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

M Shed – which is part of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives’ – has recently received a Jodi Mattes Trust Award for Digital Access onsite. Their PenFriend Audio Access project was announced as the winner at a recent presentation held at Swansea’s National Waterfront Museum.   The awards relate to the use of existing technology to widen access to information and collections for disabled people more effectively and creatively. They were first given in the UK in 2003, European Year of Disabled People, and celebrate practice that inspires locally, nationally or  internationally.  The  PenFriends are audio devices that allow visitors to M Shed to listen to stories in the galleries. This is a free service provided to visually impaired visitors and to those who have difficulty reading print.

The M Shed also has induction loops, many of the films and video clips have subtitles, and transcripts of oral histories are available.  There are tactile maps of Bristol and other exhibits that can be handled in many of the galleries.

M Shed, as part of Bristol City Council, is committed to providing a website that’s accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.  They endeavour to conform to level Double-A of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 by building their site using code compliant with the W3C standard. The technical wording for this is “valid HTML 4.01 Strict for structure and CSS for presentation”.  The site displays correctly in current browsers – though there may be visual differences. Using HTML/CSS standards means any future browsers will also display content correctly.   Whenever possible, links are written to make sense out of context.   The text size on the site is specified in a way that makes it resizable in any browser, should it be too small to read comfortably.  M Shed is keen to hear from people if anything needs changing to make their site more  accessible.

M Shed is fully accessible to wheelchair users, and wheelchairs can be borrowed. There is level access throughout and lifts to all floors. These lifts are designated fire evacuation lifts and have tactile buttons and spoken floor announcements.   There are accessible parking spaces and a drop-off/ pick up point for taxis, accessible toilets, changing facilities, and café.  Visitor Services staff have been trained to meet the needs of all visitors. For further information about accessible facilities contact the museum on 0117 35 26600 or emailinformation@mshed.org

Two new text books on accessible tourism are available through the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) from Channel View Publications. The first is “Concepts and Issues” (eds: Dimitrios Buhalis and Simon Darcy), which sets out to  explore and document the current theoretical approaches, foundations and issues  in the study of accessible tourism.  Professor Nigel Morgan, The Welsh Centre for Tourism Research states that this volume harnesses “the best conceptual  developments on the topic” and that it will “take accessible tourism and universal design debates into the mainstream of academic enquiryand industry practice“

The second volume is “Best Practice in Accessible Tourism” (eds: Buhalis, Darcy, and Ivor Ambrose).  It focuses on policy and best practice in accessible tourism, reflecting the ”state-of -the-art” as expressed in a selection of international chapters. It brings together global expertise in planning, design and management to inform and stimulate providers of travel, transport, accommodation, leisure and tourism services to serve guests with disabilities, seniors and the wider markets that require good accessibility. Chapter 8, written by Sandra Rhodda of Access Tourism New Zealand, describes the state of accessible tourism in this country.  Overall, the book gives ample evidence that accessible tourism organisations and destinations can expand their target markets as well as improve the quality of their service offering, leading to greater customer satisfaction, loyalty and expansion of business.  Accessible tourism is not only about providing access to people with disabilities but also it addresses the creation of universally designed environments that can support people that may have temporary disabilities, families with young children, the ever increasing ageing population as well as creating a safer environment for employees to work. Noel Scott, of the University of Queensland, Australia says that the volume “provides a ‘state-of-the-art” assessment of both theory and practice. This book establishes a new field of study and provides the benchmark against which other contributions will be judged. It integrates the work of all the key players and should be read by academics, managers and government policy makers.”

In June, the World Report on Disability was launched by the World Health Organization and the World Bank.  A key recommendation of the World report is the need to strengthen research. Without evidence on issues such as need and unmet need, costs, impact of services, quality of life of people with disabilities, it is difficult to make recommendations for how countries can respond more effectively. Two forthcoming research symposia will contribute to addressing gaps in research on health and rehabilitation. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and University of Sydney are each sponsoring a meeting where new and established researchers will present their research.

The best papers from these meetings will be published in the journal Disability and Rehabilitation, one year after publication of the World report, together with other contributions which focus on the contribution of rehabilitation to improving the lives of persons with disabilities. Papers are encouraged which relate to recommendations for research outlined in the report:

• The impact of environmental factors (policies, physical environment, attitudes) on disability and how to measure it; 
• Measures of the lived experience of people with disabilities, including measures on quality of life and well-being;
• What works in overcoming service barriers in different contexts;
• Effectiveness and outcomes of rehabilitation services and programmes; and 
• The cost–effectiveness of public spending on disability programmes.

Wherever possible, research should reflect the active participation of persons with disabilities themselves, and be grounded in the human rights approach. The deadline for submissions of papers is January 15 2012.  Given that journals such as Disability and Society, Alter and the Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research have also welcomed the publication of the World report, there is scope for publication of research relevant to other issues – support services, accessibility, education, employment – in other journals.

The WiderNet Project’s Global Disability Rights Library (GDRL) serve people with disabilities in developing countries who lack adequate Internet access.  It is supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In collaboration with the United States International Council on Disability (USICD) the GDRL brings a wealth of global information to disabilities organizations, disability rights advocates, and policymakers. Millions of people around the world will find it easier to access hundreds of thousands of educational and organizational resources on disability rights, whether or not they have access to the Internet. The library’s collection includes resources such as information on independent living, advocacy, education, transportation, public policy, employment, vocational rehabilitation, and other topics.

The WiderNet Project is a non-profit service program in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa that promotes low-cost information and communication for underserved populations.  It has developed The eGranary Digital Library, also known as “The Internet in a Box”, an off-line information store that delivers over 14 million educational resources to people living in underserved areas of the world. Many of the subscriber institutions have no Internet access. Even those who have an Internet connection experience slow, unreliable and very expensive service. Often, teachers, students, and practitioners must pay per minute while online and it literally takes days to search a website. The eGranary Digital Library delivers digital information directly to Web servers inside the institution, bypassing the problem. With the eGranary Digital Library, thousands of people can access the information — websites, electronic books, journals, and software — over their local area networks quickly and at no cost. The eGranary is already installed at over 350 universities, schools, government ministries, health care centers, and libraries worldwide.

Access Tourism New Zealand materials will appear in the Global Disability Rights  Library eGranary without modification, retaining all citations, copyright information, author information, and credits – exactly as they appear on the internet at the time.

The deaf, deaf-blind, speech and hearing-impaired community in New Zealand will soon benefit from an expanded range of communication services says government  minister of Information and Communication Technology, Steven Joyce.  New services to be progressively introduced from late this year will include captioned telephony, which allows people to read live captions of spoken phone conversations. People will also be able to contact the relay contact centre by mobile phone, and use a prepaid calling card to make international calls by Internet relay.

Louise Carroll, Chief Executive of The National Foundation for the Deaf (NFD), said the new captioned phone service will bring the telephone back to thousands of New Zealanders whose hearing has forced them into isolation.   “So many Hearing impaired New Zealanders have lost a key part of their independence because they can no longer use the telephone.  At last, with captioned telephony, we hill have a phone service that is as close to a real-time telephone call as modern technology allows. We  take for granted our ability to use the telephone, but for so many, the phone
is off-limits because their hearing makes it impossible to use.  Just imagine not being able to call your family, not being able use the phone to make an appointment, and not even being able to call a taxi.  Now all that will change.  The NFD and others in the hearing disability sector have been working for some time to bring captioned  telephony to New Zealand.  This is world-leading technology and we are looking forward to working with the relay provider to ensure as many Hearing Impaired New Zealanders as possible can take advantage of it” said Carroll.

The Telephone Relay Service  already provides a text-based relay for the Hearing Impaired but it relies on the relay assistant typing what the other person is saying, resulting in time-lags and frequent frustration for both parties to the call.  With captioned telephony, the relay assistant will “re-voice” the conversation using voice recognition software, eliminating much of the delay. The service will also allow relay calls from cellphones, and follows the introduction last year of video relay which allows the Deaf community to talk to the relay assistant in sign language.

Congratulations are due to Tauranga City Council for becoming probably the first Council in New Zealand to decide to adopt an Age-Friendly Vision and to integrate a strategy in the Council Long Term Plan 2012-2022.  For some years now various individuals and community agencies in Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty have promoted the relevance of the Age-Friendly Cities concepts for this high ageing region.  A Towards Tauranga Age-Friendly City Collaboration of 11 agencies submitted to the City Council Annual Plan seeking ‘A City For All Ages.’  Similar submissions were addressed to Western Bay of Plenty District Council and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. It was proposed that each Council allocate staffing resource to develop a strategy this year for inclusion in Council Long Term Plans. Many people took part and attended in support of the submission hearings.  “It is very heartening that the community voice was respected by the City Council,” said Carole Gordon, Convener of the collaborative effort.

The Global Age-Friendly Cities framework is promoted by the World Health Organization as a guide for Local Governments to respond to planning for population ageing. It seeks to adapt systems and policies to meet the independence needs of increasing numbers of mature and older people as the baby-boomer generation ages. “What is really interesting is that when improvements are made to suit elders, the outcomes produce social and economic benefit for all generations,” says Carole.  “While this is often hard to understand, we have to look ahead with a generous and not limited perspective, after all, this group will be largest set of consumers the world has ever known! Here in Tauranga the number of people 65+ will increase by 50% within the next ten years and is projected to reach nearly 32,000 by 2026.”

As well as the WHO Global Age-Friendly Cities programme, there are a number of other international initiatives to improve access in cities.  Recently for example, Avila Spain won the first European Commission Access City Award, and Charlotte North Carolina and Brazos Valley Council of Governments Texas (U.S.A.) won the Environmental Protection Agency “Building healthy Communities for Active Ageing Award”.  Singapore has created a “City for All Ages Project Office”, London’s Mayor promises an access legacy from Olympics/Paralympics 2012 and access improvement has been part of the games planning since 2004, and many cities across both the developed and developing world have access guides for seniors, people who are not as agile as they once were, or people with disabilities.  The reason? Populations across the world are ageing and there is an economic benefit to becoming age-friendly and improving access.

In February, the USA  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the winners of the fourth annual “Building Healthy Communities for Active Ageing Award”.  The principal goal of the Award program is to raise awareness across the US about healthy synergies that can be achieved when communities combine and implement the principles of smart growth with the concepts of active aging.  

What began as an initiative by the World Health Organization in 2007 has now trickled down to cities across the US, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and beyond. In its push for the continued creation of environments that foster social inclusion and social participation, WHO stresses that “Active ageing is a lifelong process, …[therefore] an age-friendly city is not just ‘elderly friendly.’

Smart growth principles include  communities designing places that increase mobility and improve quality of life. Neighborhoods that integrate homes with shops, services, and parks and recreational facilities allow residents—especially older adults—to pursue an interesting and active life without depending on a car.  Active aging takes place when elders regularly participate in structured and unstructured physical activities.  By 2030, the 65 and older population in the United States is expected to reach nearly 20 percent, or more than 70 million.  Communities can promote Active aging by implementing a diverse array of accessible physical activity programs or self-directed activities such as walking and biking to local parks and greenways.

The EPA Achievement Award winners are public sector entities or neighborhood or non-government organizations that demonstrate excellence in building healthy communities for active aging.  One of the 201 winners was the City of Charlotte, North Carolina.  In the last five years, Charlotte has built sixteen miles of greenways, 88 miles of bike facilities and 106 miles of sidewalks have been completed. By retrofitting dozens of streets and adding ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) ramps at intersections, the City has made improvements for pedestrians of all ages and abilities.  The other recipient was Brazos Valley Council of Governments, Texas. Brazos improved biking and walking facilities, developed a wheelchair accessible trail system at Wolf Penn Creek, and a LifeTrail™, a fitness circuit designed to meet the needs of persons of all abilities, amongst other things.

Meanwhile, Colin Milner, CEO of the International Council on Active Aging points out that those 50 and older represent a huge market.  ”While there’s bound to be some segmentation, certain values, principles, and social-economic forces are converging to the point where we can make some predictions for the market as a whole.”  These include growth of “green exercise” and green communities. “Hiking, trail walks, meditation gardens, labyrinths, cycling paths, gardening, and eco tourism will flourish going forward,” says Milner

 Sources: US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The Annals of Leisure Research is seeking papers for a special issue that examines the inclusion and citizenship of people with disability in “cultural life” (recreation, leisure, the arts, sport, or tourism).  The purpose is to:

a)      clarify what the terms inclusion and citizenship mean in different cultures;

b)      to place inclusion and citizenship to ‘cultural life ‘(recreation, leisure, the arts, sport or tourism) across discourses relating to economic, social and environmental contexts that affect people with disabilities participation; and

c)       to discuss the terms inclusion and citizenship from the ideological frameworks of government, researchers, providers of service or disability advocacy groups.

Submissions are sought from the consumer (demand), providers (supply) and coordination/regulation (government) sector perspectives. The guest editors invite interested researchers to contribute theoretical, methodological or empirical papers related to the theme of this Special Issue. The topics of potential papers include but are not limited to:

• The role of inclusion and citizenship in the construction of ‘cultural life’(recreation, leisure, the arts, sport or tourism) environments and experiences;
• What is the impact of inclusion/exclusion on the person and their experiences?;
• The social and/or cultural construction of inclusion in ‘cultural life’(recreation, leisure, the arts, sport or tourism) activities and experiences;
• The role of inclusion in the construction of cultural, sub cultural and personal identities of different societies;
• The role of inclusion in the construction and/or deconstruction of the intersection with gendered, ethnic and sexual identities within the experience of ‘cultural life’(recreation, leisure, the arts, sport or tourism);
• How experiences of inclusion compare and contrast between different dimensions of disability (e.g. mobility, vision, hearing, cognitive, sensitivities etc.);
• The impact of inclusion and citizenship within space and place making

Important Dates:

• Abstract deadline: 30 June 2011 to Jerome(at)dal.ca
• Notification of acceptance of abstracts deadline: 1 August 2011
• Submission for double-blind reviewing process: 30 November2011
• Review Process Notification: 30 January  2012
• Special issue publication: June or December 2012

For submission guidelines and more, continue reading……………..

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The Pacific Rim International Conference on Disabilities (Pac Rim) will this year include a number of themes in the realm of tourism.  These are:

• Best practice for inclusive and accessible tourism which includes destination, products, and services
• Accessible tourism best practices, information, guidelines, audits for tourism products
• Universal design (i.e., design which includes all people) for tourism, sport, and recreation, international accessibility standards, and technologies
• Community tourism as a means to reduce poverty and prevent disability or provide accessibility or services

The Pac Rim conference takes place April 18 and 19^th in Honolulu.   Pac Rim – run by the Centre on Disability Studies, University of Hawaii – has been widely recognized over the past 25 years as one of the most “diverse gatherings” in the world.   Each year the conference hews to its traditional areas which have bred much of the interdisciplinary research and educational advances of the last three decades. But each year new topics are introduced to foment discussion and change. The intent is to harness the tremendous synergy as generated by the intermingling of these diverse perspectives.  The event encourages and respects voices from “diverse” perspective across numerous areas, including: voices from persons representing all disability areas; experiences of family members and supporters across all disability areas; responsiveness to diverse cultural and language differences; evidence of researchers and academics studying disability; stories of persons providing powerful lessons; examples of program providers, natural supports and allies of persons with disabilities and; action plans to meet human and social needs in a globalized world.

UK companies have been urged by the CEO of People 1^st  – the sector skills council for the hospitality, leisure, tourism and travel industries – to ensure their services are “disability-friendly” and accessible ahead of the London Olympics and Paralympics 2012.  Brian Wisdom said that businesses would be short-sighted if they do not make moves to improve accessibility, as more than 20% of Britons have a disability.  The estimated annual purchasing power of people with disabilities in the UK is £80 billion.  BBC commentator and Paralympic gold medallist Marc Woods notes that there are simple steps businesses can take to welcome people with disabilities.  These include being friendly and respectful, because 66% of disabled people choose businesses renowned for good customer service and 83%  percent have taken their business to a more accessible competitor.

According to the London Organising Committee of the Games, thousands of applications to become Games Maker volunteers have been received from disabled people.  A new campaign to train 200,000 hospitality and tourism staff ahead of the Games has been launched by People 1st with backing from VisitEngland.  The WorldHost training programme includes learning modules on serving customers with disabilities. It covers topics such as knowing the right language to use and being aware of feelings, misconceptions and biases

Scoop reports that for the first time ever, the New Zealand deaf community will be fully included in Waitangi Day celebrations at Waitangi.   Waitangi Day marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 between representatives of the British Crown and over 500 Maori chiefs.  This year New Zealand Sign Language Interpreters of both Maori and English will sign during formal speeches at the Treaty Grounds.   The Office for Disability Issues will provide this service as a direct result of lobbying by Whangarei-based Tiaho Trust, a Northland disability-led organisation.  The 2006 New Zealand Census showed that 24,090 people use New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL).  New Zealand Sign Language was formally recognised as the third official language of New Zealand along with English and Maori in 2006 under the New Zealand Sign Language Act.

In a first for New Zealand, The New Zealand Tourism Research Institute at Auckland University of Technology has created a Research Programme Area in Access Tourism headed by Sandra Rhodda. 

 NZTRI’s Access Tourism programme aims to research and develop Access Tourism in NZ.  Access Tourism is tourism, travel, and hospitality for people with permanent or temporary disabilities, seniors, parents with strollers, and any person with a need for improved access.  This is an interdisciplinary research area that addresses the challenges and opportunities presented by Access Tourism.

The Access Tourist already represents a sizeable proportion of our tourism markets.  Between 17 and 20% of the population in our main markets already report a disability, and this percentage is bound to grow because the large Baby Boomer cohort is ageing and disability increases with age.  Those aged 45 or older already comprise almost half of our domestic and international visitors (and over 70% of our cruise ship visitors).

Areas of interest include:

• Research and policy development
• Understanding the Access Tourism market
• Awareness promotion and education of government and industry to the potential of Access Tourism
• Access Tourism product development and marketing in NZ
• Promotion of cooperation in a developing Access Tourism sector, including in the public and private sector
• Access Tourist satisfaction and motivation
• Economic and social benefits of Access Tourism
• Access Tourism as an important factor in tourism sustainability
• Relationship of Access tourism to Health, Wellness, and Medical Tourism
• Opportunities for Access Tourism legacy development around major events such as RWC2011

Guest article by Anna Huebner, Masters student at the Aalborg University in Denmark and intern at the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology 

Dahme/Mark (www.dahme.de) is a small township with some 3.500 inhabitants about 100km south of Germany’s capital Berlin, in a region which was and still is regarded as an economically weak  area. Like many eastern rural communities after the ‘Wende’ (The Change) in late 1989, Dahme and its surroundings was faced with migration, high unemployment rates, and an ageing population. The reconstruction of many building facades and rural roads has often not led to the desired re-vitalization of many of the smaller and bigger settlements in the area. 

However, Dahme experienced some further changes which were to significantly influence the townscape in the mid-1990’s when the Fläming-Skate (www.flaeming-skate.de) was built. The Fläming-Skate is a well-maintained 200Km long and at least 3m wide asphalted track, connecting Dahme and other bigger and smaller, sleepy villages. The route was initially planned to revive the Teltow-Fläming region by attracting cyclists and skaters, but soon it  also become a symbol for accessibility and integration, being – for example – the venue of the annual ‘Teltow-Flaeming Festival for Skaters and the Disabled’ (www.flaeming-skate.de). Meanwhile, Dahme has taken the chance to develop its inner city facilities on the basis of the barrier-free idea promoted by the Fläming-Skate. Thus, much attention has been paid to complying with accessible building standards at reconstruction sites of public- and private-owned facilities. A wide range of facilities in Dahme now grant free ‘Accessibility for All’. Amongst other such facilities, a barrier-free swimmer’s pool was opened last year, the tourist information centre moved into the town hall (now providing a barrier-free entrance), a hotel in the city offers a large number of accessible rooms, access has been created to major city sites (e.g. to the castle ruins and the abbey), the town sports-centre upgraded its tennis court, and dropped kerbs have been created. 

The regional tourism marketing advisor, Ursel Ochs, highlights the advantages: “accessibility means quality of life for all population groups. Older and disabled people, young families with buggies and younger children, and also cyclists profit from barrier-free facilities – it has become a market segment”. Future projects are already in planning. In 2011, for example, the main street is to be reconstructed, providing opportunity to develop barrier-free entrances to the shops along the road. 

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NZTRI staff at the conference

Podcasts of the presentations made at the inaugural Access Tourism New Zealand conference held in Auckland yesterday are now availabe on the NZ Tourism Research Institute website.  Presentations include those made by Sandra Rhodda, Director of Access Toruism NZ (talking about Access Tourism and New Zealand), Minnie Baragwanath(Access Tourism in Auckland), Diana Palmer (World Access Tourism), Bill Forrester (Inbound Tourism and Access Tourism), Mary Schnackenberg (The tourist with vision disabilites), Chris Peters (Tourism and the deaf or hard of hearing), Alexia Pickering (A wheelchair users experiences), Kathy Olsen (Accessible websites and information), Chris Ross (Transport and the disabled), and Auckland Disability Law (Legal aspects of Access Tourism).

2010 Legacies Now Measuring Up

The Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games held earlier this year have left lasting legacies for the disabled. Will New Zealand take the same opportunities presented by holding Rugby World Cup in 2011?  It is probable that we have left things a little late to make any large differences, although some progress is being made.  Access Tourism NZ has already described how planning to improve access around the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 began in 2004 and is ongoing.  In the case of British Columbia, the organizing committee for the Vancouver Games  (VANOC) knew from the beginning that its responsibility was not only to organize and stage successful Games that upheld the values of the Olympic and Paralympic movements, but also to improve the communities in which those Games would take place.  VANOC’s sustainability targets also included social sustainability.  In 2000, the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation partnered with the Province of British Columbia to establish the 2010 Legacies Now program. Since that time, 2010 Legacies Now has worked with more than 4,000 organizations province-wide, investing in programs that will be self-sustaining legacies in the areas of sport, healthy living, literacy, arts, volunteerism and accessibility.

 The planned legacies of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are numerous and multi-faceted. Of interest to Access Tourism are the following:

• precedent-setting planning and accountability through ongoing stakeholder engagement with consortiums representing persons with a disability
• enhanced accessibility in Whistler and Vancouver for people with disabilities; Whistler is now one of the most accessible resort communities in the world
• barrier-free guidelines for accessible events and accommodation
• A program called Accessible Tourism, a collaboration between 2010 Legacies Now, the Province, Tourism BC and other partners to help 3,600 tourism businesses and 27 recreations measure their accessibility and learn how to improve it so they can draw and serve people with disabilities, young and old (Scrapbook, p.15)
• The Measuring Up program, supported by 2010 Legacies Now along with the Province of BC, which helped more than 100 communities assess and improve accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities, including the elderly. Examples of the types of projects supported through Measuring Up include enhanced sidewalks and more accessible parks and transit options.
• Built environment:
  •  Richmond’s Speed Skating  Oval designed to meet and exceed national accessibility standards
  • Whistler Olympic plaza was slated to continue to serve as an outdoor gathering place for residents and visitors, equipped with an open grass lawn, amphitheatre seating, a 13,000 sq ft playground that is accessible to people with and without disabilities, outdoor performance spaces and public art commemorating the Games
  • The Olympic and Paralympic Village Whistler, located a short ride away from venues for Olympic and Paralympic athletes and officials, has a blend of accessible apartments, townhomes and hostel accommodation alongside a High Performance Centre
  • The new Vancouver Olympic Centre, which includes swimming pool change rooms  equipped with movable screen walls so all users, including those in wheelchairs, can use them more easily
  • City of Vancouver project “City Hall Community Garden”, with 40 new plots, eight of them accessible to seniors and people with disabilities
  • Three state-of-the-art playgrounds in Vancouver, Whistler and Richmond, which enable all children, able and disabled, to play together

The London Festival of Architecture (LFA) is a city-wide celebration of architecture in the capital. As London gears up for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games the festival looks at ways that planners, architects and local communities play their part in the development of “The Welcoming City” and access for people with disabilities.  For example, as part of the festival, LFA commissioned a water and solar powered wheelchair lift to address the challenges of equal access to historic sites.  The lift is designed by Matthew Lloyd Architects working with Architecture Inside Out and Price and Myers with the support of the Royal Engineers and the Royal Parks and can be seen at the Duke of York Steps, St James’.  The lift is an experimental project designed and created to raise public awareness about access, sustainability, and architecture in the public realm.

A Sensory Park for the visually impaired has recently been created in Chandigarh, India.   The local Institute for the Blind teamed up with the administration and Municipal Corporation to create a park similar to that for the blind in other parts of the world.  The park has many aromatic herbs and medicinal plants like jasmine, lavlena, albertine, mint, neem, tulsi, and bamboo which visitors can smell and touch. Other parts of Asia have similar gardens.  For example, Osaka, Japan has a wheelchair Sensory Garden where visitors can touch the exhibits (including sculptures). In the UK, there are many sensory gardens designed for people with disabilities, including at Hunstanton and Harrow, and in the USA, the National Garden Clubs website lists many such gardens in many states. Australia also has at least some such gardens for people with sight impairment and other disabilities (such as at the Lucas Garden School), and New Zealand has at least one.  The Sensation Walk Braille Trail in the Wellington Botanical Gardens is a 20 minute meander from the Treehouse, up to a Herb Garden and then a Rose Garden. The trail features a selection of plants and landscape elements chosen to stir the senses.  Features on the trail are marked with Braille posts and tactile footpath markers.

Fishbowl Cards is a company which focuses on children, adults, families and friends living with disabilities. What makes Fishbowl Cards unique is that there is no other product like it in the marketplace.

The passion behind Fishbowl Cards comes from Tina O’Neill Finn.  She realized – through her own experiences, a 30+ year career in the social expressions industry , a recognition that there are nearly 55 million individuals living with disabilities in the USA, and more than 100 million family members and friends who support them – that people with disabilities have absolutely no representation in the greeting card aisles of America’s retailers. In 1998, Tina began working to create and market a line of greeting cards, posters, and figurines that reflect the celebration of hope, recovery, improvement, achievement, love and support that children with special needs, their families and friends experience every day.

Leading up to, and beyond, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, 2010 Legacies Now has worked with the Province of BC, Tourism BC, and numerous other partners to help make BC a premier travel destination for people with disabilities.  2010 Legacies Now has created sustainable social and economic legacies around British Columbia in the lead up to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games.  They strategically invested in programs, organizations and communities, and through their networks, leveraged existing relationships and facilitated new partnerships to create self-sustaining community legacies.  This includes in the arena of Access Tourism.

2010 Legacies Now has supported programs and community projects which will continue to live for many years, creating an even greater impact than could have ever been imagined through social change and social innovation.

As a result of this legacy development work, 2010 Legacies Now and a number of their programs have been awarded Vancouver 2010 Sustainably Stars.  The Sustainability Star program recognizes Games-related sustainability innovations, focusing on social, economic or environmental benefit, including in Access Tourism. 

2010 Legacies Now is recognized internationally as a leader and innovator in community legacy development and social change and they are very proud of the work they  have been able to accomplish together with their partners. The legacies from the work will continue in communities throughout BC well beyond 2010.

Winchester City Centre retailers are being offered a free disability awareness training course,Welcome All next year.   Winchester City Council‘s tourism service recently commissioned a Destination Access Audit of Winchester City Centre with the support of Tourism South East, the regional tourism agency, and funding from the South East England Development Agency. The audit was designed to build a picture of the ‘Winchester experience’ from the perspective of visitors with a range of disabilities. The consultants tested out the rail station, buses, taxis, car parks, public toilets, shops, eateries, hotels and the Shopmobility service. They also looked for information on websites and in printed brochures which would help someone with a disability to plan a comfortable visit to the city.

The City Council is now working with other organisations to implement the report’s recommendations, so that Winchester is ready to ‘Welcome the World’ in time for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic games. The disability awareness training for retailers is one of the many actions stemming from the report.

Welcome All training has been organised by Winchester City Council with support from the Winchester Business Improvement District (BID) and Tourism South East. It will be tailored to the needs of local retailers, to help them provide a real welcome for customers with special needs and requirements.

The course is part of the Welcome to Excellence range of customer care courses provided by Tourism South East and recognised nationally by the tourism industry. It covers a range of sensory, mobility and learning difficulties; giving retailers the skills they need to communicate more effectively with their customers.

Retailers will learn how to provide a warm welcome to disabled visitors, boost sales and the reputation of their organisation, offer a first class service to customers with specific needs, and identify their responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act.

Alison Woods, Winchester City Council’s Tourist information Centre Manager said: “Tourism businesses, including Winchester Tourist Information Centre, have all found the course extremely useful. It showed us that there are many simple adjustments we can make which will enhance accessibility for all our customers.”

Cllr Patricia Stallard, Portfolio Holder for Heritage, Culture and Sport, added:

“As a council, we are committed to making the most of the many and varied opportunities which the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games can bring. I am delighted that we are using the magic of 2012 to improve services for those with disabilities, which I know will also benefit a wide range of other residents including parents with prams and older people.”