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.
The Global Code of Ethics for Tourism was adopted by resolution A/RES/406(XIII) at the thirteenth WTO General Assembly (Santiago, Chile, 27 September -
1 October 1999).
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol was adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and was opened for signature on 30 March 2007. The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
European tourism policy has to be considered in a political framework defined by limited competences for the EU institutions, powers that are exercised in a very prudent way.
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.
The Australian Disability Discrimination Act 1992 seeks to eliminate discrimination, ‘as far as possible’, against people with disabilities. Public transport is a service covered by the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. The purpose of these Standards is to enable public transport operators and providers to remove discrimination from public transport services.
In times of demographic change and under consideration of the fact that at present 70% of the 46 million handicapped people living in Europe would be able to travel, the importance of ‘Accessible Tourism for All’ comes clear. Therefore, it is the aim of this M.A. thesis to analyse this topic.
After a short introduction, the first part deals with the experiences already made with
accessible tourism in Europe by presenting certain organisations acting in this field and by
giving an overview of their projects.
In the second part the actual demand, the existing offer and the positive and negative effects of accessible tourism will be discussed.
In the third part the specific travel behaviour of blind and visually impaired people will finally be analysed. In order to gain information on this topic, a survey was carried out among people
concerned.
This M.A thesis was submitted to University of Paderborn, Germany in the Faculty of Cultural Science - Geography. The thesis is in German.
On 3rd April 2008, Ecuador signed up as the twentieth country to ratify the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Tunisia and Jordan signed earlier the same week. This will bring the Convention automatically into force on 3rd May. This is a significant landmark for travel and tourism policy and provision, as the Convention includes the right of disabled people to equal participation in cultural activities, including recreation, leisure and sport (Article 30).
Following an invitation of the representative of the Federal Government of Germany for Tourism, Mr. Ernst Hinsken (Member of the German Parliament / Deutscher Bundestag) experts recently discussed first results of a new study with the title “Success factors and actions to improve quality in accessible tourism in Germany” at a conference which took place during International Tourism Fair in Berlin at 6th March 2008.
The European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) has registered this week as a non-profit organisation in Belgium. This marks an exciting new phase in its European and international operations.
A major milestone has been reached with the publication this week of the 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.
