Accommodation Accessibility Criteria: Towards Improving Accessible Accommodation Information Formats

Studies have identified a series of significant problems with the way that accessible accommodation information is documented and marketed to people with disabilities. While research on seniors and accommodation has been well-established (e.g. Ruys & Wei 1998) no research has investigated the criteria that people with disabilities determine as ‘important’ to selecting accommodation and their preference for presenting this information. This paper presents the results of a survey to determine the relative importance of room selection criteria. Once the criteria were established, four common information formats used in the Australian context were presented to ascertain the preferences of the respondents. The results strongly found that the preferred format of accessible accommodation information provision was based on a combination of textual, floor plan and digital images. The major variables affecting room selection criteria and the preferred format are the dimensions of disability and level of support needs. An accessible accommodation assessment template was then developed from the results and the paper concludes by presenting an example of the information provision suggested by the accessible accommodation assessment template. The management implications suggest accommodation businesses adopting this format are discussed

FLYING WITH IMPAIRMENTS: IMPROVING AIRLINE PRACTICES BY UNDERSTANDING THE EXPERIENCES OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

This paper presents an understanding of the air travel experiences of people with disabilities and draws implications for improving airline management practices. The theoretical foundation for the paper is based on applying a social approach to disability to the airline sector. The research design used a modified grounded and phenomenological qualitative approach that sought to understand the experiences of people with disabilities in their own words. These experiences were contrasted to the policies, procedures and operations of the three major Australian domestic airlines. The methods used to understand the experiences involved semi-structured, in-depth interviews that were part of a larger study into the tourism experiences of people with disabilities. Fifteen in-depth interviews were undertaken together with an analysis of the qualitative responses to a broader quantitative study on the same topic. The interviews were supplemented with complaint cases taken against airlines through the Australian Disability Discrimination Act, 1992. What emerged as the ‘essence of experience’ was that airline procedures created a newly disembodied experience that transformed a person\u27s impairment into socially constructed disability. The social construction was a product of international air regulations, airline procedures, pressures brought about by the introduction of low-cost airlines into Australia and a new wave of occupational health and safety considerations. The resultant experience for many was one of heightened anxiety, helplessness and, in too many cases, humiliation

Tourist Experiences of Individuals with Vision Impairment

People with visual disabilities Travel Australia. Tourism Research Australia

Observations of forest birds at Ol Donyo Sabuk National Park, Machakos County, Kenya

A previous report recorded 19 species of forest-dependent birds in Ol Donyo Sabuk National Park. Using field surveys, literature review, and database records, we add an additional 17 forest-dependent bird species bringing the total number to 36.Keywords: Ol Donyo Sabuk, forest-dependent birds, conservation, distributio

Critical elements in accessible tourism for destination competitiveness and comparison: Principal component analysis from Oceania and South America

This paper seeks to construct an exploratory nationally comparative tourism accessibility measure (TAI) through developing an objective set of metrics in the spirit and intent of the international treaties and missions regarding the rights of persons with disabilities. Applied to Australia and New Zealand (Oceania) and Argentina and Brazil (South-America), the TAI draws upon data collected cross-country, cross-continent and for a period of 25 years (1990–2015) based on factor and principal component analysis. Considering accessibility as the conditions that a destination must have in order to be enjoyed by all individuals with access requirements and as a key factor of destination competitiveness, the TAI is developed based on: socio-demographic data; legal framework, political will and policy actions; and access conditions in tourism attractions. This measure is a useful tool to provide information about the critical elements, stages of development, evolution and understanding of the accessible tourism approaches in each of the studied countries.Facultad de Ciencias Económica

Inclusive Design and Mental Health: Policy and Legislation Challenges from the Perspective of Social Inclusion

Mental illness incorporates a spectrum of diseases affecting a globally increasing population. Yet, society is still accepting the institutional concept of allocating the risk associated with mental illness to closed institutions. The allocation of closed institutions as the places of treating and caring for mental illness, prevents architecture as well as the rest of the design community of seeing mental health issues as part of a community integrated design concept. On the contrary, design for mental health could form part of a more active dialogue of incorporating the needs of mentally ill people in the broader discussion of accessibility and its implications. As this is a very big and complex topic, this paper will focus on one aspect of the architectural specifications: the buildings use, and how change of legislation towards more flexibility could affect the whole deinstitutionalization prospects of a context. It also includes a case study of the Hellenic mental health facilities planning legislation and how alterations on the change of use legislation for psychiatric facilities could affect their integration outcome