on accessibility, disability and inclusion for more than 10 years. Two days of conference are preceded by three days of relevant pre-conference workshops. The conference is aimed at cultural organizations such as museums, galleries, and theatres, and at state and local governments, universities and colleges and anyone involved in the arts with an interest in access for people with disabilities. It will consider a broad range of access topics, such as web accessibility, social media, captioning in theatres, the Americans with Disabilities Act, access evaluations, staff and volunteer training, effective access planning, effective communication for people who are blind/low vision, and/or deaf/hard of hearing, audio description, funding, grants, and much more.  LEAD is a professional network focused on expanding the breadth and scope of accessibility services and programming across the USA and around the world. The network:

• explores practical methods for implementing accessibility in cultural environments;
• communicates information about arts and accessibility, and;
• shares resources and knowledge among professionals in the field of accessibility.

 A variety of helpful tip sheets can be found here.

Museums across Australia have been offering audio tours for some time but now there is a way for Deaf and hearing impaired Australians to gain access to this information: through a smart phone! The Smart Auslan (Australian Sign Language) service has been introduced at the National Sports Museum in Melbourne. Each year, approximately 150,000 people visit the National Sports Museum and listen to audio descriptions of the exhibitions.  Now Deaf and hearing impaired Australians can access the same information.  Visitors use this application (or a preloaded device available at the museum) to scan a Quick Response code at each exhibit. The device then plays a video with Auslan sign language translation and captions.

Guest article by Manuel Calvillo, Project Manager, Puedo Viajar

While for most people organizing and planning holidays and accommodation is already part of the journey and an enjoyable experience, for people with disability the process of looking for information can be very unsatisfactory and stressful.  This is because it is really hard to find destinations, accommodations, attractions, restaurants, museums, adventure activities and other tourism facilities that provide relevant and reliable information about the accessibility of their facilities.  Faced with this situation  FEJIDIF(Provincial Federation of Associations of People with Physic and Organic Disabilities of Jaén –Spain) decided to create an e-portal (Puedo Viajar) about  accessible tourism based on social networks and Web 2.0 where people with disabilities can ask for information, share experiences, and find reliable information about the accessibility of tourist facilities.

 Puedo Viajar has two main sections. One of them is aimed at businesses, professionals, and administrations  who want to publicize and promote their accessible tourist attractions and facilities  in a space that speaks directly to travelers and tourists with disability.  The other is aimed at anyone interested in accessible tourism. We have developed a set of tools for those who register as members on the site. Through these tools, anyone may perform different activities to help plan their trips and vacations. Some of these functions include to:

• Assess from personal experience the accessibility of tourism facilities and share this information with all members.
• Ask other members about accessibility in their travel and places visited by them.
• Recommend, critique, compliment, and create feedback about tourism facilities.
• Be able to leave comments on the inputs and experiences shared in Puedo Viajar by other users or by companies and owners of touristic facilities.
• Share videos and photos about their experiences on their trips and vacation.
• Send direct messages to other members of the community,
• Contact directly managers of tourist facilities featured on Puedo Viajar.
• Select, store and remove tourist experiences posted by other users into a personal travel folder to organize and plan future trips and vacations.

Puedo Viajar has a profile on Facebook and Twitter and a blog in which we have been collecting the most relevant information in the media about accessible tourism since November 2009.  We are already over 200 members in the community, with almost 60 shared experiences. Currently we are working on the final development of these applications. We expect to complete the Spanish version of the website by June 2011, after which we plan an Englis version. Any person, government, association or corporation interested in participating or having more information about this project, please contact Manuel Calvillo through manolocalvillo @ fejidif.org / info@puedoviajar.es

The Enabling Technologies Framework is a three-year project funded by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization)and endorsed by the Stakeholders Platform of WIPO  that was started in June 2010. This joint project involving both EDItEUR (the international group coordinating development of the standards infrastructure for electronic commerce in the book, e-book, and serials sectors) and the DAISY Consortium aims to further develop mainstream publishing processes so that they can deliver digital publications that are fully accessible to persons with reading disabilities. The Daisy Consortium is an international association that develops, maintains, and promotes international Digital Accessible Information Systems with the aim of making information available to people with print disabilities.  At the end of the first year of the project, EDItEUR launched the “Accessible Publishing, Best Practice Guidelines for Publishers” that are available in HTML, Word and PDF at http://www.visionip.org.

Journey without Barriers (JwB) is an initiative that provides the experience of barrier-free travel for the emerging global market of persons with disabilities and senior citizens because: 

• People with disabilities and their caregivers/friends constitute a huge potential tourism consumer market.  This potential still remains       untapped in India. 
• People with disabilities all over the world have the same needs to travel and go places  as any one else. Lack of accessibility is a major reason for       restricting their travel.
• Increasingly, older people from around the world enjoy travel and would like some basic facilities that will help make their travel easier.

 JwB will enable a process, whereby persons with disabilities enjoy the benefits of leisure and travel, while contributing to the growth of the tourism industry and the economy at large. The focus will be on developing accessible tourism opportunities in India, while tapping into the global market of persons with disabilities and senior citizens.   JwB will be set up as a wing of Travel Another India (TAI), www.travelanotherindia.com a Responsible Tourism Venture (RTV), in India.
JwB will ensure that :

• Basic accessibility in all the services; e.g., accommodation, travel, sightseeing, shopping, etc. is provided
• Physical assistance is provided where necessary; e.g., while transferring from a vehicle, crossing the road, etc.
• Safety within the services is provided; e.g. safe transfers to and from the wheel chair, safety while walking/climbing, etc.

 JwB is committed to the economic viability of this project, to its potentail to increase social sustainability, and to including people with disabilities.  To read more about these aspects…….
  Continue Reading

At a time when New Zealand is focused on recreating the built environment of ita second-largest city (Christchurch), a new enterprise has launched with two significant and potentially contributory new initiatives: New Zealand’s first nationwide accessibility programme, Be. Accessible, and the first nationwide disability leadership programme of its kind, Be. Leadership.

At its launch event at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Be. Institute formally presented the two programmes and outlined the vision for what the institute, through its initiatives and partnerships, can do to foster accessibility and enable a 100% accessible society for all New Zealanders.

The mission is social change: to improve the accessibility of the physical environment, enable better access to information, promote the inclusion and leadership of disabled people in employment and the community, and change social attitudes and behaviours.

In many respects, the timing of the launch is optimal. One Be. Institute project, the Be. Test Match, will be rolled out through the Be. Accreditation programme (part of Be. Accessible) to the 12 New Zealand cities hosting Rugby World Cup 2011.

In the first phase, the Be. Assessors will visit key locations in each of the 12 cities and assess stadia, fan zones, i-SITES and other relevant locations such as hotels.

However, the organization’s aims for its programmes reach beyond this sporting event. By the end of May 2011, Be. Accessible will have trained 40 Be. Assessors, who will be equipped with the tools and know-how to perform holistic assessments of the aforementioned sites, and thousands of others over time.

They will be able to cover the whole accessibility journey, asking questions like: how accessible is the organisation’s website,  what is the level of customer service, how accessible is the building entrance, interior and products, and are the business / organisation’s marketing materials accessible to all people?  Any business can book an accessibility assessment from a Be. Assessor and learn how they can change their practices or structure to make their organization more accessible.

The Be. Institute was founded through a partnership between the Auckland Council, the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and the Auckland District Health Board.  Be. Institute is led by chief executive Minnie Baragwanath, who before founding Be. Institute worked for 10 years in the disability sector, advising to the former Auckland City Council.

The USA National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation’s leading advocate for Internet access by blind Americans, has announced an agreement with Travelocity, one of the largest and most popular international online travel agencies, to make travelocity.com more accessible to the blind.  Under the agreement, Travelocity will make accessible by July 1, 2011, its home page and each initial Web page used for searching Flights, Hotels, Vacation Packages, Last Minute Packages, Cars and Rail, Cruises, and Activities, with the accessibility of the rest of the pages needed to complete a booking to follow soon after.  Travelocity has committed to make its entire Web site fully accessible to blind people by March 30, 2012. 

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “The Internet is a critical means of access to business, education, information, and entertainment in the twenty-first century, and the blind must have equal access if we are to be equal participants in society.  By making its popular online travel agency fully accessible to the blind, Travelocity is setting an example that should be followed by the entire online travel industry.  The National Federation of the Blind is pleased to have reached this important agreement with Travelocity, and we will continue to work tirelessly until the blind have equal access to the full range of products and services available to the public through the Internet and other information technologies.”

Nejib Ben-Khedher, Chief Operating Officer of Travelocity, said: “We are committed to providing our customers with the best service possible.  With that in mind, making our Web site accessible is of critical importance—all of our customers, including those who are blind, must be able to easily access our products and services.”

Pursuant to the agreement, Travelocity will develop a comprehensive accessibility program that will include the development of an accessibility guidelines manual, and the appointment of both an accessibility coordinator and an accessibility committee.  Additionally, Travelocity will continue to work with officials of the National Federation of the Blind to ensure that the Travelocity services remain accessible to the blind. Travelocity will submit its web site to the NFB Nonvisual Accessibility (NFB-NVA) Web Certification program, a rigorous procedure by which Web sites and applications that have made efforts to be accessible to the blind can be identified and recognized.  The NFB-NVA Web Certification program continuously monitors participating sites to ensure that they remain compliant with certification criteria.  If a site remains accessible, its certification is renewed on an annual or a version basis.  If accessibility issues arise, the National Federation of the Blind will work with the site developers to remedy them.

(NFB Press release)

Recently, PLATMA (Affiliate Members of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation) met with and interviewed Ivor Ambrose of the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT).  Ambrose outlined to PLATMA the growing importance of accessible tourism for people with disabilities.  This is a constantly growing market, estimated to represent around 130 million people in Europe alone with annual potential spending of around 68 billion Euros. These figures cannot be ignored by the tourism industry, since the lack of adequate facilities for disabled travellers means that many people cannot travel and this can have a huge negative impact on businesses and communities.  Ambrose discussed how to meet the needs of the access market:

• Information for customers, (on-line, printed and at the venue) should be accessible, e.g. Web sites conforming to Accessibility Guidelines by W3C-WAI.
• Transport and transfers must be accessible for all travellers throughout the journey; this should include the provision of wheelchair accessible transport.
• Infrastructure – all buildings and outdoor environments should be designed and maintained in a way that makes them accessible and usable by all visitors.
• Services – including activities and excursions offered at destinations and venues, should be accessible; e.g. tourist guides, waiter service, cultural tours, festivals and events, also very important -emergency evacuation procedures.

Ambrose further pointed out that the ageing population demographic in developed economies has drawn attention to the growing market of older tourists. This market segment typically spends more than average and also includes a higher number of persons with impairments or health conditions, which need to be considered by tourism providers.   Major sporting events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games have obliged host countries to improve accessibility for tourists. Social Tourism has also played a role in widening the availability of tourism to marginalized groups, and includes holidays for disabled people.

As well as that Accessible Tourism is a right under Article 30 of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention was signed by 140 countries (including New Zealand), but there is still a considerable gap between access needs and the solutions offered by destinations.

Serbia’s third conference on opportunities and challenges in accessible tourism for people with disabilities will be held in Belgrade, June 6-7, 2011.  The conference is being organised by the Tourist Club of the Association of Paraplegic and Quadriplegic “Dunav” Belgrade in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic and Regional Development.  It will focus on serving visitors with disabilities, especially in rural areas, and on improving profitability and sustainability in Access Tourism.  It will also focus on legislation and the development of accessible tourism in Serbia and throughout the European Union, information technology and universal design in accessible tourism, and accessible tourism in relation to mountain tourism, sport, health, spa, and wellness tourism.   Attendees are expected to include people from government, tourism associations and agencies, the transport sector,  academics, and the disabilities sector.

For more information visit Dunav or email tkdunav@gmail.com

In a positive step forward, the New Zealand Government has recognized the skills, knowledge and economic power of older people and how these will benefit New Zealand’s economic competitiveness in the next 40 years.  Minister for Senior Citizens John Carter – in releasing a report called The Business of Ageing, Realising the economic potential of older people in New Zealand: 2011-2051   – said that in less than 20 years, one million people in New Zealand will be over the age of 65, compared to about 560,000 today. And in 40 years, one in four people will be aged over 65, compared to one in eight today.  “People over 65 are predicted to be our only growth market in terms of demography. They will become one of the most significant consumer markets in New Zealand. They will have their own needs and preferences that are quite different from earlier generations of older people, and also quite different from younger people.  Baby boomers will be healthier, better educated and have more spending power than any other generation reaching 65 in New Zealand’s history.  They want to stay active and keep working. Flexible work options could drive job growth and help us respond to projected skill and labour shortages.  Government cannot work in isolation to develop priorities for older people, so buy-in from the business sector, employers and people of all ages is essential to capture the possibilities this report outlines” said Carter.

That the mature market is hailed as a good example of an opportunity for New Zealand, both domestically and internationally is a major step forward.   The report mentions tourism amongst other things.  Certainly, in tourism, there has been little recognition of the growing importance of this market.  The first mention of the fact that “travellers in the older age groups will become even more significant in the future” occurred in the Ministry of Tourism’(now part of the Ministry of Econmic Development) report, Interenational Visitors Tourism Sector Profile, in June 2009.  Then last year (2010), Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism John Key said that moteliers should not be surprised if their market becomes increasingly retired people. “They will travel around New Zealand as they will have more time on their hands and will want see the West Coast or whatever and you will get more of them as at the moment New Zealand has 535,000 over 65 and in 40 years it will have a million.” said Key.    Also in 2010, the government released a report which recognized the importance of the older market.  The report – Domestic Tourism Market Segmentation - went on to state that major barriers to this group travelling are “health and disability (their own or that of a travelling companion) as well as lack of travelling companions”.    

This latest report states that ”A tourism industry that responds to the changing demands of baby boomers over 65 could have spin-off effects for other industries and stimulate regional economic growth”. As Access Toursm New Zealand has pointed out on numerous occassions, if New Zealand is to seriously market to and cater for older travellers (or indeed, older markets in general), it has to take into consideration that disability increases with age, and must improve its access tourism offer.  Instead of seeing a person’s disability as a barrier (as the Segmentation Report does), it must look at  environment factors such as inaccessible tourism websites, transport, accommodation and other innaccessible products as disabling.