The European Union named 2003 as the European Year of People with Disabilities. In this context, a Group of Experts was set up by Mrs. Anna Diamantopoulou, Member of the Commission in charge of Employment and Social Affairs, with the mandate to address accessibility within an increasingly diverse and ageing society, and to put forward concrete proposals.
As part of the two year ENAT work programme 2006 – 2007, a study of services and facilities for accessible tourism in Europe was conducted by Toegankelijkheidsbureau (Belgium). This report presents definitions of accessible tourism, the target public and their specific needs, leading to an overview of services and facilities that tourism providers can adopt to improve accessibility.
Prepared by the Irish National Disability Authority, this draft code of practice explains the obligations of public bodies to ensure that, as far as practicable, the whole or part of a heritage site in its ownership, management or control and to which the public has access, is accessible to people with disabilities and can be visited by them with ease and dignity.
Published by the Irish National Disability Authority, this guidance document is aimed at ensuring the speedy and safe evacuation of public buildings by people with a disability, particularly in the event of an emergency.
The British Standards Institution (BSI) worked together with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and VisitBritain to develop a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) that gives guidance on the accessibility and services offered to disabled people or people with a long-term health condition in the UK by large hotel premises and hotel chains. Several international hotel chains and stakeholder groups participated in producing the specification.
Although the BSI website states that the document, codenamed "PAS 88:2008" was: "Sponsored by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and VisitBritian (sic)", copies of the guidance document are not free of charge. Single copies may be purchased (costing GBP 50.00) and downloaded in PDF format from the BSI website.
Guidance document providing information on how to meet the requiurements for accessibility for disabled persons in relation to UK building regulations.
Bracknell Forest Borough Council is working to ensure that development within the Borough is accessible to all members of our community. “Designing for Accessibility in Bracknell Forest” has been produced to give guidance to those who are planning, designing and implementing the built environment and details the standards of accessibility that the authority is looking to be achieved in all development. Bracknell Forest Borough Council will be looking to ensure that development goes beyond minimum standards of accessibility detailed in documents such as Part M of the Building Regulations 2004 (Approved Document M ‘Access to and use of buildings’). Planning applications will be assessed against compliance with planning policy and not compliance with Part M.
Recommendations from the Second International Conference on Accessible Tourism held November 22 - 24, 2007 at the United Nations in Bangkok, Thailand.
Sixteen recommendations directed towards governments, public agencies, tourism businesses and academia seek to promote the development of inclusive tourism in the region, targetting a wide range of measures for both specialised and mainstream services.
Why should venue owners consider accessible tourism? This website provides links to a range of resources that tourist venue owners can use to gain insight and develop their services for disabled and elderly tourists. The information was compiled as part of the EU funded 'Happy Tourist' project.
This 'Publicly Available Specification' (PAS) has been developed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and VisitBritain in collaboration with The British Standards Institution (BSI). The book is intended to help owners and managers of large hotels and hotel chains meet their obligations under the UK Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
From more than 800 published case studies, the on-line accessibility information service for tourists at www.EuropeforAll.com has been chosen by the ePractice portal as this week's Editor's Choice.
A new working group has been set up in Milan to provide guidelines on how to make an accessible transportation system usable and attractive for a larger number of customers.
