Category Archives: Disability Issues

by | April 26, 2010 · 2:48 pm

Accessible Tourism?

I am taking a break at the halfway point through my Ten points to Accessible Information series. The series will resume soon.

New Zealand tourism has to do more than grudgingly meet minimum standards, or international visitors will not return, and they will tell others of their bad experiences.

Where is customer service?

I don’t often write about physical access as it is not my area of expertise. But a friend of mine recently had some difficulty with public transport after completing the Rail Trail. The reasons that were offered for the refusals to take her powered wheelchair on public transport reminded me of how much disabled people are still seen as a problem to be avoided rather than valued customers to be served like anyone else. The so-called number-eight wire mentality and the innovative ‘can do’ attitude beloved of kiwis was sadly lacking in this instance. Not to mention simply providing good old-fashioned quality service to a fare-paying customer.

Accessible tourism is becoming increasingly ‘business as usual’ abroad and we are being left behind. The Rail Trail is promoted as an iconic twenty-first century southern experience, but this won’t wash internationally if the infrastructure to support it is still in the dark ages.

Accessible tourism should be the norm

I decided to have a look around the Interweb to see what I could find about accessible tourism in New Zealand. I found a few specialist tour operators whose websites vary in the quality of their accessibility. I would rather see general tourism services applying accessibility principles, but good luck to those providers for offering an accessible service where it would otherwise be lacking.

There is also a good New Zealand-based Accessible Tourism blog which keeps a watch on the accessible tourism scene in NZ and keeps up to date with international developments. It recently reviewed a report Domestic Tourism Market Segmentation prepared for the Ministry of Tourism which recognises baby boomers as a market segment, But the report identifies disability as a barrier to travel and the blog says

“the report reinforces the idea that it is a person’s disability that is a barrier, rather than  environments such as inaccessible transport and accommodation that are disabling.”

Tourism Ministry out of touch

Oh dear. The Ministry should know of the New Zealand Disability Strategy and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD,) which NZ has ratified. Both of these take a different view of barriers.  The approach taken by the report explains a great deal

I checked for information on “accessible tourism” on the very modern New Zealand.com – where you would expect to find it. I found none. I then tried the Ministry of Tourism site which gave me seven search results of which the first six were totally irrelevant and the seventh took me to an uninformative page with a link to “travel information for those with special needs” which is actually on NewZealand.com listed under “key facts”.  This  left me utterly confused.

Why was it so hard to find? Because  “Travel information for those with special needs” s not what most disabled people would look for.

This outdated page is indicative of the attitude. It reads as if disabled people are inconvenient parcels that have to be conveyed from one place to another and put up with, not welcomed, or even accommodated, (sorry about the pun.)

No one in my wide NZ and international (travelling) networks is likely to feel that the term “special needs” is acceptable when the generally recognised term is accessible tourism. Other travellers might have ‘wants’ or even ‘desires.’ Someone else has arbitrarily decided that disabled people have ‘special needs’ (for ‘special’ read second class).

The tone of the page is grudging. It does not reflect an understanding of the audience. With inspiring headings such as

  • Disabled Facilities
  • Accommodation for the disabled
  • Transport for the Disabled, and
  • Food Allergies

it is hardly an enticing read.

The tourism market is growing and the potential customer base is ageing, and with that come higher rates of disability. In tough times we need to see the market as it is and behave accordingly.

1 Comment

Filed under Disability Issues, Disability Rights, Inclusion, Information Accessibility, Travel, Web Accessibility

by | March 30, 2010 · 10:23 am

Accessible information is understandable

This in part of a series Ten points to accessible information.

You can present information in Braille, large print, Sign Language, or easy read, but it will still be useless if it cannot be understood.

Once again we are talking about clear and straightforward communication, familiar language, jargon free text and information that is well structured and easy to follow. This is true whether the information is presented in a web site that has clearly understandable navigation and other interactions such as forms, or in any other format.

Presenting the same information in a variety of alternative or supplemented representations can increase understanding. Text can be supplemented with informative illustrations and graphics, for example.

On the Web, this kind of multi-formatted presentation of information gives the lie to the argument that accessibility is boring. Here, text can be supplemented with illustrations, animations, audio, video and information in other formats. Some of these formats may be essential for comprehension by those with more significant cognitive or reading impairments.

Summaries of long and complex information, either on the web or elsewhere can also make information more understandable.

Understandable information as an element of accessibility will benefit everyone. Here is an example from my own recent experience. Last week I was watching a presentation during the CSUN 2010 tweetup.  Our so-called broadband was simply not keeping up. Because the presentation was live streaming I was missing bits and it was annoyingly difficult to understand what was being said. (I have hearing within the regular range.) Mostly I couldn’t read what was on the overheads being shown either. However the conference was thoughtfully providing captions, which loaded faster than the visual and audio so I could follow the presentation. Thanks guys.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Disability Issues, Disability Rights, Information Accessibility, Web Accessibility

by | March 22, 2010 · 12:32 pm

Accessible information is concise

This is part of a series Ten points to accessible information.

Accessible information is straightforward and direct, getting to the points quickly and simply. It avoids unnecessary words or jargon. It shares many features of plain English, including short uncomplicated sentences, and language familiar to users.

Concise information is easy to follow, expressing all the information that the user is looking for in a few words. It should, for example, enable users of web sites to complete their tasks quickly and easily.

Accessible information is brief but comprehensive.

This may not always be as easy in practice as it looks.  You can think about the information you want to convey as a pyramid, with the sharp point at the top being the most important. The most important piece of information is expressed as a short sentence in the first paragraph. The wide base of the pyramid represents the least important information as it might not be read.

Of course knowing your audience, being user focused, and knowing what is relevant will help you understand what your user is looking for.

1 Comment

Filed under Disability Issues, Disability Rights, Information Accessibility, Web Accessibility

by | March 15, 2010 · 12:30 pm

Accessible information is timely

This post is part of a series, Ten points to accessible information.

Information should be timely, that is, available to everyone at the same time, no matter what the format. It should not appear in other formats later. It should also be available for disabled and other print disabled people in time to be useful.

In the last post Accessible information is relevant I indicated the particular costs in time, effort and resources to disabled people when accessing information. It is therefore critical that information is available at the time it is needed, and gives people who need it the opportunity to make the best use of it. It is no use having to wait for information about an event until it is too late to register your attendance, to find out about election candidates when there is little time left to make your decision, or to learn about the closing date for a submission when it is too late for you, or too late to organise your group to submit. Accessing an using information will take longer for some disabled people and their organisations. This might seen to be stating the obvious perhaps, but in my experience it happens.

To make sure this happens smoothly good planning is essential, working back from the end date so that everyone is included.

Accessibility and the range of formats offered should be planned in from the start of any information or communications project. A last-minute addition will be more expensive and reach a smaller audience. Planning will prevent mistakes such as sending out print covering letters with non-print alternative format material.

Planning and budgeting for the time and resources necessary for a variety of formats and channels will ensure best practice processes are followed. Ultimately the best value for resources will be gained with careful planning and decision-making about who needs what and when.

A significant spin off from timely information is that disabled people will know they are as important as everyone else, critical if the message is to be communicated successfully.

1 Comment

Filed under Disability Issues, Disability Rights, Information Accessibility, Web Accessibility