Achieving Greater Accessible Tourism for Disabled Wheelchair Users

Abstract: Tourism is seen as a need for many but it is not as easily accessed to some as it is others. This paper explores the accessibility issues that disabled tourists face on a day to day basis and points out where these issues stem from. The three major accessibility issues proposed by Buhalis and Darcy in their book, Accessible Tourism Concepts and Issues, are used as a basis for the discussion.


Key Words: Disability, Accessible Tourism, independence, Equality, Accessibility of Facilities, Accessibility of Information, Affordability of Travel.


Discussion Paper: Holidays are a necessary human activity that is arguably a need as much as any other, especially to those who struggle more often in their day to day lives than others. It is because of this that it is important that those suffering from a disability are able to enjoy themselves whilst on holiday as much as anyone else. Holidays should be a time of relaxation with it being shown that “‘Peace and quiet’ were also critically important” (Shaw, and Coles, 2004, p401) in ensuring a holiday remained enjoyable for those suffering from a disability. This means not needing to struggle due to poor accessibility due to lack of preparedness at a holiday destination.

Accessible tourism is very important for disabled tourists to be able to enjoy their holiday, especially for wheelchair users whose needs have been considered at the forefront of this discussion. Access has several issues that need to be considered as it “involves a range of physical barriers, both in public and private spaces, but especially regarding transport” (Shaw, and Coles, 2004, p401). The number of those with a disability is rapidly growing due to an ageing population base, the reason why the older population are one of the factors that are contributing to the increasing number of disabled people is because those with disabilities tend to be those that have reached an old age. With it being estimated that the plus 65 population will increase by 140% from 2006 – 2030 (Buhalis and Darcy, 2011, p5) it is all the more important that this issue is tackled now rather than later. Accessible tourism is “gaining momentum across many different areas and activities within the tourism sector” (Buhalis, Darcy and Ambrose, 2012, p1) and it is important that this continues.

Accessible tourism has many issues that contribute to it but there are three main issues that should be dealt with. These “three major accessibility issues include accessibility to facilities, availability and accessibility of information resources, and affordability of travel activities” (Buhalis and Darcy, 2011, p194).

Accessibility to facilities is the first one these three major accessibility issues and is to do with their physical accessibility issues. Wheelchair users cannot use some standard means of access like stairs and so require alternative methods of access to facilities threw means such as elevators, ramps etc. However many tourism and hospitality attractions lack sufficient access, and though provide for the basic needs of the disabled but not enough to make them comfortable. For example it is quite common in football grounds to have disabled access, but in some cases these ramps have been found to be too steep, or provide little room for movement around the ground and a lack of space for wheelchairs to pass, more space is necessary for the needs of wheelchair users and these facilities need to be improved. However where it is not possible trained staff can help ease these problems but staff rarely receive proper training to help deal with disabled tourists and often treat them poorly because of their condition. This needs to be changed as staff should be able to fill the role of the carer whilst they are a guest in their facilities.

Accessibility of information is the second issue and is related to the fact that many destinations do not offer easy access to the information disabled tourists need. This is another major barrier for wheelchair users and other disabled tourists as information is necessary to ensure they can remain independent and without it they have no idea is a place is suitable for their needs or not. Airline websites were found to commonly not include enough information to suit disabled tourists needs. A website is supposed to supply sufficient information for a tourist to be able to tell if a location is suitable for their needs and without information related to their condition disabled tourists cannot make this decision so these websites need to be improved upon to include the information that they need.

Affordability of travel activities is the final major issue and stems from the fact that many disabled people are not as well off financially due to several barriers they face to employment and expenses caused by their condition. However they still have the same desires and rights as everybody else to travel and so more aid should be given to help them financially.

The issues illustrated above shows us “the importance of access amongst the disabled” (Shaw, and Coles, 2004, p402) as without proper access a holiday turns from what is supposed to be a stress free period of relaxation into the opposite, which then ends up defeating the objectives and purposes of a holiday in the first place. More aid should be provided to allow those with disabilities to be able to relax on their holidays, with facilities, staff and information sources all being improved to be able to accommodate for their needs.


References
• Buhalis, D. and Darcy, S. (2011). Accessible Tourism Concepts and Issues. Bristol: Channel View Publications. Pages 3-5 and 194.
• Buhalis D., Darcy, S. and Ambrose, I. (2012). Best Practice in Accessible Tourism. Bristol: Channel View Publications. Pages 1, 3 and 7.
• Shaw, G. and Coles, T. (2004). Disability, holiday making and the tourism industry in the UK: a preliminary survey. Tourism Management. 25 (3), p397-403.

The reason why I decided to comment this particular paper, is that my conference paper considers partly the same things. In this paper the author is focusing on access on tourism on behalf of disabled wheelchair users. My paper concerns the physical barriers disabled people face in general when accessing tourism, and why the access should be developed better. Other difference between my paper and this one is that my paper focuses also on the benefits that better accessibility on tourism would offer for tourism industry.

The author says that holidays are important part of life for everyone, especially for the people who have more struggle in their daily lives. People with disabilities should be able to have a change to relax and enjoy holidays as everyone else. Easy accessibility makes a holiday more enjoyable and it is necessary in order to benefit the most out of a holiday. Furthermore, remarkable is that the ones who would benefit most of the holidays, are usually the ones who are not able to access on tourism, in this case disabled people.

The author has noticed the same fact that I did, the biggest challenges for disabled people accessing tourism are the barriers in everyday situations, most importantly the transportation issues. Not being able to move easily can be emotionally challenging, as it is a constant reminder of the dependent status. (Swain J., French S., Barnes C., Thomas C., 2004)

The fact that the number of people with disabilities is growing in the future has been considered, especially because the population is ageing. There are 100 million people in the world who would travel more if the accessibility on destinations would be easier. (Buhalis D., Darcy S., Ambrose I., 2012) The need for better facilities in tourism destinations is growing all the time.

In this paper the author introduces deeply three accessibility issues, which are accessibility to facilities, availability and accessibility of information resources, and affordability of travel activities. It is clear that the author has a good knowledge about the topic. The accessibility issue does not include only the physical barriers, rather the issue is broad and includes the financial aspect as well. It is notified that disabled people often struggle financially. The concept of social tourism could have been introduced as well, as it relates strongly to the affordability issues.

Nevertheless this paper introduces the accessibility issue on tourism well, and after reading the paper I agree with the points the author has made. It is important to notice that access on tourism should not be taken for granted. Fortunately these issues have been discussed more nowadays and people start to pay more attention to the rights of disabled people. In order to make tourism industry equal for everyone, disabilities should be seen, that is the only way we can develop the facilities better for everyone in the future.

References:
Swain J., French S., Barnes C., Thomas C. (2004) Disabling Barriers- Enabling Environments. Sage Publications. Second edition. Wiltshire UK.

Buhalis D., Darcy S., Ambrose I. (2012) Best practice in accessible tourism- Inclusion, Disability, Ageing Population and Tourism. Channel View Publications. Bristol UK.