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.
The Directive relates to special provisions for vehicles used for the carriage of passengers comprising more than eight seats in addition to the driver's seat, and amending Directives 70/156/EEC and 97/27/EC.
Air Canada announced that as of July 15, 2007, pets must travel as air cargo, not as checked luggage. Service animals without proper documentation may be affected. Other airlines apply their own rules.
In Working Like Dogs: The Service Dog Guidebook, two fans of service dogs explain what they are and what it's like to have a dog that's trained to help a disabled person.
An access guide to Tenerife Sur, produced in 2007, covers information bureaux, facilities, transport and accommodations in three languages, Spanish, English, German. 169 pages. It is published by the Municipality of Arona. Arona has taken up the challenge to make its tourist offers available to everyone, including people with disabilities, through the Arona Integral Accessibility Plan.
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 Foundation Un Mar Sin Barreras (A Sea Without Barriers) organises sailing activities in the Port of Valencia. Due to the construction of the Formula 1 circuit the NGO is being forced to cease its activities. Readers are asked to send a letter of support to the Foundation to secure a suitable relocation within the port.
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.
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.
The ASK-IT integrated project aims to establish Ambient Intelligence (AmI) in semantic web enabled services, to support and promote the mobility of Mobility Impaired people, enabling the provision of personalised, self-configurable, intuitive and context-related applications and services and facilitating knowledge and content organisation and processing.
The Municipality of Arona, Tenerife Sur, has taken up the challenge to make its tourist offers available to everyone, including people with disabilities, through the Arona Integral Accessibility Plan. An access guide to Tenerif Sur, produced in 2007, covers information bureaux, facilities, transport and accommodations in three languages, Spanish, English, German. The Guide has 170 pages and is richly illustrated.
