Compounding Constraints to International Air Travel: the case of Simon Darcy's non-attendance at the IV International Congress on Tourism for All, ONCE Foundation/UN WTO - Avila Spain

One of the truths in the lives of people with disability is that the personal is political. I am a Professor at the UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney where I research, teach and collaboratively engage with our stakeholder communities on critical business, not-for-profit and government issues. However, I am also a power wheelchair using person with a high-level spinal cord injury where my professional persona quite often collides with the reality of living with a disability. As such, my research activities that are reported on the blog involving accessible tourism are also very instrumental in that I have an "insider's perspective" on what it means to be treated differently, discriminated against and marginalised in the travel process.

The video presentation "Understanding the Economic Challenges and Opportunities through the Travel Chain and Value Creation" was to be presented in person at the IV International Congress on Tourism for All hosted by the ONCE Foundation sponsored by the United Nations' World Tourism Organisation held in Avila, Spain 25-29 June 2013. However, as the video outlines a series of international travel constraints involving airline schedules, archaic airline policy, destination policy regarding medication and availability of disability equipment hire in destinations meant that I was not able to attend the Conference. What is incredible is that I am an experienced traveller, research and consult in the area, am aware of my rights, articulate in both written and verbal communication, and I still had these issues.

What I didn't want reinforced was that it was my disability that led to my nonparticipation at this conference. As outlined above and in the video, clearly it is a series of structural constraints involving government policy, airline practice, destination coordination and attitudes of those in management across these areas that make travel so much more difficult for people with disability than the nondisabled general public. This video was my technological solution to participation by distance at the conference but should in no way be considered a substitute for the benefits with disability participating in all aspects of social life. In the video I deliver these messages to an audience with high-ranking government officials, CEOs across the tourism sector, international and National non-government organisations and other people with disability that attended the conference. While my messages may have been surprising to the nondisabled in the audience, I have had many e-mails of support from those people with disability who attended the conference offering their stories of support and anecdotes of similar constraints that they have been subjected to in their efforts to travel.

The video itself presents a way forward for accessible tourism through understanding the concepts of the travel chain, the economics of the sector, the importance to move from focusing on accessibility to experience development, how this can add to the value chain and the importance of mainstream economic data sources as a starting point to document return on investment in this important area.

References

Darcy, S. (2013). Understanding the economic challenges and opportunities through the travel chain and value creation. Keynote presented at the IV International Congress on Tourism for All, Avila, Spain - ONCE Foundation & United Nations World Tourism Organisation. 

Embodiment in the disabling built-environment: an experience of daily life in Thailand

In another excellent contribution by a recently completed Ph.D. and Architecture Lecturer, Antika Sawadsri (2010) (Photo 1), we are provided with a compelling examination of the embodied challenges of a disabling built environment on a person's daily life in Thailand. In drawing on the rich body of knowledge from the geographies of disability (see Gleeson, 1999), the thesis creates a compelling understanding of social rather than medicalised approaches to understanding disabling environments and the impact upon an individual's citizenship. An abstract of an article is provided with permission from the author.

Photo 1: The researcher - Antika Sawadsri

Abstract

The approach to the inaccessibility of the built environment for disabled people in academic research has been heavily focused on legislating for access requirements and providing technical solutions. The spatial experiences of disabled people tend to be disregarded or taken as a peripheral form of knowledge. This article draws on an in-depth study of the lived experience of one wheelchair-using volunteer. It reveals that the majority of the physical and psychological difficulties encountered by disabled people are the result of inaccessible environments rather than their impairment. There is a need to understand the built environments of disabled people by regarding different forms of negotiating with a disabling environment, acquiring capital, the social agency of disabled people as well as attitudes towards them and discriminatory constructions.

Keywords: Spatial experience, disabling environment, lived experience, disabled people, agency for change

One of the strengths of the research was an understanding of how Turn, the individual the thesis is based on, negotiates accessibility to challenge the disabling nature of their local environments. One such example, was where upon discussing the access challenges that the Turn was facing, the local neighbours collaboratively got together to remove parts of the disabling streetscape to provide a continuous pathway. Photo 1 is an example from the thesis of Turn's ongoing process of negotiation that is indicative of people with disability's continual negotiation of accessibility on a daily basis.

Photo 2 The place where the street hump in Tum's village was removed on her behalf by neighbours

I am conscious that a great deal of the research and literature on accessible tourism is only from the English-speaking world and I implore readers of this blog to encourage researchers from non-English-speaking countries to submit English language abstracts so that we can promote their research and get a better cross-cultural understanding of the embodied nature of disabling environments. Congratulations Antika!

Readers can contact Antika on antika@gmail.com

Lecturer, School of Architecture

King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand

References

Gleeson, B. (1999). Geographies of Disability. London: Routledge.

Sawadsri, A. (2010). Accessibility and Disability in the Built Environment: negotiating the public realm in Thailand. Doctor of Philosophy, Newcastle University, Newcastle.