To Table of Contents manager : “ You just need to fix a couple of things in the room and it ’ ll be good .”
The manager replied : “ Why should we bother ? We don ’ t make enough money out of you guys to really justify it .”
Other business owners found such changes expensive to implement , but were motivated by keeping up with “ good practice ”. For this group , being disabilityfriendly made good business sense – but their efforts were often incomplete , only featuring in certain parts of the site for example , or for one particular kind of disability .
As one study participant noted , “ Instead of having the whole place accessible , mobility-wise , we just make sure at least two of the units and the main public areas are . That ’ s an alternative that seems to have worked .”
It may seem odd that ecotourism – a form of tourism that values ethics and sustainability – does not appear to be leading the industry in tearing down barriers to disabled travel . But
recent research found that even businesses with the highest level of ecotourism accreditation did little to accommodate the needs of disabled guests .
Universal Travel
With respect to information , only 2 % of the websites in
that study – which focused on Australia – had a detailed information pack for disabled people to download . And while some businesses considered themselves to be disability-friendly , facilities tended to only consider wheelchair access .
Even then , only 40 % of all the websites provided any information to wheelchair users , while 6 % mentioned visual disabilities and 8 % referred to hearing loss . When it came to intellectual disabilities , only 8 % even mentioned them .
Almost all of the websites failed to extend simply courtesies , such as using captions ( known as alternative text ) to explain to people with visual disabilities what is depicted in a photograph , or subtitling video material to help people with hearing disabilities . A quarter of the businesses required disabled people to contact them ahead of the visit to enquire about suitable facilities .
Thankfully , there are also operators who believe ensuring that disabled people have an equal quality of experience to non-disabled people is an essential condition of being in business .
This kind of approach needs to spread more widely . Disabled people will only truly have a right to a holiday when tourism businesses start to invest in adaptations for them . This means making provisions not only for wheelchair users but for all disability groups . It also means adapting business practices , updating websites and training staff to be able to serve their disabled guests appropriately and sensitively .
It is estimated that there are around a billion disabled people across the world , representing around 15 % of the world ’ s population . If the tourism industry is not willing to ensure these guests are treated as equals , that should make everyone uncomfortable . If society wants to see travel as a human right , it should be a right for everyone .
This article was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original
here