New article- Inclusive by Design: Transformative Services and Sport Event Accessibility

Originally published at Dickson, T. J., Darcy, S., Johns, R., & Pentifallo, C. (2016). Inclusive by Design: Transformative services and sport-event accessibility The Services Industry Journal, 36(11-12) pp532-555. Article available for no charge athttp://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WdSae6GJGPG7rNXBV9qh/full 

FIFA Women's World Cup 2015 Canada

Quote from abstract:

This paper examines the service dimensions required to be inclusive of people with access needs within a major-sport event context. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities seeks to counter disability discrimination and enable citizenship rights of people with disabilities, including access to goods and services, across all dimensions of social participation including major-sport events (e.g. Olympic and Paralympic Games, world cups in football, cricket and rugby union). Providing for people with disability and access needs is also an emerging tourism focus with initiatives addressing accessible tourism included in the World Tourism Organizations mission and recent strategic destination plans. To enhance the understanding of service delivery for an accessible tourism market in a major-sport event context, a case study of the Vancouver Fan Zone for the FIFA Womens World Cup Canada, 2015 ^TM is analyzed through the lens of transformative services. From this analysis future research directions are identified to benefit those with access needs who wish to participate in major-sport events.

Photo 1: signage and wayfinding is so important at major events particularly where temporary overlays are used -photo courtesy of Dr Tracey Dickson ©2015.

The paper uses service blueprinting and a "traffic light" approach to assessing the fan experience from a disability perspective. Table 3 from the document is provided to give an understanding of the approach. The font and colours are explained as  Normal font or green = OK; Italics =or yellow = caution; Bold or orange = problem. The colours chosen were recommended to support screen readers.

Table 3 Traffic light service blueprint: assessment of stages of Fan Zone experience

STAGES	EVIDENCE	MOBILITY	VISION	HEARING	COGNITIVE
Research and planning	Websites (FIFA; Vancouver City)	No accessibility information for Fan Zone. Links to accessible transport information	FIFA Website not fully WCAG 2.0 compliant	No accessibility information for Fan Zone	No accessibility information for Fan Zone
Travel	Websites (FIFA;  Transit), Access Audit; observation	Public transport is accessible for independent travel  HandyDART available for other support	Transit website is not fully WCAG 2.0 compliant	Buses and trains have LED signs indicating next stop	HandyDART available for other support
Arrival	Access Audit; Observation, photo analysis	Clear path of travel	No tactile tiles	Signage is clear	Only one entry
Activations	Access Audit; Observation, photo analysis	No overt mobility support or participation opportunities	No braille information; noise levels too high to hear instructions. Most activations assume vision	No written information available for instructions	Noisy, crowded
Food and Beverages	Access Audit; Observation, photo analysis	All vendor trucks serving areas inaccessible to wheelchair users. 3 step process to buy alcoholic drinks not helpful for those with mobility needs	No braille information, but servers can speak to customers	Signage is clear	Typical lining up process, but no guidance about where/how to line up
Toilets	Access Audit; Observation, photo analysis	Unisex accessible portable toilets available in unisex toilet area	No braille information. No staff nearby to give directions	Signage is clear	Standard port-a-loos, but in unisex layout
Watching matches	Access Audit; Observation, photo analysis	Iterations of accessible viewing not appropriate; no crowd management to support viewing	Sound system not clear. No match commentary No hearing loops	No subtitles on screen. No sign language for MC	No ticketing, reserved seats or spaces.
Leaving & emergency exits	Access Audit; Observation, photo analysis	Clear path of travel	No tactile tiles. Sound system did not cover all Fan Zone area if emergency exit info needed, but there were security staff and volunteers	Signage is clear; security staff and volunteers available	One main exit clearly marked; security staff and volunteers available

Story and video on accessible travel by Kahla Preston

Reprinted with permission from - http://babyzoomers.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/the-fight-for-accessible-travel/

THE FIGHT FOR ACCESSIBLE TRAVEL

October 14, 2012 · by Baby Zoomers · in Features, Kahla Preston. ·

Image: Kahla Preston

Does the tourism industry lack support and information for people with disabilities? Kahla Preston investigates.

The first baby boomers reached retirement age in 2011, and for many of them travel is a top priority. The largest outbound sector in Australia, this is a generation of adventurers who don’t see age as an obstacle.

Yet research conducted in 2009 indicates that the boomers face a higher rate of disability than previous generations. It’s estimated up to 40% will retire with a disability.

In this story, Baby Zoomers reporter Kahla Preston meets two Australians – Peter Negri, director of Ozmates, and Simon Darcy, one of the creators of Sydney For All -  who are passionate about making travel accessible for people with disabilities.  They’re providing the kind of support and information they say is lacking in the tourism industry.

Transcript

REPORTER: Sydney’s sunshine and harbour views are its most appealing features for many travellers. But for some, it’s all about the postcards.

(Peter Negri talking to tour member Liz about her postcards)

REPORTER: Liz is part of a tour from Melbourne to Port Stephens with  OzMates, a specialist Company providing supported holidays for people with a range of disabilities. Today she’s joined by fellow travellers Steve and Veronica,  along with OzMates carer Marlene, tour leader Lisa, and director Peter Negri.

PETER NEGRI (OZMATES DIRECTOR): OzMates was started by another guy, we’ve owned it for six years, my wife and I. In the last six years we’ve expanded significantly, we’ve gone from just having intellectual disabilities right through to now physical disabilities as well.

REPORTER: OzMates runs up to fifty trips per year, not including individual tours. Travellers can choose from a range of destinations in Australia and abroad.

PETER NEGRI: I wanted to take people away with a disability, didn’t matter what sort of disability, but to be able to offer them a holiday anywhere in Australia or overseas, at any time of the year. We’re a licensed travel agent and a fully registered, qualified tour company as well. So we can do anything, and go anywhere, that we want to do.

REPORTER: The last Bureau of Statistics survey indicated that almost one in five Australians have a disability. An increase is expected as the population grows and ages. Despite this figure, travelling with disability remains a challenge for many. The aim of OzMates is to provide disabled travellers with opportunities that may not be available to them otherwise.

PETER NEGRI: Our idea is that they should be able to do whatever you and I want to do. Just because they’ve got some kind of physical or intellectual disability doesn’t hold them back.

REPORTER: The effort is certainly appreciated by OzMates’ clients.

PETER NEGRI: We have repeat clients, they come back over and over again, because we’re one of the few companies that can just do it. We don’t say no. We might get off the phone and go, “How are we going to do this?”, but then we do our research. You can always do it.

REPORTER: The idea of a tour doesn’t appeal to all travellers, however. Many people who develop disabilities, particularly those related to ageing, don’t necessarily view themselves as having a disability. It’s an attitude likely to be carried by the adventurous baby boomers as they reach retirement and head abroad.

SIMON DARCY (DIRECTOR, COSMOPOLITAN CIVIL SOCIETIES RESEARCH CENTRE, UTS): If you think of your own family, that’s your uncle that’s had a knee replacement, the aunty that’s had the hip replacement, somebody you’re speaking a little louder to… They don’t associate with disability, they don’t see themselves as having a disability, but they’ve definitely got disabilities and they require different forms of inclusion to make travel that little bit easier for them.

REPORTER: Simon Darcy is a leading researcher in the field of accessible tourism based at the University of Technology, Sydney. Simon has been a power wheelchair user since incurring a spinal injury in 1983. He says a lot of preparation and research is required for disabled travellers to have confidence their trip will run smoothly.

SIMON DARCY: You really just can’t rely on somebody saying, “it’s accessible”, because what’s accessible to me is not accessible to the next person. And even amongst wheelchair users, different people’s abilities mean they look for different things in the hotel rooms, in transport and accommodation, and then open space areas like this one. So you look for a baseline of information and then check, check and double check.

REPORTER: Simon was part of a steering committee that created Sydney For All, an online portal designed to provide information on accessible locations and activities in Sydney.

SIMON DARCY: What we did was to take a different approach, an innovative approach that said, ‘What are those really cool things that anyone would want to do when they come to Sydney?’, identify those experiences that are accessible, and collaboratively market and promote those.  Everything as basic as getting on a ferry and going to Manly through to some things like the building we’re at now, Hyde Park’s Barracks Museum.

REPORTER: The information is targeted at four disability groups – those with mobility or cognitive disabilities, people who are deaf or have hearing impairment, and people with vision impairment or who are blind.

SIMON DARCY: You don’t have to accessible for all those groups, they’ve just got to be accessible for one of the groups and we clearly label that on the website.

REPORTER: Although initiatives like Sydney For All and OzMates help to make travel accessible for people with disabilities, there’s still some way to go. Peter Negri and Simon Darcy agree that changes to industry education and attitudes are vital steps in moving forward.

PETER NEGRI: There needs to be more education from the normal, run-of-the-mill travel agents and tour companies, so they understand what the clientele needs. We’re working on that in a big way, so we’re making a lot of inroads – we’ve got a lot of mainstream tour events and things like that to try and educate people.

SIMON DARCY: Most people with disability recognise that things aren’t going to be perfect. But want they want is somebody that’ll go, “Okay, but I think we can get maintenance up and we can take the hinge off the door and that’ll allow you to fit through. Then you’ll be able to enjoy that experience.”

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

Access Classification Schemes and Accessible Tourism Information Provision

The previous post on the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games has brought to the fore the vexed question of access classification systems and accessible tourism information provision. The 2010 Legacies Now organisation’s Accessible Tourism Strategy (2010 Legacies Now, 2010) document focuses on an accessibility icon rating accreditation system for businesses (2010 Legacies Now, 2010). While the approach for basic access to businesses (e.g. continuous pathway, communication provision, websites etc.) may be appropriate the relative advantages and disadvantages of icon rating systems for accessibility have been contentious and the reasons well examined in the literature (Eichhorn, Miller, Michopoulou, & Buhalis, 2008). 


An area that has been most problematic is accessible accommodation provision. For example, the English Tourism Council (2000) put a great deal of resources into developing an accessible accommodation classification system but it has had limited uptake by industry and no evaluation of the system from consumers with disabilities’ perspective. In an Australian context, questions over accessible accommodation classification systems originally administered by the Automobile Association of Australia’s hotel and motel accommodation guide had been fraught with difficulties as evidenced by the number of Australian Human Rights Commission complaints cases (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2009; Darcy & Taylor, 2009). The accumulation of these complaints cases led to AAA Tourism (2006) withdrawing the icon classifications. AAA Tourism then commissioned an accessible accommodation information scheme (AAA Tourism, 2007) but to date this has not been implemented. As Darcy (2007) suggests a great deal of these complaints are due to the complexity of the building codes and Australian standards for access and mobility being simplified from literally thousands of measurements to an iconic representation. As Figure 1 shows, the AAA system of icon access classification was based on Wheelchair "independent access" and Wheelchair "access with assistance", which provided no detailed information about the rooms.

Figure 1: AAA & ACROD Disabled Rooms Access Icons (Graham, 2000; Queensland Tourism, 2000)

This has not stopped others from developing their own accessible accommodation classification systems (Australia for All, 2006). Alternatives to icons have been promoted by Europe for All (2007a, 2007b) and the European Commission (2004) where the detailed information for people with access needs are provided so they can make their own decision about whether the access provided meets their needs. This approach is also supported by the European Network for Accessible Tourism in their philosophy about accessible tourism information provision (European Network for Accessible Tourism, 2007). An Australian example of this type of system for the Deaf and hearing impaired community was completed in conjunction with an industry body (Deafness Forum & HMAA, 2005) and is based on five detailed criteria.

References

2010 Legacies Now. (2010). Accessible Tourism Strategy: accessibility rating icon guidelines business Available from http://www.2010legaciesnow.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Accessible_Tourism/Brand_Standard-Business.pdf

AAA Tourism. (2006). Withdrawal of accessibility rating icons.   Retrieved 8 August, 2006

AAA Tourism. (2007). Access Information Program.   Retrieved 17 Nov, 2007, from http://www.aaatourism.com.au/AAATDefault.aspx?sit=1&pid=398

Australia for All. (2006). Australia for All - One Stop Shop for Accessible Tourism in Australia. from http://www.australiaforall.com/

Australian Human Rights Commission. (2009). Disability Discrimination Act Complaints Cases Register and Decisions.   Retrieved 7 November, 2009, from http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/decisions/decisions.html

Darcy, S. (2007, 11-14 February). A methodology for assessing class three accessible accommodation information provision. Paper presented at the Tourism - Past Achievements, Future Challenges, Manly Pacific Novotel, Manly - Sydney Australia.

Darcy, S., & Taylor, T. (2009). Disability citizenship: An Australian human rights analysis of the cultural industries. Leisure Studies, 28(4), 419-441.

Deafness Forum, & HMAA. (2005). Accommodation Industry Voluntary Code of Practice for the Provision of Facilities for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired Retrieved 13 Feb, 2010, from http://www.deafnessforum.org.au/index.php?q=accessible-accomodation

Eichhorn, V., Miller, G., Michopoulou, E., & Buhalis, D. (2008). Enabling access to tourism through information schemes? Annals of Tourism Research, 35(1), 189-210.

English Tourism Council. (2000). National Accessible Scheme: for a quality service you can trust - consultation document. London: English Tourism Council.

Europe for All. (2007a). Europe for All - Better information for discerning travellers.   Retrieved 1 January, 2008, from http://www.europeforall.com/

Europe for All. (2007b). Tourism Providers reports on The Europe for all Self-Assessment Questionnaire: For owners/managers of Hotels and Self-Catering Establishments & The Europe for all Photo and Measurement Guide. (Vol. 2008, pp. Website). Available from http://www.europeforall.com/tourismProviders.seam?conversationPropagation=end&conversationId=162076
European Commission, & Westcott, J. (2004). Improving information on accessible tourism for disabled people. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, EUROPA.

European Network for Accessible Tourism. (2007). Working together to make Tourism Accessible for All in Europe.   Retrieved 1 January, 2008, from http://www.accessibletourism.org/ 
Graham, J. (2000). A Guide to Accessible Caravan Parks in Queensland. Brisbane: Tourism Queensland.
Queensland Tourism. (2000). Accessible Queensland Website  Retrieved 21 November, 2000, from www.tq.webcentral.com.au/accessqld/conditions.html 

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games drive Accessible Tourism as an area of legacy

In keeping with the Alpine tourism theme of the previous blog entry from the Australian Alpine regions, we see that the 2010 winter at Olympic and Paralympic Games is driving an Accessible Tourism Strategy for a consortium of organizations (2010 Legacies Now, 2010a). The premise of the strategy is part of a broader push to make sure that there is a planned and ongoing legacy for the 2010 Winter games. The legacy areas: aboriginal; arts; disability; learning and literacy; sport and healthy living; and volunteering (2010 Legacies Now, 2010b). With regard to disability, the 2010 Legacies Now website states:

Leading up to, and beyond, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, 2010 Legacies Now is working with the Province of BC, Tourism BC, and numerous other partners to help make BC a premier travel destination for people with disabilities” (2010 Legacies Now, 2010b).

Within disability there are five noted legacies of which accessible tourism is one. Unlike the approach taken by the Snow Mountains accessible tourism resources (Snowy Mountains Regional Tourism Association, 2010) that were based on the research process outlined for the Australian Accessible Alpine Tourism project (Cameron, 2000, 2004, 2008; Dickson & Hurrell, 2008), the main document focuses on an accessibility icon rating accreditation system for businesses (2010 Legacies Now, 2010a). The document outlines the process for determining  accessibility across mobility, hearing and vision dimensions of access through a set of detailed criteria. The relative advantages and disadvantages of icon rating systems for accessibility have been contentious and the reasons well examined in the literature (Eichhorn, Miller, Michopoulou, & Buhalis, 2008). It will be interesting to monitor the experiences of people with disabilities attending the games to gauge the relative success of this icon ratings system.

What is exciting is that the 2010  Vancouver Winter of Olympic and Paralympic Games is planning for and developing a strategy for sustainable legacies. Very little work on Paralympic legacies has been completed in the past. A new book by David Legg and Keith Gilbert titled The Paralympic Games: Legacy and Regeneration (2010) is due for release later this year that will provide a detailed examination of this poorly researched area.

References

2010 Legacies Now. (2010a). Accessible Tourism Strategy: accessibility rating icon guidelines business Available from http://www.2010legaciesnow.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Accessible_Tourism/Brand_Standard-Business.pdf

2010 Legacies Now. (2010b). Disability programs.   Retrieved 9 February, 2010, from http://www.2010legaciesnow.com/disability/

Cameron, B. (2000). Easy Access Australia (2nd ed.). Kew, Vic: Kew Publishing.

Cameron, B. (2004, 20-22 September). Accessible tourism product-the future. Paper presented at the Out of the blue: Valuing the disability market in tourism.  The 5th National NICAN Conference, Perth, Western Australia.

Cameron, B. (2008). Accessible Drive Tourism Routes Available from http://www.tourism.australia.com/

Dickson, T., & Hurrell, M. (Writer). (2008). Alpine Accessibility Tourism Toolkit [DVD]. In T. Dickson (Producer). Australia: Australian Tourism Development Program/Australian Federal Government Initiative.

Eichhorn, V., Miller, G., Michopoulou, E., & Buhalis, D. (2008). Enabling access to tourism through information schemes? Annals of Tourism Research, 35(1), 189-210.

Legg, D., & Gilbert, K. (Eds.). (2010). The Paralympic Games: Legacy and Regeneration. Champaign, IL USA: Commonground Publishing.

Snowy Mountains Regional Tourism Association. (2010). Accessible accommodation and attractions.   Retrieved 6 Feb, 2010, from http://snowymountains.com.au/Accessible_Accommodation.html http://snowymountains.com.au/Accessible_Attractions.html

Accessible Alpine Tourism Project in Australia

A colleague, Scott Rains of the Rolling Rains Report, alerted me to the Snow Mountains accessible tourism resources (Snowy Mountains Regional Tourism Association, 2010). What Scott didn’t know was that the resources are an excellent example of operationalising previous research and value adding through new research. The resources were developed as part of the Australian Accessible Alpine Tourism project (Dickson & Hurrell, 2008). The Alpine Accessible Tourism Project was funded under Ausindustry’s Australian Tourism Development Program and was co-ordinated by Disabled WinterSport Australia (DWA). The project built on DWA’s 30 years of providing snow sport experiences and sought to develop, document, market and promote accessible summer tourism experiences. Within a participatory action research (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003) and destination management approach (Laws, 1995; Ritchie & Crouch, 2002). The methodology involved:

• Working in collaboration with stakeholders in alpine areas through workshops, seminars and individual consultation;
• Evaluating over 100 tourism providers based on an access auditing protocol developed by Cameron (Cameron, 2000, 2004, 2008);  
• Developing a web-based toolkit for tourism operators who wished to develop their levels of accessibility (Dickson & Hurrell, 2008);
• Providing disability awareness training to outdoor activity operators to aid them in being more inclusive in their activities;
• Producing Mobility maps of alpine communities in New South Wales and Victoria; and
• Establishing a promotional strategy to disseminate information to journals, newspapers and other marketing bodies to promote those businesses that had been assessed (Dickson & Hurrell, 2008).

Photo 1 is from the launch of the CD-ROM that culminated in a hike up Mt Kosciuszko, the highest peak in Australia, to celebrate the  the International Day for People with Disabilities in 2008. Participants included representatives of all access groups, including five people using wheelchairs, one person with a guide dog, a mother with two children in a cycle trailer and several older people. The hike was by no means easily accessible with the gradients and surface not compliant to Australian Standards for Access and Mobility (Standards Australia, 1992a, 1992b, 2002, 2009)but in the spirit of adventure tourism the participants with access considerations accepted the challenge and the inherent risk involved. Other Australian destination management projects and local government approaches Including have been summarized in Darcy and Dickson (2009).

Photo 1: Mt Kosciuszko Trek

References

Cameron, B. (2000). Easy Access Australia (2nd ed.). Kew, Vic: Kew Publishing.

Cameron, B. (2004, 20-22 September). Accessible tourism product-the future. Paper presented at the Out of the blue: Valuing the disability market in tourism.  The 5th National NICAN Conference, Perth, Western Australia.

Cameron, B. (2008). Accessible Drive Tourism Routes Available from http://www.tourism.australia.com/

Darcy, S., & Dickson, T. (2009). A Whole-of-Life Approach to Tourism: The Case for Accessible Tourism Experiences. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 16(1), 32-44.

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2003). Strategies of qualitative inquiry (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Dickson, T., & Hurrell, M. (Writer). (2008). Alpine Accessibility Tourism Toolkit [DVD]. In T. Dickson (Producer). Australia: Australian Tourism Development Program/Australian Federal Government Initiative.

Laws, E. (1995). Tourist destination management: Issues, analysis and policies: Routledge London.

Ritchie, J. R. B., & Crouch, G. I. (2002, Dec 3). Destination Performance Index: Indicators of Performance and Success for Destinations. Paper presented at the WTO Think Tank on Tourism Destination Management, Madrid.

Snowy Mountains Regional Tourism Association. (2010). Accessible accommodation and attractions.   Retrieved 6 Feb, 2010, from http://snowymountains.com.au/Accessible_Accommodation.html http://snowymountains.com.au/Accessible_Attractions.html

Standards Australia. (1992a). AS 1428.2 - Design for access and mobility - Enhanced and additional requirements - Buildings and facilities ([Rev. ] ed.). North Sydney, NSW: Standards Australia.

Standards Australia. (1992b). AS 1428.3 Design for access and mobility - Requirements for children and adolescents with physical disabilities North Sydney, NSW: Standards Australia.

Standards Australia. (2002). AS/NZS 1428.4 - Design for access and mobility - Tactile indicators North Sydney, NSW: Standards Australia.

Standards Australia. (2009). AS 1428.1 Design for access and mobility - General requirements for access - New building work (4th ed.). Homebush, NSW: Standards Australia.