Eight cities have been shortlisted for the prestigious European Access City Award 2012. With 114 entries from 23 EU countries, the jurors had a challenging task identifying the finalists.
Co-hosted by the Rick Hansen Foundation and the Rick Hansen Institute, Interdependence 2012 is an international four-day conference and exposition with a focus on creating accessible communities and furthering spinal cord injury (SCI) research for a cure. Abstracts are now invited for presentations in the theme session on "Making Communities Accessible for All". The two sub-themes are "Accessible and Inclusive Tourism" and "UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities".
Projects to improve the accessibility of the Algarve for visitors and residents with restricted mobility continue to be put in place – but the changes being made to make the region accessible for all are not being put in place fast enough according to industry experts.
ENAT Member, Skagerrak Tours, is a tour operator company of Hungarian-Danish ownership working in Budapest. We organize tours and tourist programs to Hungary which are accessible to everyone.
Put your city on the European map as a proactive supporter of accessibility for persons with disabilities. The Access City Award sets out to showcase and reward cities with over 50,000 inhabitants which take exemplary initiatives to improve accessibility in the urban environment.
As a result of the activities of the Foundation " Ne spirai / Don’t Stop” the "Cluster for accessible tourism (CAT)” was founded, with the core purpose of promoting business and development of accessible tourism in Bulgaria with the brand "Bulgaria for All".
The Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (CERMI) and ONCE Foundation presented the Eurotaxi White Paper "A Taxi for All" in Málaga on 2nd February 2011. The paper analyzes the main issues and lines of action for the design of taxis and implementation of accessible taxi services in all Spanish municipalities.
The New Zealand Tourism Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology is conducting a survey for the New Zealand National Foundation for the Deaf concerning the tourism, travel, and hospitality needs of people with hearing impairments. The survey aims to gather responses from people all over the world who are either deaf or have hearing loss.
The Strategic Framework for Tourism in England 2010 – 2020, launched in spring 2010, identified key drivers for securing our industry’s future. A series of Action Plans outlining shared priorities have now been compiled by cross-industry groups focussing on activities to be implemented in the first three years of the Strategic Framework’s 10 year period. ENAT Members are invited to download the Action Plans and send comments to VisitEngland.
This spring, Certu (the Centre for Studies on Urban planning, Transport and Public facilities, France) will publish a study about practices improving access for all in 11 European cities. This analysis is part of a comprehensive review led by Certu to identify interesting examples of accessibility practices in Europe.
The first international certification programme for accessible tourism destinations has been developed and carried out in Lousã, Portugal by the Belgian Accessibility Office, Toegangelijkheidsbureau (TGB). The Certification Programme is a completely new destination management tool which provides an accurate measure of the excellence of an accessible tourism destination, based on strictly defined criteria.
The general objective of the project "TOURISM INCLUSIVE - Competencies for Care of People with Disabilities" was to conduct a study that may contribute to the achievement of national policy of inclusion of persons with disabilities, particularly in regard to their access to tourism services by: The identification of specific needs of people with disabilities, on the reception - service - service; The identification of skills, in terms of care and service necessary to meet those needs; The construction of a "package" of training aimed at developing these specific skills.