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

If you haven’t seen much yet about “age friendly” communities, you will. Starting next year, in the USA alone 10,000 Baby Boomers a day will turn 65. The cumulative impact of an aging society has moved — slowly, to be sure — into the mainstream. So writes Philip Moeller in US News. Older residents say that there are a number of things that would make their community more age friendly: housing that better accommodates older occupants and visitors; public and volunteered transportation that provides affordable, physically accessible, safe. and flexible service; downtown areas and, especially in the suburbs, gathering places that are pedestrian friendly and don’t require a car to reach; retailers who “get it” about legible store signage, senior sensitivity in product selections, and accessible store layouts. 

Why bother? According to the World Health Organization:

• In 2000, the global population of people aged 60 and over was 600 million; by 2025 there will be 1.2 billion and, by 2050, almost 2 billion.
• The proportion of the global population aged 60 will double from 11% in 2006 to 22% by 2050.
• Older people play a crucial role in communities – in paid or volunteering work, transmitting experience and knowledge, or helping their families with caring responsibilities. These contributions can only be ensured if older persons enjoy good health and if societies address their needs.
• Making cities age-friendly is one of the most effective policy approaches for responding to demographic ageing.

The WHO has set up an Age-Friendly Environments Programme which is an international effort to address the environmental and social factors that contribute to active and healthy ageing in societies.  Since cities have the economic and social resources to undertake the necessary changes to become more age-friendly and are in the position to lead the way for smaller communities, most of WHO’s initial work in this area has focussed on the urban environment. Cities wishing to become more age-friendly can take part of the WHO Global Network of Age-friendly Cities©.

In addition, the European Commission has recently launched an “Access City Award to highlight the European cities that are taking the most effective and innovative action to improve their accessibility for disabled citizens (read more here).

Lilian Müller is currently President of the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) and Managing Director of Tourism for All Sweden. She has worked in the field of accessible tourism since 1995, and was one of the initiators behind Tourism for All in Sweden.  She has been instrumental in building up services like the Swedish accessibility database EQUALITY, providing accessibility counselling for the tourism sector, produced training material and holding training courses for staff in tourism companies, and training accessibility auditors.  In an interview with the Design For All Foundation, Müller describes how tourism for all is not about designing and creating solutions and products just for people with disabilities, but is about making sure that these products fit the widest possible number of customers.   ENAT, which was established in 2006 with a grant from the European Union, partners and/or supports many projects around Europe such as CETA (Competitiveness for European Tourism for All).  ENAT also established ETCAATS (European Training Certificate – Access for All in the Tourism Sector), an online training course in Tourism for All, and a ‘road map’ for an EU certification system in the area of accessible tourism vocational training.   Müller describes how Access Tourism is becoming better known in Europe as a concept with the potential to increase visitor numbers.  Access Tourists are attractive because many are willing to spend more money in the low season and they are more loyal to destinations than the average tourist.  She points out that with an ageing population likely to experience increasing disability over time, no tourism operation can afford to ignore improving access.

Disabled people in New Zealand should to put pressure on the Government to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).  So said Professor Ron McCallum, Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities during a recent visit to NZ hosted by the Human Rights Commission.  The UN Committee is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Disability Convention by States Parties. McCallum is also professor at the University of Sydney Law School and is the first totally blind person to be appointed to a full professorship in Australia.  The HRC reports that Professor McCallum met with government officials and community people to share information and discuss issues around monitoring the Convention.   Professor McCallum believes the most important aspect of the Convention is its reliance on the social model of disability. This model states that people who have impairments are a natural part of our human diversity and that society creates barriers by not considering all people when designing buildings, websites, policies, etc. This view clarifies that government and society must commit to removing the barriers they create, so that all people can participate. There is particular onus on NZ to implement the Convention because NZ was instrumental in progressing the CRPD, and in fact won the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award for making noteworthy progress towards the full participation of citizens with disabilities.

Reprinted with permission from ADPN, Auckland, New Zealand newsletter, July 2010.

Early in 2010, with the help of some of our members, the Auckland Disability Providers Network (ADPN) made a written submission to the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) on the Regional Parks Plan. Vivian Naylor, Barrier Free Advisor and Educator (of CCS Disability Action) and I (Pam Antill, Executive Officer ADPN) also made a verbal presentation at a hearing and feel that changes are being made as a result of our efforts. Here is a quote from the feedback:  “As part of the deliberations, the sub-committee agreed on several amendments as a result of your submission, including the following new policy:  ‘Over the life of this plan undertake facility and service improvements (in accordance with the policies in Part 12 Infrastructure) at a range of beach and ilderness locations within regional parks to ensure that there is adequate shelter, toilet facilities, seating, disability parking spaces, firm surfaces from the disability car park space to the park entry and appropriately designed and maintained tracks to destinations such as viewing points and beaches; focusing in the first instance on destinations within the following coastal and wilderness locations: Arataki, Hunua Falls, Long Bay, Muriwai, Tapapakanga and Tawharanui.’…..”

Some Barrier Free audits have yet to be undertaken, but in time, it should be possible for everyone to enjoy access to at least some of the amazing wilderness that is part of our city. Interestingly, the submitters who followed us were from Shakespeare Regional Park, responsible for a new project run by a voluntary group called ‘SOSSI’. They are building a predator proof fence across the end of the peninsula and had just the previous week cut a new quick access path for convenience to a natural beauty viewing spot. On hearing our presentation,  they latched onto the idea of making this suitable for wheelchairs and other mobility vehicles. So! If nothing else, we may have influenced another group to make positive changes to their thinking.

Several recent incidents point to how money could be saved in New Zealand if Universal Design (sometimes called Lifetime design) principles were adopted at the start of all.   Universal Design is a framework for the design of places, things, information, communication and policy to be usable by the widest range of people operating in the widest range of situations without special or separate design. Most simply, Universal Design is human-centered design of everything with everyone in mind.  It refers to a broad-spectrum solution that produces buildings, products and environments that are usable and effective for everyone, not just the able-bodied or people with disabilities (PwDs).  Universal Design applies as much to tourism as it does to any other walk of life. It has a number of principals.  According to Lifetime Design, a NZ company, these include usability, adaptability, accessibility, inclusion, and lifetime value.

In one incident, the NZ Post Office has had to redesign a Blenheim Post Shop only weeks after a major overhaul made the shop virtually impossible to use for PwDs, seniors, and even parents with prams.  NZ Post would not make public the cost of the renovations to the revamped post shop.  In a second incident, the Greymouth Aquatic Centre – a brand new complex opened in 2009 – will spend up to $6000 to redesign and reconstruct a wheelchair access ramp found to be too steep (Greymouth Star May 2010).

Thanks to Linda Ingram for pointing these stories out.

Grand River Transit – which travels over twelve million kilometres per year in parts of Ontario, Canada – will buy more technology to automate the announcement of bus stops, using speakers and digital readouts. The decision follows a landmark ruling won by a blind Toronto passenger in 2007.  Jeff Outhit of the The Record reports that the new technology will improve transit for all passengers in many ways. “Satellite tracking of all buses is required to automate announcements. Knowing where all buses are at all times helps keep buses on schedule. The technology can be further developed to tell passengers when their bus will arrive, in real time. It can help plan better bus routes, minimize delays, and speed responses when buses break down.”  In addition, while this will be a great boon for blind and deaf passengers, even sighted passengers are sometimes unsure of stops so once again, a technology that helps a section of the disabilities community will help people in general.

Scott Rains, Access Tourism hero, is featured in this month’s Universal Design Newsletter. In an article subtitled “Building the Case for Inclusive Tourism” (Access Tourism), Lindsey Scherloum describes how Rains, founder of the Rolling Rains Report, has brought together people in the field from across the world, and how he has been  a key player in developing Access Tourism nationally and internationally.  For the full article, read on…………………..

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Builder eZine reports that Universal Design is a sleeping giant awaiting the alarm of demand from aging baby boomers and up-and-coming echo boomers. Designing for an average-size, able-bodied adult male is “no longer realistic given our changing culture and demographics,” says John Salmen, president of Universal Designers & Consultants (USA). “Accommodating disabilities is only the tip of the iceberg of universal design’s value.”

According to Scott Rains of the Rolling Rains Report, the goal of Universal Design (UD) is to create all products and environments to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation.  UD may not be universal now, but it could be by mid-century. A recent report published in the Journal of the American Planning Association forecasts that 28 percent of USA households will have at least one disabled resident by 2050.   And then there’s the friends and family factor.  The report – on ageing and disability – estimates that 91% percent of Americans buying newly constructed single family homes by 2050 will need to accommodate residents or visitors with physical disabilities.  By extrapolation, these factors will affect the tourism industry as well.  Why? Because in 2000, 35 million Americans were 65 or older (12% of the population), but this number is expected to climb to 86 million by 2050 (21%).  And disability increases with age.

However, as Nigel Maynard has pointed out, UD is not just for the elderly.  Instead, it “is a broader, more comprehensive ‘design-for-all’ approach to the development of products, architecture, and environments around human diversity.”

Research by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) suggests that boomers may soon start looking to home builders to provide a broader range of housing alternatives for independent living, including homes outfitted with wider entrances and turning radiuses, comfort height toilets, lever door handles, safety grab bars, and better lighting.  Demand could also rise for high-tech homes equipped with sensors to detect falls, emergency response security systems, and automated controls to regulate temperature, lighting, and appliances.  Such demand must surely spill over in demand for accessibility in tourism.

Worldwide, cruise passengers are expected to reach 14.3 million passengers this year, one million more than in 2009. In NZ, the cruise industry is growing faster than any other part of the tourism industry, and is worth $3 million/day in foreign exchange earnings.   The important role played by older tourists in this growing sector was last week recognized by the NZ Tourism Industry Association when CEO Tim Cossar stated that “the cruise market is being driven by high spending Baby Boomers”.   But Access Tourism New Zealand (ATNZ) has pointed out many times in the past (most recently, 6/11/2009,  9/12/2009, 13/1/2010, 3/2/2010), that our ports are ill prepared for an influx of older visitors, especially when it comes to improving access for ageing Baby Boomers, cruise passengers who are already disabled, and the increase in cruisers who will have a disability in future.  Why?  Because disability increases with age. 

 The rise in the number of cruise ships visiting New Zealand has been meteoric in the last several years.  The New Zealand Ezine Inside Tourism (IT) reported earlier this month that Ports of Auckland processed nearly 6,000 passengers in a four day period, and that the city will host 60 cruise ships over the season (IT 771).  Four Corners NZ travel news reports that 24 cruise ships are scheduled to dock in Lytellton this month, and some of these will also be visiting Kaikoura and Akaroa.  And Canterbury is hosting three times as many cruise passengers than they did just three years ago, according to Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism chief executive Christine Prince.

Cruise passengers travelling to New Zealand tend to be in older age groups.  72% are aged between 55 – 74 years, while only 5% were under the age of 40 (2006/2007 Cruise Research, Tourism New Zealand).  But even the age of non-cruise tourists to NZ has risen over the last decade (Tourism Leading Indicator Monitor August 2008), a trend likely to continue as the huge Baby Boomer generation retires and starts travelling more.

Along with an increase in the age of our visitors will come an increase in visitors with disabilities. In the cruise industry - whether as a result of recent successful consumer lawsuits overseas, or a dawning realization that travellers with disabilities have money to spend – cruise lines are slowly removing barriers to people with disabilities (CPA).  Last year, Access Now, a Miami Beach-based organization that promotes rights for disabled travellers, settled a lawsuit with Carnival Cruise Lines over lack of accessibility on the company’s cruise ships. Access Now currently has pending lawsuits against several other cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Westtours and Costa Crociere. Several of these companies, however, are already in the process of improving accessibility for travellers with disabilities. Holland America, for example, has dedicated managers who oversee accessibility issues and requirements of guests with access needs. It would appear that these companies are recognizing the fact that wheelchair users and those with other disabilities already represent a legitimate segment of the cruise market.

Given the rise in cruisers, the ageing of cruise tourists, the consequent predicted rise in disability as cruisers age, and the increasing provision of access on ships resulting in more cruisers that also have disabilities, Access Tourism New Zealand advocates for an improvement in access at cruise ship terminals beyond mere compliance.  There are a number of planned revamps of cruise terminals in New Zealand, including in Auckland and Lytellton.  An inclusion of design principles that take into account the needs of people with disabilities and seniors can only but help the New Zealand cruise industry. 

Why focus on travellers with disabilities?  Because it is ageing Baby Boomers – who will experience increasing disability as they age – who have the disposable income to spend on-shore, and who will swell the current ranks of people with disabilities who already want to travel, but have few choices because of lack of provision. Because travellers with disabilities “see the benefit of taking a cruise because many ships now have accessible features for people with physical, sight, and hearing disabilities” (Tierney, June 2009), we can expect to see more such travellers coming ashore at New Zealand ports.

The Internet has brought enormous benefits to people with disabilities, allowing them to become more competitive when applying for jobs, lessen their dependence on others, engage more actively in public debates and connect with their peers in ways that were impossible before.   So writes Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera on the front page of  the San Francisco Chronicle.   And businesses have also learned that they stand to benefit by meeting the needs of the disabled.

Of course, this means that PwDs wanting to plan a trip will find it easier and easier to find and compare information about destinations.

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Dr. Scott Rains has been made New Mobility magazine Person of the Year, a fitting honour for this internationally influential access advocate who tirelessly works for access improvement, especially in the field of toursim.  Go Scott!

How do blind people use a computer without seeing the screen or using a mouse.  A blind blogger tells us how here:

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The Tourism New Zealand website has information about accessible accommodation.  The website states that “accessible accommodation in New Zealand provides access to comfortable accommodation for wheelchair users, disabled, elderly or infirm guests. Before booking your accommodation, you should always check with your hosts to check that adequate provision is available for your specific requirements, be it a general accessibility issue or specific facilities catering for hearing or visually impairment.”

However, the website fails to inform those wanting accessible accommodation in New Zealand that not all hosts know what true accessibility is.  This is borne out by a study of tourism operations on the West Coast of the south island, which looked at wheelchair access into the premises (i.e., could a person enter the premises in a wheelchair unassisted).  No other aspect of access was studied.  Even so, 90% of operators thought their businesses were easily or somewhat accessible, whereas only 38% were accessible in terms of wheelchair access, and this percentage was bound to be lower if all aspects of access had been studied.   With accommodation providers, only 30% of booking offices were wheelchair accessible, and of five “guaranteed-by-the-operator” wheelchair-accessible units (which were studied in depth for all aspects of accessibility), only two where truly accessible.

In addition, an examination of many “guaranteed-by-the-operator” wheelchair-accessible accommodation units throughout New Zealand has shown similar results.  The most recent: an examination in November 2009 of three large hotels in a large city – one about thirty years old, one about 12, and one only 2 years old – all of which should have complied with the standard for access in the NZ Building Code/Act because they have recently been refurbished or are new – but don’t.  Therefore, it is inadvisable for people with disabilities to rely upon the guarantees of accommodation providers, who are probably not trained in what true access is, and who unknowingly give false assurances.

The problem of quality assurance in access in accommodation (and indeed in all other tourism and travel sectors) in New Zealand could be alleviated if access for people with disabilities was part and parcel of our Qualmark ratings.  Qualmark New Zealand Limited is New Zealand tourism’s official quality agency. It is a government and private sector partnership between Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Automobile Association. Qualmark “licenses professional and trustworthy New Zealand tourism businesses to use the Qualmark ‘tourism’s official quality mark’ to help international and domestic travellers select places to stay, things to do and ways to get around”.

This is a “role defined for Qualmark in the New Zealand tourism strategy to help achieve the industry’s overall goal to enhance New Zealand’s reputation as a world class visitor destination. Qualmark is run on a not-for-profit basis as a service to travellers and the tourism industry.”

The Qualmark website tells visitors that Qualmark’s function is “helping you find quality places to stay, things to do and ways to get there”.   However, the site does not provide a search engine which can be used to search for such things as “disability”,  “access”, wheelchair access”, or in fact any term.  Therefore, if a search is done for, say, a hotel in New Zealand’s capital city Wellington, what is provided are quick descriptive blurbs and links.  The potential tourist is then left to find out themselves which hotel claims to be accessible – with of course no guarantee that it is so.  There is no accessibility requirement amongst the criteria for the star grading system (Qualmark) in New Zealand, and no accessibility requirements, so that any operator can and does get the highest rating with no access.  Even worse is the fact that there is NO qualified assessment by a registered access assessor of those operations that claim they are accessible and get a Qualmark rating.

The Automobile Association Travel New Zealand website does allow searches using key words like “wheelchair” and “disability”.  A search today (21/12/2009) using several such terms for accessible accommodation in one of our major cities provided two hits. One was for a motel, but there is little information on the motel website, and the other was for a hotel.  There is no information about access for people with disabilities on the hotel’s website at all.  One problem concerning any business that does come up when terms such as “wheelchair’ or “disability” are searched on the AA website  is that, according to the AA, “all material is supplied by those advertising and is advertiser approved prior to publication” (NZAA personal communication).  Again, people with disabilities must rely upon the knowledge of operators, which can be a problem.  And customers who have been assured they are getting accessible accommodation (or access to any tourism business – restaurants, attractions etc), but end up in inadequate facilities are unsatisfied customers who will pass on this information.

In a report on Voxy News, Viv Maidaborn, chair of the Board of Lifemark (a way to identify a home that is designed for everybody), said New Zealanders were increasingly demanding that consumer products and services are inclusive of all people.  Lifemark was established by CCS Disability Action as a quality standard certification of the inclusion of Lifetime Design concepts.   Homes awarded the Lifemark have 33 design features including a level entry, widened doors and passageways, all aimed at making the house accessible for everyone and easy to adapt as residents’ needs change over time.   Ministry of Social Development chief executive Peter Hughes recognizes the need for accessibility.  “The demand for disability-friendly housing is set to rise significantly over the next 30 years as the population ages. The reality is that the design of New Zealand’s housing stock does not yet take into account this dramatic shift in demographics.”  But we should not stop there – there is of course a need to make businesses universally accessible too.

The recently released “Step Up Auckland” report (see 6 November, below) outlines some of the key aspirations and issues of PwDs in Auckland city.  A joint research project by the Auckland City Council, Auckland District Health Board, Waitakere City Council, and Auckland University of Technology Institute of Public Policy, the report was launched in September 2009.

A video of Aucklanders with a variety of disabilities is available on You Tube.  They discuss transport and other aspects of getting around the city, social participation, work, support, and their aspirations of how Auckland city could be.

At last week’s U.N. “ESCAP Takayama Congress on the creation of an inclusive and accessible community in Asia and the Pacific”, a committee of eleven representatives created a declaration laying out 20 recommendations aimed at improving accessibility for people with disabilities (PwDs) in the region.  The committee, chaired by Aiko Akiyama, Social Development Division, U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific, included members from Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Japan, and New Zealand.  Congress participants from 15 Asian-Pacific countries subsequently adopted the declaration at the U.N. meeting.   The committee and other congress participants represented governments, the private sector, disabilities organisations, individuals with disability, accessible tourism organisations, academic and research institutions, and/or development organisations.

The “Takayama Declaration on Development of Community for All” lays out recommendations on regional networking, advocacy, policy development, research and data collection, capacity building and resource mobilization on improving accessibility.

The Congress was held from 24 to 26 November in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture in central Japan , using the host city as an example of a success story.

A mountain resort, Takayama has been promoting accessible tourism for the last 18 years, creating economic opportunities as well as a more barrier-free environment for persons with disabilities. The local authorities, working in partnership with the private sector and civil society organizations, made improvement to facilities in the city to make them more barrier-free, and purchased accessible devices and means of transportation. Mayor Mamoru Tsuchino, who pioneered these initiatives, spoke at the conference.

During the three-day meeting, about 200 participants – policy makers, tourism professionals, experts on accessibility and persons with various disabilities – made field visits to various accessible facilities to learn from Takayama’s experiences. They also had opportunities to meet local residents whose awareness of and respect for the needs of persons with disabilities have contributed to the success of making Takayama a barrier-free community for its own citizens and for visitors to the city.

Takayama street scene

Hospitality Net reports that Scandic is the first hotel chain  to gather all its information for guests with disabilities in one place. Every hotel’s homepage now provides answers to the 80 most common questions. For example how far it is from the car park to the entrance, whether there is a hearing loop and how wide is the door to the room. 

 We all seek out information when choosing hotels and meeting venues, and we ask questions based on our own individual requirements. Hotels all have different designs and every guest has different needs, so it is extremely important to offer information that can help each person to choose the accommodation that best suits them. In recent months, Scandic has surveyed all its hotels, measuring, testing and assessing the existing facilities and obstacles. Travelling with special needs often requires more planning, and the new information will make that process easier.

A news release on 3 September 2009  reports challenges to a number of leading Auckland organisations to tackle barriers that get in the way for 77,000 disabled Aucklanders.  The report shows that disabled people could play a bigger part in the city if barriers were removed in public spaces, services and buildings, transport and communications, work and study.
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