The article "Manifest Accessibility" (reprinted below) appeared on March 7, 2005 at the Travel & Disability section of Suite 101.com. For a complete list of articles see the column to the left or go to the welcome page at http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/travel_with_disabilities
An excerpt from, "TOWARD A GLOBAL HISTORY OF INCLUSIVE TRAVEL"
While the history of accessible travel and tourism is intertwined with that of the disability rights and independent living movements, sharing their triumphs and setbacks, it has its own landmark events, advocacy organizations, heroes and villains. Initially a beneficiary of the struggle for accessible transportation and public facilities and services in North America and Western Europe, tourism that accommodates the needs of travelers with disabilities has by now, in the words of the World Tourism Organization, become a �motor of accessibility� worldwide (1997). This opinion was echoed by UN ESCAP at the Asia-Pacific Conference on Tourism for People with Disabilities (2000):In view of the changing consumer demand, tourism for all is an increasingly important sales argument in a competitive market. At the same time, it can serve as an effective tool in furthering the human rights of people with disabilities in the destination communities.
The extent to which inclusive travel has become big business has been documented in nationwide surveys by Open Doors Organization (2002) in the United States and K�roul (2001) in Canada. This does not, however, mean that this market is now viewed uniformly through the lens of �economic opportunity.� The medical or charity model of disability still holds sway in whole regions of the globe...
From: "TOWARD A GLOBAL HISTORY OF INCLUSIVE TRAVEL" By Laurel Van Horn and Jos� Isola, the Review of Disability Studies, Spring 2005
Harry Wolfe advises governments on population trends and transportation systems. As his mother aged before she passed away, they were able to enjoy several trips together. In the process he learned a great deal. Since then, he has developed a professional expertise in airport design for seniors.
Personal experience with the disablement of aging can re-orient one's career and even lead an entire profession in new directions.
Jeanette Cosentino is an Occupational Therapist. She has long been an advocate of ubiquitous good design such as zero-step shower entries (roll-in showers) in homes and hotels. Recently she has become an advocate for inclusion through design on a regional planning scale. Using a line that echoes Dr. Martin Luther King: �I have a dream,� she says, as she introduces herself to local leaders in Santa Cruz, CA. �I have a dream that all those seniors clambering to retire there in Monterey will look across the Bay and choose Santa Cruz.�
Persistent application of practical thinking toward a vision of barrier-free living by even one person can revitalize the economic well-being of an entire community.
Flora Hazelton (not her real name) did the math and liked the bottom line. She calculated the daily cost of staying in a nursing home. Then she calculated the cost of a cabin on a cruise ship. With the extra she saves, she has a bit of pocket change at each port they stop at. She has no complaints at all about the food!
Given choices, some consumers will choose what is best for them � and push the envelope in novel ways.
A case is currently before the Supreme Court. It deals with apparent discrimination against cruise ship passengers with disabilities. Spector et. al vs. Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. recounts a tale that need not have occurred in today's world.
The incident makes several things clear.
Disability accompanies aging, and seniors have two of the three things the cruise industry craves: time and money. Whether they have the third, the desire to cruise, depends on the behavior of those suppliers, agents, and ports-of-call who accept their money but not their needs.
What is also clear, with this �shot across the bow,� is that a struggle has been engaged by a community that, to be blunt as well as historically accurate, simply never gives up.
I will not pretend to have the legal knowledge necessary to judge the case on its legal merits.
I do not have the ability to predict the unintended consequences of demanding that foreign-flagged vessels doing business in the US adhere to the minimal standards of human rights preserved in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
It is not yet clear whether this litigation approach can scrape away years of accumulated prejudice in business practice or whether it is too blunt an instrument to chart a new, inclusive course for the travel and hospitality industry.
However, cruising is popular. It is disproportionately popular among seniors and those with disabilities. Travel decisions made through word-of-mouth recommendations by peers are also disproportionately characteristic of this group of travelers.
Business decisions to embrace discriminatory practice � under �flags of convenience� or otherwise � will not only redirect cruise customers toward land-based vacations employing Universal Design strategies of inclusive destination development but they will coalesce a perfect storm: customer dissatisfaction and the mobilization of senior and disability advocates at just the moment when the traveling Boomer Tsunami is about to crest.
Heed the early warnings.
Informed consumers in a globalized world exhibit travel behavior that is not indifferent to questions of equality and justice. They will not be satisfied with business strategies that allow adherence to outmoded ethical behavior or inadequate design responses to passengers.
Cherished shipbuilding traditions of seaworthiness � based on the hale and hearty young lads of yore � must give way to new formulations that adequately address passenger safety and respect their differences. Service that perpetuates prejudice will end up in consumer mutiny.
As one passenger commented on my last cruise:
"It's only in the movies that the villains aboard ship have the 'peg leg' or a hook prosthesis... We're your loyal customers, Captain. So remember, when you drop anchor on these shores, inclusion is the price of doing business."