New Research Article: Sources of tourist information used by Deaf people. Case study: the Polish Deaf community

Very little research has been carried out on accessible tourism and people who are Deaf. People reading the blog entry may be wondering why I am using Deaf capital D? The reason is that people who are Deaf do not regard themselves as having a disability but as being part of a cultural group that is bound together by their language, sign language (Corker & French, 1999). Photo 1 shows an Auslan (Australian sign language) interpreted tour of the NSW Art Gallery in Sydney, Australia as identified on the Sydney for All website.

Photo 1: Auslan (Australian sign language) interpreted tour of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Australia. (Photo courtesy of Art Gallery of New South Wales)

A new article by Alina Zajadacz from Poland has sought to redress this gap through examining the sources of tourist information used by Deaf people. This study was longitudinal from 2004 to 2010 and surveyed 292 Deaf people comparing them to 1780 people with hearing. The findings present a breakdown of the information sources used with the discussion focusing on the need for involvement by Deaf people in the development of tourist information. An abstract of the study can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13683500.2012.725713

References

Corker, M., & French, S. (Eds.). (1999). Disability Discourse. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Zajadacz, A. (2012). Sources of tourist information used by Deaf people. Case study: the Polish Deaf community. Current Issues in Tourism, 1-21. doi: 10.1080/13683500.2012.725713  http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13683500.2012.725713