Travelers want to experience a destination’s unique “sense of place.” In wilderness or historic sites this closeness requires alteration. Too much interference and the character of the place changes; not enough and it cannot be experienced. It seems a tangled dilemma – until you look closely at the quiet mainstreaming of inclusion.
At Angkor Wat, the ancient temple site in Cambodia, you will find narrow passages, towers, and steep stairways.
Yet wheelchair accessible trails in the jungle lead to hidden grottos. Raised wooden walkways, designed to protect stonework, also serve visitors with mobility impairments. You may notice that the shoe on the left foot of one tour guide climbing a pyramid is the mirror image of the shoe on the right foot of his partner. Both are amputees sharing a single pair of shoes!
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities establishes the right to participate in sport and travel. Groups such as the Responsible Tourism Movement proclaim the ethical necessity of inclusion in their Cape Town and Kerala Declarations.
The International Institute of Peace Through Tourism, Ecumenical Council on Tourism, International Conference on Accessible Tourism, and European Network on Accessible Tourism all implement research, training, and advocacy that generate growing support for the stand taken by the UN’s World Tourism Organization’s requirement that tourism be inclusive of people of all abilities.
Paralympian athletes earn bragging rights for their home countries but sport is leaping the enclosures of stadiums (even accessible ones) to move outdoors. Businesses have grown up to supply products for adapted kayaking, trekking, SCUBA, sailing, climbing, skiing, golf, and cycling.
Old attitudes are giving way to multiple-use policies in the parks departments of Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and Portugal. Hands-off historical site policies in India have been replaced by a ministry of tourism mandate to incorporate Universal Design.
A contest is underway to judge the best green tourism projects for 2009. Sponsored by Ashoka Foundation and National Geographic, this Geotourism Challenge understands that, “To be considered ecologically sustainable a project must be socially sustainable. It must be respectful of the human needs and cultural variation of those it impacts.”
Geotourism Challenge nominees reflect on questions such as:
• Do you provide information in various formats so that it can be independently accessed?
• Does the information include the detail that is essential for someone with a disability?
• Does the marketing material you provide portray people with disabilities?
• Have you made an attempt to employ persons with disabilities?
• If you have assistive or modified equipment do you attempt to limit its environmental impact? (e.g. Biodiesel in your wheelchair lift-equipped vehicle?)
• In access to the water do you apply the Waypoint/Backstrom Principle?
• Have you reviewed your program using the principles of Universal Design?
Ten years ago linking earth-friendly and accessible tourism would have been seen as dreaming. Five years ago it would have been seen as a noble but distant ideal. Today, aligning earth-sensitive and human-centered values seems within reach.
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Need help planning your next accessible getaway? See Travel Agents Specializing in Adaptive Travel for more information.
For more useful resources for adaptive tourism, see Resources for Traveling with Disabilities.
