Research article - Interconnecting mobilities on tour: tourists with vision impairment partnered with sighted tourists - Tourism Geographies -

Taylor & Francis Online :: Interconnecting mobilities on tour: tourists with vision impairment partnered with sighted tourists - Tourism Geographies -




An excellent article by Dr Jennie Small exploring a specialist tourism company who matches people with vision impairment with sighted guides.


Abstract

While there has been a developing interest in mobilities amongst tourism scholars, the notion of immobilities has often been ignored. Yet, there are many people who do not participate in tourism or, if they do, only experience partial mobility. This study focussed on a tour to Italy byTraveleyes, a company which provides holiday opportunities for people with vision impairment as well as for sighted tourists who act as guides for those with impairment. The research examined the experiences of both tourist groups and the intersection of their mobilities. The methods of study were autoethnography and questionnaire survey. The findings suggested that mobilities were facilitated in the partnership. For those with vision impairment, facilitation of mobility allowed them to enjoy some of the rights to citizenship and quality of life experienced by those who are sighted while the sighted guides learned new ways of mobility. At the same time, mobilities could also be constrained by the personality, interests and motivation of the sighted guide or the person with vision impairment. At times, different tour members had control over mobility and thus control over space; power was relational. Social barriers that affected the experience, combined with the evident embodiment of the tourist experience, suggested the appropriateness of ‘embodied ontology’ as a means for understanding the experience for tourists with vision impairment and their sighted guides.

Photo 1: City of Sydney Braille street signs 2016 Source 

Keywords: 
• vision impairment, 
• sighted guide, 
• mobilities, 
• immobilities, 
• embodiment, 
• walking, 
• tourist experience
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• Jennie Small is a senior lecturer in tourism management at the University of Technology, Sydney. Her specific teaching and research interest is tourist behaviour from a critical tourism approach, focusing on equity and social justice issues in tourism. Her research publications relate to embodiment, gender, disability (vision impairment), obesity, age and the life course.
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IV International Congress on Tourism for All Research Papers And Videos of Keynote Sessions

In a follow-up to my previous post on the IV International Congress on Tourism for All, the organisers Fundacion ONCE have produced a wonderful legacy of the Congress by providing access to the program resources.

The main legacy page can be found at IV International Congress on Tourism for All, which provides a host of resources including the overall organisational structure, program, videos and interviews with key presenters.

However, what is really impressive is the exceptional job that the organisers did on producing video sessions on the conference, which also are subtitled in a variety of languages. 

The video resources can be found at Videos and include the following titles:

• Opening session (00:33:22)
• Opening ceremony (01:01:20)
• Key Notes Lecture 1 Policies and strategies for Accessible Tourism (01:06:55)
• Key Notes Lecture 2 The economic opportunity of Accessible Tourism worldwide (01:36:15)
• Key Notes Lecture 3 Labour integration of people with disabilities in tourism (01:32:45)
• Round Table: Good practices in Accessible Tourism (01:49:05)
• Round Table: Accessibility in Historical Heritage sites (02:05:25)
• Round Table: Networks (01:26:35)
• Workshop 1 21st Century museums, the evolution towards accessibility (01:40:35)
• Workshop 2 The benefits of certification in accessible tourism (01:41:12)
• Workshop 3 Leisure activities: Natural areas and parks (01:48:15)
• Workshop 4 Welcome to accessible tourism destinations (01:49:36)
• Workshop 5 New technologies at the service of accessible tourism (01:34:50)
• Workshop 6 The point of view of users on Accessible Tourism (01:56:10)
• Closing ceremony (00:21:20)

Congratulations to Fundacion ONCE on the production of such a wonderful resource to disseminate cutting-edge research on accessible tourism.

Photo: A chance to improve destination management for accessible tourism - republished from http://buhalis.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/accessible-tourism-congress-in-avila.html 

AIR TRAVEL AND DISABILITY - ONGOING DILEMMAS, DISCRIMINATION AND LOSS OF DIGNITY IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY

Over the last three years a number of papers have been published that contribute to understanding one of the most basic links in the travel “trip chain" (World Health Organization & World Bank, 2011) for people with disability - airline travel. Air travel is the lifeblood of contemporary tourism that has been democratised through the advent of low-cost travel (Doganis, 2005). Yet, media coverage of national and international air travel experiences highlight the adverse flight experiences of people with disabilities are ongoing and a global problem. Two recent examples from Europe (European Disability Forum, 2011) and New Zealand (The Dominion Post, 2011) highlights some of the issues that people with mobility and vision impairments. What these incidents highlight is critical service failure by airlines that is not ad hoc but characterised by systematic failure within their service blueprint (Shostack, 1993).

Over the coming week I will present the abstracts of articles that examine disability, air travel and the accessible tourism. The first provides an overview of the flight experiences of people with disabilities in Israel involving people with mobility and vision disabilities (Poria, Reichel, & Brandt, 2010). The second involves the physical infrastructure required to provide a seamless "trip chain" for people with disability in air travel in Taiwan (Chang & Chen, 2012). The third examines the resultant effect that disabling practices have on the embodiment of people with disability through phenomenology or essence of experience in Australia (Darcy, 2012). Lastly, a chapter from a book on accessible tourism examines the impact that low-cost airlines may have on the critical service elements of the air travel experience drawing examples across the Asia-Pacific (Darcy & Ravinder, 2012).

While these articles identified a number of serious issues that have resulted in lack of accessibility, physical injury, loss of dignity and discriminatory service attitude, air travel can be an enjoyable experience. On a recent trip to Italy I had nothing but an extraordinary level of service at both Milan and Rome International airports facilitated by a dedicated service support group provided across all airlines for people with disabilities. Photo 1 shows my service team who provided me from arriving at the check-in counter to being seated on the plane a continuous service experience. This service is provided no matter what airline I would have been travelling on. I liken the experience to being serviced by a Formula 1 pit crew, totally professional, courteous and the highest levels of service provision. Fantastico!

Photo 1: Author Simon Darcy with the ADR Assistance team on the light rail transferring to the boarding gate (© Fiona Darcy 2012 é)

What I subsequently learnt from my colleague Ivor Ambrose from the European Network For Accessible Tourism was that for all airports with over 100,000 pasengers per year, this was a requirement brought in by EU REGULATION (EC) No 1107/2006  which came into force in 2007. As Ivor states “Gradually the implementation of this Regulation is working and improving... although the way it is carried out varies from country to country, as you might expect, according to training practices etc. But the good thing is that all airlines are covered by it - for all incoming and outgoing flights in the European Union”.

Well done Europe!

The rest of the world has a lot to learn. On the same trip where I had an awesome experience travelling from Italy to Hong Kong and then to Australia, my experiences in Hong Kong and Australia have always been ad hoc depending upon the individuals on for the airlines that I am travelling with. I've had everything from first-class transfer experience right through to being dropped in the transfer process. These types of experiences and take the gloss off what should be a wonderful travel experience.

References

Buhalis, D., & Darcy, S. (Eds.). (2011). Accessible Tourism: Concepts and Issues. Bristol, UK: Channel View Publications.

Chang, Y.-C., & Chen, C.-F. (2012). Meeting the needs of disabled air passengers: Factors that facilitate help from airlines and airports. Tourism Management, 33(3), 529-536.

Darcy, S. (2012). (dis)embodied air travel experiences: Disability, discrimination and the affect of a discontinuous air travel chain. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 19(e8 August), 1-11.

Darcy, S., & Ravinder, R. (2012). Air travel for people with disabilities. In D. Buhalis, S. Darcy & I. Ambrose (Eds.), Best practice in accessible tourism: Inclusion, disability, ageing population and tourism (pp. 207-219). Bristol, UK: Channel View Publications.

Doganis, R. (2005). The airline business: Routledge.

European Disability Forum. (2011, 15 April). Clear violation of eu regulation leads to discrimination of passengers with disabilities Retrieved 23 April, 2011, from http://www.edf-feph.org/Page_Generale.asp?DocID=13855&thebloc=27020

Poria, Y., Reichel, A., & Brandt, Y. (2010). The flight experiences of people with disabilities: An exploratory study. Journal of Travel Research, 49(2), 216-227.

Shostack, G. L. (1993). How to design a service. European Journal of Marketing, 16(1), 49-63.

The Dominion Post. (2011, 13 April 2011). 'Humiliated': Jetstar slammed over refusing to fly disabled passengers, Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/humiliated-jetstar-slammed-over-refusing-to-fly-disabled-passengers-20110413-1ddm0.html

World Health Organization, & World Bank. (2011). World report on disability, from http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/report/en/index.html

The Reflexive Traveller - Italy, accessibility and other observations

Some readers of the blog may have noticed that there have not been entries for a few months. This was the product of a hectic work schedule and an upcoming trip to Europe.  The opportunity arose as part of my University of Technology Sydney work and collaborative relationships with the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT). The trip included forging relationships with the Italian Institute of Architects, the Foundation of the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute, Expo 2015, the Facoltà di Sociologia - Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca. and Italian accessible tourism businesses like Villages for All. Of course, I took the opportunity to examine a range of accessible experiences including transport, attractions, hotels and customer service. As photo one shows, one such experience was testing new access equipment to experience the archaeological digs of ancient Rome.

Photo 1:  Simon Darcy, Rome and Italy Tours' specialist ArcheoTrekAble equipment and people power provided an up close look at Ancient Rome's archaeological digs that would not be possible in a standard wheelchair (© Fiona Darcy 2012)

Thanks to Ivor Ambrose's networking efforts with the ENAT, I received a range of publicity opportunities including those with mainstream media and disability specific media. Barbara Pianca of the Superando organisation interviewed me in the lead up to the trip and carried a story on the organisation's website. The interview focused on travel planning and accessibility for tourism. This theme was further developed by the Foundation of the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute who provided an opportunity for me to discuss the importance of tourism within the rehabilitation process for people who acquire disabilities. The Foundation does some excellent work and has always incorporated arts and sport within the rehabilitation process and it is now hoping to incorporate opportunities for people to travel while still in rehabilitation. The Foundation's Secretary Professor Ferdinando Cornelio hosted a media and business event where I was interviewed by mainstream print and television media on a range of matters including rehabilitation, Expo 2015 to be held in Milan and accessible tourism knowledge management processes that could be put in place to improve the tourism opportunities for people with disability. A video of the interviews by the journalists from the Corriere.TV can be found at the following site Video Salute - Corriere TV

As with all areas of disability, accessible tourism required the collaboration of a range of stakeholders from the private sector, government and the not-for-profit. An important player in the university sector where the education of future generations of architects, planners, business people and government officials requires an understanding of access and disability within the curriculum. Accessible tourism considerations are relatively new within higher education curriculum around the world. Italy is no exception but there is a growing network of academics starting to develop curriculum and research around accessible tourism in Italian universities. One such faculty and University is the Facoltà di Sociologia - Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, where Prof Ezio Marra is fostering accessible tourism opportunities at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The seminar on accessible tourism was held in partnership with the Italian Institute of Architects, whose member Isabella Steffan, Arch- Eur/Erg, presented an introduction to the seminar and placed it in context to tourism developments in architecture and the built environment in Italy. The seminar was attended by 25 students and faculty and generated a great deal of interesting discussion about tourism information systems, the accessibility of the Italian built environment and transport systems, cross-cultural differences in disability and access, and the opportunities provided by Expo 2015 for access, disability and accessible tourism.

The other stakeholders that are critical to developing robust accessible tourism experiences are an active in disability advocacy and government equity framework. To that end, I had meetings with Aldo Maria Arrigoni, Director Diversity, Ministry of Labour and a person involved with the Fondazione Notari (http://www.fondazionenotari.com/) that seeks to provide training courses around disability and access to Italian business. We spoke of of a series of issues around urban accessibility, business attitude towards disability, accessible tourism and his involvement in assisting organisers of Expo 2015 (http://en.expo2015.org/). Aldo recognises the opportunity that the Expo may provide to improve accessibility for residents and visitors to Milan. However, he also recognises that it is already 2012 and if they hope to have a more developed access culture for the Expo organisation and systems in place for improving accessible tourism experiences for visitors to Milan then time is running short.

One of the great things about travelling is finding the unexpected. One such pleasure was in coming across Roberto Vitali from Village for All or V4A as it is branded and shown in Figure 1 (www.v4a.it). Roberto who has a history as a Paralympian, for the last 20 years has dedicated his life, work and passion towards establishing Village for All and the 35 accommodations that it currently has in Italy, Croatia, USA and Brazil. Roberto has established an information system for his accommodation offerings. As important as a good-quality information system to allow tourists with disabilities to make informed decisions about whether access at a property is appropriate for their needs, V4A is all about the experiences that you want when staying at one of their accommodations or resorts. Their properties offer a series of experiences from the passive to the active, from the solitary to the family or from a sporting to a cultural experience.

Figure 1: Village for All logo

As Figure 2 demonstrates, the accommodation information system is detailed and provides critical measurements. This system very much operationalises research discussed in other blog entries on accessible accommodation based on research in Europe and Australia (Darcy & Cameron, 2008; Darcy, 2010; Europe for All. 2007a, 2007b) It is also very similar to a recent exploratory project carried out for the City of Sydney and presented on Easy Access Australia's website (http://www.easyaccessaustralia.com.au/sydney/).  

Figure 2: Room floor plans for V4A properties

Lastly, research has shown that people with disability do not trust mainstream travel agents and tourism operators as mainstream providers do not understand the requirements of people with disability (e.g. McKercher, Packer & Yau, 2003). Subsequently people with disability have organised and managed their own travel plans and itineraries to a much higher degree than people without disability. However, those who to manage their own travel planning miss out on many of the discounts and insider advantages of using industry providers. Language provided a barrier which was restricting my own travel planning for this trip. After some searching, I settled on Rome and Italy Tourist Services to assist with land transport connections and specialist accessible tour provision (http://www.romeanditaly.com/tourselected.php?id=10). As shown in Photo 1, Stefano Sghinolfi CEO and Owner of Rome and Italy Tourist Services is trialling equipment to provide a more up close and personal experience of Rome's ancient historical sites. It is this type of innovation that I was drawn to and can attest was only part of the excellent service provision of the company^.


Over the coming weeks I will be reflecting upon other aspects of the trip including accessible tourism knowledge management systems, air travel, accommodation choice, attractions, transport, customer service attitudes and accessible destination experiences.


^ please note all services were purchased at standard market rates and the tour operators did not know that I would be reviewing product and service offerings.


References

Darcy, S., & Cameron, B. (2008). Accessible Accommodation Assessment Template [Software template]. Sydney: © University of Technology, Sydney and Easy Access Australia.


Darcy, S. (2010). Inherent complexity: Disability, accessible tourism and accommodation information preferences. Tourism Management, 31(6), 816-826.


Europe for All. (2007a). The Europe for all Photo and Measurement Guide Vol. 2008. (pp. Website).  Retrieved from http://www.europeforall.com/tourismProviders.seam?conversationPropagation=end&conversationId=162076 


Europe for All. (2007b). The Europe for all Self-Assessment Questionnaire Vol. 2008. (pp. Website).  Retrieved from http://www.europeforall.com/tourismProviders.seam?conversationPropagation=end&conversationId=162076 


European Network for Accessible Tourism. (2012). Accessibility and tourism seminar at the  Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca 9 July 2012  Retrieved 28 July, 2012, from http://www.accessibletourism.org/?i=enat.en.events.1338



McKercher, B., Packer, T., Yau, M. K., & Lam, P. (2003). Travel agents as facilitators or inhibitors of travel: perceptions of people with disabilities. Tourism Management, 24(4), 465-474. 

Pianca, B. (2012, 4 July). Voglio sentirmi il benvenuto in ogni città del mondo, Superando.it. Retrieved from http://www.superando.it/2012/07/04/voglio-sentirmi-il-benvenuto-in-ogni-citta-del-mondo/

Parrot, M., & Passerini, G. (2012, 25 July). Disabili e turismo - Girare il mondo è la prima forma di riabilitazione Corriere Della Serra - Corriere TV. Retrieved from http://video.corriere.it/se-turismo-aiuta-disabili-uscire-ghetto/131d40b0-d675-11e1-bdd2-f78a37bd7a67