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

The years of work by a number of bodies in improving access in London in the lead up to the London Olympics and Paralympics (27 July-9 September) is now very evident. The Olympics and Paralympics will bring an extra 11 million visitors to London. Here are just some of the developments.

Transport for All in the UK (TfA), an NGO that has been working for two decades to further the cause of accessible transport in London today launched its new accessible transport information pages.   The Getting to the Games page is aimed at people who want to know how to access each of London’s transport services during Games time, including accessible parking and travelling into London from other areas of the UK. The Avoiding the disruption page contains information for disabled and older Londoners who want to get around as usual during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Access and facilities at each train station can be found on the National Rail website (station tool), and the website also has an Accessible Rail Travel page.  There is a journey planner available on the London 2012 site, which includes estimated journey times, and a place to download a complete map of all London’s train and tube services, including accessible stations.

Inside all venues, there will be a Games Mobility Service. They will provide wheelchairs, powered wheelchairs and scooters. They can also assist visually impaired visitors to their seats.  Vehicles at all venues can be pre-booked until mid-April. After that, vehicles can be requested on arrival at a venue on the day, on a first come, first served basis.

Inclusive London  (The Greater London Authority and Direct Enquiries) also have produced and access guide to all of the Olympic venues with a key to the meaning of symbols used.  Direct Enquiries, The Nationwide Access Register, was developed in partnership with RADAR and the Employers’ Forum on Disability to provide people with information about disabled access in buildings and premises all across the UK. The register has expanded since its creation to include additional information for parents such as pushchair access.

Inclusive London also has on its website information about accessible hotels, restaurants, pubs, entertainment and attractions, healthcare, shopping, and public services. It also provides information about these facilities around Great Britain.  Another website with invaluable information about access in London and in the UK is Tourism For All.  Well worth a visit.

Fiona Jeffery OBE, chairperson of the World Travel Market, told the Travel Weekly website that customers with mobility problems or disabilities are a rapidly growing consumer market, however their needs and interests are largely ignored by the industry as a whole.  Ms Jeffery said: “I want to address the issues of mobility and disability; we have an ageing population with a high disposable income and desire to travel but travel companies are not geared up to help them.”  She then went on to state that this “needs to change”.

The site found that specialist businesses working in the travel sector agreed with her sentiment, arguing that widespread problems such as lack of communication and understanding are limiting the numbers of disabled people choosing to go on holiday. Other operators such as Enable Holidays commented that disabled people seek a far greater level of detail when it comes to booking a holiday than most operators would currently be able to provide.

Ali Parker, general manager of Accessible Travel, which carries around 3,000 disabled holidaymakers and their companions, added: “Even as a specialist operator we often struggle to get the information and even when hoteliers tell us they are accessible, we find they are not when we look at them.”

The World Travel Market this year (5-8 Nov) is expected to focus more on accessible holiday opportunities, with Ms Jeffery looking to raise awareness of the barriers to customers.

Source, Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living 13 January 2012

Travel professionals – including independent and hosted agents – should stop viewing the special needs sector – including those travellers who have a disability – as a niche market and instead see it as a mainstream service option, says Andrew J. Garnett, president and CEO of theFlorida-based Special Needs Group/Special Needs at Sea (SNG).   Garnett says agents will see more requests to support special needs travelers and should be prepared.  This will be partly due to the growth in the number of people with disabilities with the growth in the percentage of Baby Boomers who are ageing (disability increases with age).   American Baby Boomers and mature adults took 340 million domestic vacations in 2006 and 110 million international trips from 2004-2006. The mature market alone spent $192 billion in travel expenditures. These markets contain many “slow walkers” individuals who do not consider  themselves disabled, but who could benefit from special needs products and services, Garnett says.

Garnett notes that some 63 million Americans (20%) have a disability and roughly 10 million aged 15 and older use a walking aid such as a cane or walker. An estimated 3.3 million use a wheelchair, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  The data is dated but Americans with disabilities spent $13.6 billion on travel in 2002 (the latest data available) and that spending is likely to have kept pace with the aging of the U.S. population and growing numbers of disabled. Studies show that 24 million disabled Americans would travel/travel more frequently if their special needs were met.

SNG has a professional education program (SNG Certified Accessible Travel Advocate) that can act as credits toward Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) certification. The one-hour, three-module program focuses on understanding accessible travel, building expertise in accessible travel and demonstrating accessible travel advocacy skills. “This initiative represents the first time travel professionals can become conversant with this market segment through online study and testing,” Garnett says. The program is presented in a non-commercial format with the focus purely on content.  It now has nearly 400 agent participants suggesting solid interest in serving the special needs market.  “Access to reliable disabled services – a wheelchair or scooter, for example – may be the difference between going or not going on the trip. Access to resources can be a key to families traveling together or for small groups.”

Garnett credits many suppliers – airlines, cruise lines, tour operators, hoteliers and destinations with opening opportunities for disabled travelers. “Access to special needs equipment and expertise has helped expand demand.”

Carlo Fidanza, European People’s Party (EPP) Group member in the European Parliament recently proposed a project on accessible tourism which will soon become a pilot project of the European Commission.  The proposal came at a meeting in Brussels which looked at accessibility of destinations, accommodations, and information within the EU’s new tourism strategy.  It was proposed that these “become fully accessible to people with disabilities, so that they become tourists not only in name, but in their own right and increase their travel requests. This does not only represent the protection of a right but also the investment in a very strategic area of the economy”.   The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 271 Members. The meeting was chaired by Adam Kosa MEP and Rosa Estaras Ferragut MEP – with the participation of the Vice President of the European Commission Antonio Tajani.

“Tourism policy in relation to disability offers a great opportunity to develop employment in the tourism sector. Business strategies and policies should encourage the development and professionalization of accessible tourism. That’s one key to improving the sector’s competitiveness and the attractiveness of destinations” said Estaras Ferragut

For further information:
Carlo FIDANZA MEP, Tel: +32-2-2845168
Ádám KÓSA MEP, Tel: +32-2-2845208
Rosa ESTARÀS FERRAGUT MEP, Tel: +32-2-2845163

Elisabetta Montano, EPP Group Press and Communications Service, Tel: +32-478-933978

@EPPGroup

The II InTourMarket (International Accessible Tourism) Conference will be held in Moscow on 19 March, 2012. The Conference –  supported by the Russian Government and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) –  will be held in connection with the VII International Travel Fair “Intourmarket (ITM)” at the IEC Crocus Expo.  International experts, tour operators, insurance companies and airlines, charity funds and organizations are invited to participation and exchange experiences in the field of accessible tourism. The Conference aims to achieve realization of accessible tourism principles in Russia.  Invited speakers at this year’s event will include ENAT President Lilian Müller (Access Sweden) and Vice-President, Spyros Michailidis (EWORX S.A. Greece).  The conference is organized by ANTOR, Ministry of Sport, Tourism and Youth policy of the Russian Federation, Federal Agency for Tourism, “Intourmarket 2012″ Organizers office and Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) and Russian disability organisations (Intersectional Alliance of Handicapped People at State Duma of the Russian Federation, Russian Handicapped People society and others).  It is sponsered by the TV channel “Russian Travel Guide”.  Registration is on the INTOURMARKET website

The following is a guest article by Premiki, the first travel agency in Slovenia specializing in accessible tourism.  Premiki is a member of the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT).

The social enterprise Premiki is an institute for accessible travel which includes a travel agency for accessible tourism in Slovenia.  It is a result of a number of projects led by ŠENT - the Slovenian Association for Mental Health.  ŠENT was awarded a Ulysses Prize by the UN World Tourism Organization in 2011.

The travel agency operates under the concept of ‘accessible tourism’, which aims to provide tourist destinations, products, services and information accessible to all people without regard to their physical limit, disability or age. Our aim is to contribute to the development of tourism for people with special needs by combining supply and demand for disabled-friendly tourists and creating a network of disabled-friendly tourist suppliers (hotels, attractions, services).

In this context we launched a “disabled friendly” certificate aimed at tourist organizations and  tourism providers. With this brand we want to create an environment where people with disabilities will no longer be deprived of the exploitation of tourism services.  We are a social enterprise that supports sustainable tourism in every way.

Our programs include holidays, short breaks and tailor made round trips,   sightseeings, thematic trips (Slovenian cuisine, wellness, adventure, wine cellar tourism, jeep safaries, festivals, local events and carnivals, ethnology, cultural experiences), and  other services (bus, rent-a-car, guided tours…….). We also provide training in accessible tourism in the tourism sector.

ITB berlin (7-11 March) will have a keynote speaker and a panel discussion on accessible tourism for people with disabilities on 8 March.   The panel will include Carsten Cossmann, Head of Special Travel, TUI AG, Petra Hedorfer, CEO, German National Tourist Office DZT, Ulrich Homburg, Member of the Board – Passenger Transport, Deutsche Bahn AG, Dr. Rüdiger Leidner, Board Member, National Coordination Board Tourism For All (NatKo), and Lilian Müller, President, European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT). The session willl be moderated by Minou Amir-Sehhi, TV Host and Journalist, Minou TV.  ITB Berlin is the world’s largest travel show, with 170,000 visitors and over 10,000 exhibitors fro over 180 countries.

Karola Woods is a writer and her husband Chris is an iPhone App developer. Although a lot of people could say they have a passion for coffee, cafes and cake, Karola and her husband have taken their obsession one step further. Together they’ve built and launched an iPhone App called London Thru Cafes, which covers 90 great cafes in the capital and hundreds of places to visit nearby. They also include all kinds of access information. Here’s Karola’s viewpoint on building an App that hopes to go that one step further.

We knew we were taking on extra work when we decided to include access details for the cafes and places of interest in our App. We thought, ‘Well, if we’re including things like opening hours, WiFi and gluten free details, surely we should include if someone in a wheelchair can enter a cafe or not – or if a gallery does tours for the blind?’   For our featured cafes, we include access details – whether there are steps, if it’s spacious and if it has an adapted toilet. There’s also a telephone number and website address if further information’s needed.  For venues such as museums, cinemas, galleries, theatres and attractions, we include wheelchair access details plus information relevant to that venue or experience. If it’s a play, we include if there are sign language performances or details of audio description.

My elderly mother uses a wheelchair and is partially sighted, so from experience I’ve included details on parking (e.g. finding out about disabled bays in central London car parks and information on Blue Badge bays for UK and EU visitors).  There’s information on how to book assisted travel on trains and planes, details of adapted vehicle hire companies and which tube stations are step-free. Also, there are little snippets of information that not all visitors might know – such as buses and black cabs being wheelchair accessible. In writing this App, I’ve learned quite a lot!

Our App has been live for six months now and we will update access details as much as admission fee or opening hour changes. Giving access details means looking at a place holistically, from all senses and viewpoints, and while we hope we’ve done this, we always welcome feedback. Why wouldn’t we want to give anyone the means of experiencing London at its best? That’s what it’s all about.”

Useful numbers and links:

London Transport 0843 222 1234 (24 hour) (Textphone 020 7918 3015)

National Rail Train Enquires  08457 48 49 60 (24 hour) (Textphone 0845 60 50 600) From outside the UK, call 00 44 20 7278 5240. National Rail can put you through to the relevant train line where you can buy your tickets and arrange assistance at the same time.

To pre-book a day or more at a central London car-park, airport or port, visit ParkBCP. Tel 0800 316 0169. From outside the UK, call 00 44 1303 815 346. NCP and Q-Parks car parks allow pre-booking for shorter visits.

For Tube access and tube station toilet access, click here.

Telephone directories once you are in the UK are 118 118 or 118 500. International Directories are 118 505.

Police/fire/ambulance is 999 (Textphone 18000)

And for a 24 hour health phone line while in the UK call NHS Direct on 0845 46 47 (Textphone 0845 606 46 47).

At the 9th February at a European Parliament Hearing on Accessible  Tourism, Mr. Costas Andropoulos, Head of the European Commission’s Unit:  “Support to Tourism Industry, CSR, Mutuals and Cooperatives“  announced that 1 million Euros will be allocated to stimulate “Tourism for  All” initiatives in 2012.

Areas in which actions will be taken include:

• Mapping the demand: What are the travel patterns  and exact needs of people with disabilities?
• Mapping supply: An EU-wide performance check  on major tourism facilities, services, accommodation, websites,…
• Improving skills: Understanding people’s needs – identify gaps in the current level of skills to cater for people with access  needs & dissimination of best practice in disability training
• Fostering awareness of the importance and the  potential of tourism for all, with a stakeholder conference in 2012, and EU  awards:
  • European Destinations of
    Excellence Network (EDEN) awards
  • Access City Award
  • A new access award for tourism operators.

Mr. Andropoulos closed his short presentation by indicating that the  Commission is interested in receiving more ideas for improving tourism  accessibility in Europe.

Further information

Accessible Tourism webpage  at the European Commission, DG Enterprise

Blog report about the event by JlagEurope

See also:  Presentation at the European  Parliament Hearing by ENAT Executive Secretary, Mieke Broeders (PDF document).

The National Center on Accessibility is a center of Indiana University’s Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies within theSchool of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.  Since 1992, NCA has played a critical role in increasing awareness of inclusion of people with disabilities in parks, recreation and tourism while advancing the spirit and intent of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Rehabilitation Act and other disability legislation.  Through research, technical assistance and training, NCA builds a continuum of comprehensive services for park and recreation practitioners, focusing on universal design and practical solutions that create inclusive recreation opportunities for people of all abilities.  NCA is funded in part by theNational Park Service.

NCA conducts and facilitates research on issues critical to access in recreation environments. NCA has partnered with researchers from the universities of Minnesota, Utah, Georgia and Tennessee to discover the needs and preferences of people with disabilities. NCA Research provides professionals with practical solutions to enhance access for visitors with disabilities. NCA Research has shaped the development of policy and accessibility standards nationally and internationally. Electronic copies of all NCA research reports are available through the IU Scholar Works repository.

NCA Education programs are designed to engage practitioners in recreation access issues with instructors nationally recognized for their expertise and commitment to inclusive recreation environments for people with disabilities.  Thousands of park and recreation professionals, architects, landscape architects, planners, interpreters, accessibility coordinators, administrators, advocates and consumers have not only participated in NCA Education programs, but as a result have been able to create change within their organizations and communities leading to a society more inclusive of people with disabilities.

NCA professional staff give personalized technical assistance on a broad range of issues related to compliance with disability legislation and accessibility standards. Drawing on a national network, NCA can respond to requests for information with the latest trends, the most current information on accessibility standards, rulemaking, program modifications, equipment, vendors, best practices and innovative solutions.

The USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has launched “TSA CaresT”, a new helpline number designed to assist travellers with disabilities and medical conditions, prior to getting to the airport. Travellers may call TSA Cares toll free at 1-855-787-2227 prior to travelling with questions about screening policies, procedures and what to expect at the security checkpoint.

Since its inception, TSA has provided information to all travellers through its TSA Contact Centre and Customer Service Managers in airports nationwide. TSA Cares will serve as an additional, dedicated resource.   TSA Cares representatives will provide assistance, either with information about screening that is relevant to the passenger’s specific disability or medical condition, or the passenger may be referred to disability experts at TSA. TSA recommends that passengers call approximately 72 hours ahead of travel so that TSA Cares has the opportunity to coordinate checkpoint support with a TSA Customer Service Manager located at the airport when necessary.

The hours of operation for the TSA Cares helpline are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. EST, excluding federal holidays.  After hours, travellers can find information about travelling with disabilities and medical needs on TSA’s website. To learn more click here.  All travellers can contact TSA using Talk To TSA, a web-based tool that allows passengers to reach out to an airport Customer Service Manager directly, and the TSA Contact Centre, 1-866-289-9673 and TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov, where travellers can ask questions, provide suggestions and file complaints.

The Paz y Bien Association has recently been set up in Andalusia and Portugal to support the development of accessible tourism in Andalusia through the creation of an Iberian Network for Accessible Tourism. Among the members in Andalusia and Portugal that have already confirmed their commitment to the Network are travel agencies, groups of people with disabilities, municipal and provincial government institutions, consulting firms, university research groups and others showing a strong track record for promoting tourism for all people. This is the first platform of its kind to be launched in Spain and one of only a few that exist at an international level. Others include the European Network of Accessible Tourism (ENAT) and the International Organization of Social Tourism (IOST). The new Network will work with these and others to learn about experiences in this field and enhance their contributions to the Andalusian and Portuguese companies and entities.

The initiative is part of the project Euroempleo in Paz y Bien that is developed through the co-financing of the Andalusian Employment Service and the European Social Fund. It is called ‘Accessible Tourism: a new source of employment’. A network had been created that will act as a transnational working group to analyze and propose accessible tourism projects to be implemented within the member territories. The founding partners are: the City Council of Lousã, Accessible Portugal, Elo Social Association, Salvador, Cercibeja, Ancora and Essentia Association; the Provincial Tourism Office of Huelva, La Gaviota Association of Puerto Santa Maria (Cadiz), the Accessible Rural Hotel Sierra Luz, the Provincial Federation of Associations of People with Disability of Jaen, Huelva Employers Federation, Semer Tourism Company, GECA, the Local Development Institute at the University of Huelva and the Paz y Bien Association on the part of Andalusia, as well as the Iberian Association of Cultural Managers and ProAsolutions entity.

After its first meeting, members decided to work on the development of statutes, the creating of an identity that represents the network concept, work on projects about accessible tourism, and the profit of this net to each of its components and the tourism industry in general. Other ideas put forward were the possibility of joint projects, the opportunity of accessible tourism to overcome the current economic crisis facing traditional tourism models, the creation of quality jobs, and enlarging the network.

The Iberian Network for Accessible Tourism has already had an impact, and new entities in Spain and Portugal have shown an interest in participating.

Travelling Chair is a social networking website where people with disabilities can rate, review and share information on public venues on accessibility.  The website is new but already carries accessibility information about everything from coffee shops to hotels, from clubs to shopping in Victoria Australia.  Grit Media developed the site after finding it difficult to get information about disabilities access at venues.  They found that online databases tended to be out of date with no more than a picture of a chair to indicate accessibility. Calling venues was problematic as staff would often not understand what was needed in terms of bathroom size, wide doorways, space between tables, etc.  Physically checking places out was just far too time consuming.  What was needed was a detailed, updatable database, easily searchable by types of accessibility and physical location; a place where people who understood accessibility could share information about their experiences and make it publically available.  Hence they developed Travelling Chair.  Everyone is invited to add reviews to the site.

Guest blog by Alberto Borgato.  Alberto heads the Quality and Environment Management and Jesolo4All units for the Jesolo municipality (Gestione Qualità e Ambiente, Comune di Jesolo).  He has a degree in economics. 

The City of Jesolo (about 30 km from Venice) is an important holiday location with about 5 million visitors every year. With a 15 km beach of golden sand, our main customers are family and children. By this, our attention is focused on their needs.  All the tourist structures such as hotel, rent apartments, beach concessions, restaurants, etc. are tourist oriented and in the last 10-15 years several of them have been upgraded and now are able to accommodate people with disabilities or families with baby buggy.

Our role, as administrators of the city, is to gather all information about easy accessibility, to validate access  with a team of experts (some of whom are people with disabilities) who ascertain on site all the necessary measures and data,  and to publish this information in order to let visitors with disabilities know what to expect from their holiday in Jesolo.

At the moment we have gathered informations about:

· 15 hotels

· 13 restaurants

· 2 beach concessions (this number will rise as soon as our holiday season start)

· 2 disco club

· 1 water fun park

· Aquarium, reptilarium and shark expo

· the gaming hall Venice casino

· 1 campground

· Pala Arrex (a multi purpose building for big events)

· All the seafront promenade

· The City Hall

· The main street (a promenade street which becomes an open air shopping center in summer), and the main squares of the town

More will follow.  All of this information is detailed reports that everyone can find on our tourism site on the Jesolo for All page.  By searching for “disabilities” you can find all the hotels that have published detailed information about their own accessibility by the use of records with data, descriptions and pictures.  Some of them are already in English but for the remainders the reports are only in Italian for the moment.

Another interesting project of the Municipality of Jesolo is about the accessibility of playgrounds for children. “How to make playground without barriers“, focused on the planning of a playground using concepts such as “Universal Design”.

Tourism for All UK (TFI) is a national charity dedicated to standards of world class tourism which are welcoming to all. TFI is a prime mover in improving access to knowledge about tourism, travel, and hospitality that is accessible (see for example, the article here).  With the Olympics and Paralympics only months away, the UK is gearing up to welcome the world’s finest athletes along with thousands of visitors from across the globe. TFI and Hudson’s Heritage are working together with DisabledGo and the tourist boards to bring accessibility in the UK tourism market to the forefront, in the form of an Open Britain app which will give ‘on the go’ disabled visitors the ability to search for sites close to their current location with the facilities they need, as well as being able to browse by selected profile. This will be available in March and supported through the website, which will also offer an unrivalled nationwide search of accessible tourism sites. Companies wanting to ensure that their business is represented should contact peter.diggles@hhgroup.co.uk

Facilities for disabled visitors are often lacking, and where they do exist, are not notified to potential customers. This means the industry is missing out on a substantial potential market. As the UK sees an influx in foreign visitors for the games, there will be many who need these facilities, and businesses of all kinds need to be prepared, ensuring any equipment they have is serviced, making improvements in areas that currently aren’t accessible and ensuring that they share their accessibility messages with potential visitors. In addition businesses need to ensure their staff are fully equipped and confident to welcome any guest, whatever their ability, which includes understanding facilities available and how to operate these.

Tourism for All UK is a national charity dedicated to standards of world class tourism which are welcoming to all. Tourism for All UK contains the knowledge gained over the past 30 years in providing information to the public, especially to older or disabled people, with the only UK helpline, on where their specific access needs can be met so that they can fully participate in travel and leisure. They also champion the cause of accessible tourism with policy-makers in the UK and Europe. In prompting the visitor industry to cater for all needs, TFA has also developed an unrivalled knowledge and expertise to help businesses make changes that are practical and realistic. For further information contact info@tourismforall.org.uk

Hudson’s Heritage is part of the Heritage House Group. Probably best known as publishers of Hudson’s Historic Houses & Gardens – a market-leader for 25 years – the group also provides a range of other B2B services for the heritage sector. Its contract publishing division has produced their souvenir guidebooks for many of the leading heritage attractions for many years. The company has worked closely with the HHA and other leading heritage groups over a long period.

DisabledGo is an award-winning disability organisation in operation since 2000, producing detailed online access guides to a huge range of venues. DisabledGo is one of the largest disability organisations in Europe. Passionate about grassroots consultation, they have to date involved over 800 groups of disabled people and hold 3 feedback sessions per week across the UK and Ireland.

OpenBritain is the UK’s biggest directory of accessible accommodation and travel.

Follow them on Twitter: @tourismforalluk @HudsonsHeritage @DisabledGo

Europe’s leading Accessible Travel organisation, Tourism For all UK is teaming up with the global travel community on Tripbod.com.  The aim is to find as many local people as possible with a knowledge of accessibility in their area to become ‘Tripbods’ and offer their local knowledge to visitors.  Tourism For All’s Carrie-Ann Fleming, says “it’s all about empowering truly independent travel. Connecting with a like-minded local Tripbod before you arrive means you get straight to the knowledge source you need. Disabled people already have all the knowledge they need gained from experiences, good or bad, to offer others with similar concerns invaluable local travel advice and information.”  Tripbod’s founder Sally Broom points out that every product listed on Tripbod has an accessibility rating.

The announcement comes within days of Easyjet hitting the news for two cases of discrimination against disabled travellers and Broom acknowledges the timeliness of the partnership. “These cases reflect poorly on the travel industry and we want to show another side of the story. 2012 is a massive year for travel in the UK and it would be both a shame and a failure if visitors are unable to enjoy fully their visit due to poor information.

Fleming adds, “The initial focus of the partnership will be on recruiting Tripbods in the UK with a knowledge of local accessibility, but the existing Tripbod network is global and we are welcoming everyone everywhere with a passion for independent accessible travel to join us. What’s more, we will be offering simple and effective training for Tripbods who want to help disabled travellers but need a bit more advice and support.”

Anyone interested to learn more can visit www.tripbod.com/accessibletravel
or email hello@tripbod.com.

Scotland made disabled access part of its entertainment licensing laws in October this year (provision for disabled visitors is now a condition for getting a new alcohol licence).  Though current UK equality law says disabled people must receive an equal experience to non-disabled peers, the reality is different, and music fans who have disabilities often find themselves excluded from live music events. The UK charity Attitude Is Everything has created a Charter of Best Practice to help live music venues adapt. As part of the initiative, it’s launching the State of Access report, a comprehensive study based on two years of research across 100 venues around the UK.   Attitude Is Everything is the brainchild of Suzanne Bull who – at 4ft 3 in tall – got trapped between the barriers at the front of a festival stage 20 years ago, when there was no such thing as access for people with disabilities.  ”I had 100,000 people pushing behind me,” she says. “It was a very dangerous situation but luckily a security guard saw me and pulled me out. I remember thinking: ‘If I get out of  this alive, I will do something to improve gig access for disabled people.’ [That festival] now has a regular clientele of 700 disabled customers, an accessible campsite and viewing platforms at nearly all the stages.” (Source, The Guardian).

The New Zealand National Foundation for the Deaf (NFD) has set up a captioning working group with the aim of establishing equal access to TV and movies for deaf and hearing impaired people in this country.  A 2011 survey, “Captioning in New Zealand”, conducted by members of the group, showed the deaf and hearing impaired community felt a strong sense of injustice and frustration at the way poor TV, home video and cinema captioning denied them the simple pleasures of relaxation, entertainment and access to information and education.  Over the next 12 months the
NFD Captioning Working Group will push for legislation to make the captioning of TV programmes in New Zealand compulsory – a change favoured by 86% of the  Captioning New Zealand survey respondents.  New Zealand TV captioning is among the worst in the western world with even Uganda having a better service. While some captioning is funded by NZ On Air and a high quality captioning service is provided by TV1, TV2 and TV3 it amounts to less than 10% of total TV hours each week across all free to air and subscriber pay channels.  Captioning is about equal access for both hearing and non-hearing people. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons, ratified by New Zealand, states that all persons with disabilities should enjoy equal access to television programmes, films, theatre and cultural activities in accessible formats.  Many countries,  Australia and the USA included, have mandatory captioning legislation. We are seriously lagging behind the rest of the world and it’s time we caught up.

Members of the NFD Captioning Working Group come from t he NFD and Deaf Aotearoa.

Source: NFD press release.

Barbados Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy told a recent Inclusive Tourism Symposium that the economic benefits of making Barbados fully accessible to all tourists should not be ignored. Noting that in Barbados’ fourth largest market , Canada, people with disabilities account for Can$25 billion in consumer spending, and noting that 2.7 million Britains with disabiites travel annually, Sealy pointed out that it was important to recognize the value of creating accessible spaces for all. He urged   that the efforts by the tourism industry in Barbados to improve accessibility continue and increase. The Ministry has fully supported the development of a Fully Accessible Barbados programme which has just launched a new website to highlight accessible areas on the island.

Scott Rains, of the highly regarded Rolling Rains Report also spoke at the forum, where he pointed out that creating accessibleenvironments not only benefited people with disabilities, but retirees of the “silver tsunami”, who have the time, money, and desire to travel.

According to Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission, not only is making tourism more accessible a social responsibility, but there is also a compelling business case to boost the competitiveness of tourism in Europe.   Why? The population in Europe is aging: by 2050 the number of people aged over 65 will triple that of 2003 and the over-80 will be 5 times more numerous that they are at the moment.  This represents a huge market potential which today remains vastly under-served. Worldwide the number of people with impairments accounts for 600-900 million, representing a significant potential market for Europe.   Many examples show that by implementing basic adjustments to a facility, providing accurate information, and understanding the needs of disabled people, an increased number of visitors has resulted.  Also, improving the accessibility of tourism services increases the  quality and enjoyment for all tourists.  The European Commission is committed to mainstream accessibility in tourism by:

• raising awareness, sensitizing stakeholders and economic operators in the tourism sector
• gathering knowledge about demand from travellers with special access needs
• identifying options to improve the offer of accessible tourism services

The Commission has a publication on improving information on accessible tourism for people with disabilities.  It also has a programme called Calypso which aims to facilitate tourism access for groups for which going on holiday represents a difficult or even impossible undertaking.