Following the European Commission's Mandate/M371 this Final Report provides an overview of current and future European service standardization activities, bringing together the results of all 11 projects into an overall comprehensive analysis. The report: Summarizes the methodology and activities undertaken; Outlines the overall findings from the research and seminars, highlighting: details of standardization work already started at the CEN level; details of standardization work to start following the feasibility work and needs for future service standardization activities; Provides recommendations and conclusions, Outlines the next steps.
More than half a billion persons in the world are disabled as a result of mental, physical or sensory impairment. The right of disabled persons to participate fully in the social life and development of their societies and to enjoy living conditions equal to those of other citizens, as well as to share equally in the improvements in living conditions resulting from social and economic development has been largely recognized by international and european union resolutions. This right is closely related to the accessibility of the disabled to transport and tourist destinations.
In this paper we focus on the initiatives undertaken by the European Union and the United Nations on accessible tourism. These initiatives are based on two elements: The first is to make real improvements at tourist destinations by implementing improved standards in tourist and travelling infrastructure and the second is to make information about the accessibility of tourist destinations widely available to the tourist industry and its customers. Both elements imply the involvement of tourist authorities, travel agencies, hotels, voluntary organizations and others involved in organizing recreational activities or travel opportunities, who should offer their services to all, taking into account the special needs of persons with disabilities.
This paper draws on the observations of an international college student with an upper socio-economic background from Kenya who, prior to graduate work in the United States, had almost no contact with people with physical disabilities. The paper explores the construction of accessibility and disability on a college campus as viewed from a semiotic perspective through a research project that was conducted with a student with physical disabilities who used a motorized wheel chair. The paper contrasts an initial reaction to the freedom of accessibility the person with disability appears to have in the United States with the reality of a case study of a wheel-chair confined student. The commentary considers how signs of accessibility (such as the ramp sign) operate at three levels: (1) the iconic (signifying access or a way in/out); (2) indexical (as a marker of a society accessible by all citizens, even those with disabilities); and (3) symbolic (as a representation of freedom of movement, convenience, and inclusion). At this third symbolic level, the paper suggests that the ramp, when inconveniently though legally located, represents confinement, inconvenience, restriction of freedom, and a sense of censored access. The paper also examines ways that a person can be "dis-abled" by a culture through denial of a person's abilities or "enabled" and empowered.
Many Europeans with disabilities are unable to participate in important areas of society, simply because policies and the built environment are not designed to meet their requirements. Moreover, with the number of elderly people rapidly increasing, European societies will have to accommodate more and more disabled citizens in the future. This book invites member states to: promote full participation in community life by ensuring access to all areas of society, including the built environment, transport, products and goods, information, public service, education, employment and health care; implement Universal Design as a strategy to ensure equal and democratic rights in society for all individuals, regardless of age, abilities or cultural background, including persons with disabilities.
American lifestyle magazine, New Mobility, has named Dr. Scott Rains "Person of the Year, 2009". This special recognition goes to Dr. Rains "...for all he does to ensure that people with disabilities can boldly go where everyone else has gone before - and beyond..."! Congratulations, Scott, from the ENAT Members!
With thousands of blogs appearing on the Web every minute, it takes something special to make any single one of them stand out from the crowd. For those interested in research on accessible tourism, Dr. Simon Darcy's new blog on Accessible Tourism Research holds significant promise of making research findings more accessible to everyone. Also, it can help to shape the international agenda of research and development in this growing and diverse field of study.
Participants from 15 Asian-Pacific countries adopted a declaration at a regional United Nations meeting in Japan, laying out 20 recommendations aimed at improving accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Within the framework of of the European Union's Operational Programme of Territorial Cooperation between Spain, France and Andorra 2007-2013 (Interreg IV A), the project Accessi Tourisme is a triennial project of cross-border cooperation on Accessible Tourism, between the Department of Turisme de Catalonia and its conterparts, the Departmental Committee of Eastern Pyrenees Tourism, and the Elsa Fundació NGO.
The Mediate Project aims to establish a common European methodology for measuring accessibility. This will lead to the development of a self-assessment tool that can be used by policy makers to identify areas where upgrading will improve the accessibility of public transport in their city. In this way, Mediate will contribute to the provision of better and easier access for all.
The ETCAATS project has two main aims: 1). to develop an online training course in accessible tourism from existing innovative content selected from previous Swedish work and supplemented with other international training materials; and 2). to develop a ‘Road map’ for an EU certification system for the area of accessible tourism vocational training, in line with the European Qualifications Framework. The target groups for the course include employers and personnel in the tourism industry.
