Accessible tourism - Margo Carwardine (part 1)

Speaker 1 00:28

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of New Horizons, I'm Vaughan Bennison, thanks once again for joining us. This week we go back to the roundtable on information access for people with a print disability. This time we focus on a really interesting project being run by the Queensland Brow Writing Association on Accessible Tourism and Access to Venues. The presenter is Margo Cowardin.

Speaker 2 00:50

Since September last year, I've been engaging in the collaborative process of the project, working with key stakeholders to ultimately enable people who are blind or have low vision with more access and being able to enter destinations with more dignity in the tourism sector. The project actually will be launched online in the middle of this year by the end of June, so it will be available for everyone to access all the resources. The focus of the project is to deliver a package of resources through Braille House to accommodation, hospitality and tourist and event destination providers.

And I think it complements really well this year's theme of empowerment through technology, advocacy and collaboration. So the packages of materials have been developed in consultation, particularly with those with lived experience of blindness or low vision, as well as access and mobility specialists. The materials basically are designed to assist businesses in six key areas. The first area is to better understand why investing in accessibility for visitors or people with low vision is important, and I've called that the business case.

The second key area is to encourage businesses to undertake self -assessment access audits of their facilities, staffing, procedures, customer experience and marketing and communication to help identify barriers, gaps and areas for improvement, as well as strengths and things that they already have in place. There's the opportunity through the package of resources to learn through case studies, to also use the materials to develop their own business strategy, to draw from a suite of practical accessibility support materials, and finally to enhance their provision of accessible information through marketing, particularly to the community of people who have blind or low vision.

So from that the project was framed up around eight pillars, and I'm going to step us through each of the eight. So there is the business case, the self -assessment access audits, the case studies, the ideas for business planning, resources, comms and marketing and references.

03:34

So it's my belief that many businesses actually want to step into the accessible tourism space, but they often don't know where to start. They need to collaborate with others and they need to do that collaboration in a way that also brings advocacy for accessibility and inclusion. Too often when people are thinking about accessibility, particularly businesses, they think for example of wheelchairs and perhaps assistant stogs and they are important, but as we know there are many other forms of accessibility and catering for the blind and low vision community can commence with some quite simple and low cost modifications.

So the project is also designed to help businesses recognise this. I think it's really important that businesses know that there is a compelling business case around accessibility. So the project presents the business case in brief on a one page, so it's a snapshot, and then there's a second more detailed understanding of the business case that really unpacks it in terms of specific data and that's very well referenced. So the first component of the business case, and there are four components or four key themes, are the social benefits. I believe and the research shows that when destinations commit to accessibility, they are promoting a more diverse and inclusive society, they are fostering goodwill and they are enhancing reputation and attracting more tourists.

The second key theme of the business case is the economic advantages and they are potentially huge, particularly when you look at the research. So that's about untapping and growing the market potential for visitors who are blind or have low vision. And it also brings in the multiplier effect because visitors who are blind or low vision often have a travel party with them which can be between two to four people. And research also shows that accessible facilities encourage longer and repeat visits.

05:55

The third key theme of the business case is that it means that businesses who engage, particularly in this project and accessibility, are meeting their requirements and responsibilities. So this includes fulfilling their business and destination legal obligations and also meeting anti-discrimination responsibilities. Importantly, it means that they are maximising safety, which in turn leads to limiting public liability. 

And the fourth key theme in the business case is that engaging in this space means that businesses can potentially have a competitive advantage. They are setting their destination apart, they are raising the bar for similar venues and destinations, and they subsequently have a competitive edge. The second key area I'm going to speak to is the self-assessment access audits. So these checklists have been developed by Braillehouse in conjunction with certified orientation and mobility specialists and in consultation with those who have a lived experience in blindness or low vision. The checklists include links to standards, guides, products and resources, and there are four checklists in total. 

The first one is a whole venue checklist. The second one is a checklist for accommodation venues. The third checklist is for hospitality destinations. And the final checklist is for tourism or event destinations. The first one, the whole venue access audit checklist, is applicable to all destination venues, and it should be undertaken with at least one of the other access audits. So, for example, if a destination was a restaurant or a café, it would engage with both the whole of venue self -assessment audit checklist and the hospitality venue checklist. If it was a museum or an art gallery or a discovery centre or theme park or stadium, it would engage with both the whole of venue access audit checklist, as well as the tourism or event destination checklist.

And if they had a café, for example, they'd then engage in the third checklist related to hospitality. So, let's have a quick look at the audits. So, each checklist is divided into sections, with each section having a number of access elements nominated for the facility auditor to assess. So, they consider each element and then record where it's in place. So, the element may already be in place or they may have plans for it, or it only requires minor adjustments. It might be something that they'll look to doing the medium term, but doesn't require a renovation, for example. It might be a longer term need. It might be ongoing in its nature, or it might not be applicable to that business at all. Ultimately, this material will inform their business planning, their where to next steps.

09:21

So, in the whole of venue audit, for example, there are 18 categories, each with a varying number of sub elements. I'll give you an example of the whole of facilities one, but I won't go through them all for each one because there's quite a number. So, the 18 are customer service training, external walkways, entrance and approach, doorways, ramps, tactile ground surface indicators, handrails, stairs, lighting, escalators or travelators, elevators or lifts, internal walkways, seating areas, signage, toilets, emergency exits, queuing areas and website accessibility.

Now, if we take that first one, customer service training for whole of venue, there are three sub elements and these are the questions that the self auditor will ask of the venue. Number one, has customer service staff been trained in sighted guide techniques and vision impairment sensitivity? Now, with that question, there's links to two really valuable tools that actually provide venues with top advice. on how to train their staff. The second question in this access element is, are their staff trained available to meet the person on arrival if requested? And the third one is, staff who undertake reservations or ticket sales over the phone, are they trained to ask pertinent questions about accessibility? 

And then it refers to the reference section of the resource because we've created a resource that actually suggests great questions to ask when people call and ask about accessibility so that the venue can be better informed as to who they're serving. So that's just a quick sense of the detail that we have drilled down into. The second of the audit access tools is for accommodation venues, there's 12 different categories in that, each with a number of sub-categories.

11:49

The first morning I was here as I was going in for breakfast and I was looking around for where the toilets are, as you go into that breakfast area there's a little ramp that leads up to a hallway on your right and the toilet sign with the braille on it is overhead, I couldn't reach it. Now that's such a simple fix. That is such a simple fix and that's about awareness and if this facility were to undertake the audits they'd pick that up straight away and it's a really quick fix. 

Another thing that I'd like to mention, I know there was talk about QR codes yesterday and I think they're a little bit of a blessing and a curse. They have so much opportunity but you need to know where to find them in the first place. While the pandemic was raging, people at Braille House had a conversation about that, particularly with one of our transcribers who is blind and how does she access the QR codes? Particularly when in Queensland we went hard, a bit like Western Australia, it was mandatory check-in for most places. So Braille House developed tactile QR code indicators that are like on contact that can be stuck on top of the QR code so that people who are blind or low vision can feel within the text box and know where the QR code indicator is.

They come in two sizes, so simple but so powerful and we do sell these by the way, they won a national award, a national disability award and we were up against some amazing things in that category so things don't have to be complicated to make a difference.

Speaker 1 13:46

And we'll continue looking at this project next week. Once again, thank you to the Roundtable on Information Access for people with a print disability for allowing us the use of this material. I'm sure you'll agree it's been a fascinating look. And hopefully it will encourage some of you to go to the Roundtable because they really do have some very interesting sessions. Unfortunately, we've only been able to feature a small number of them here.

If you'd like to contact Blind Citizens Australia, you can call 1-800-033-660 ... 1800-033-660 - or you can email bca@bca.org.au ... BCA at BCA dot org dot AU. I'll talk to you again next week.