Best Practice in Accessible Tourism: Inclusion, disability, ageing population and tourism

7 June 2012

Simon Darcy

Best Practice in Accessible Tourism is a comprehensive overview for government, academics and commercial tourism operators wanting to gain an understanding of the global state of accessible tourism. The editors and contributors highlight a growing cohort of people too long ignored by the tourism industry and rarely considered by the public, as users of tourism services. Many of the contributors are professionals who have a lived experience of disability, which adds an authenticity to the analyses made and the practical strategies offered. The book is based on a social approach to disability where a person's impairment only becomes a disability when social, economic and political agendas create environmental and attitudinal barriers to social inclusion. It is divided into five sections that move from analysing policy and existing theory from around the world to exploring practical considerations and models of implementation for the future. The book makes a valuable contribution to a paradigm shift from extraordinary/special considerations for people with disability to inclusive citizenship for all. Best Practice in Accessible Tourism challenges the portrayal of people with disability as a burden and demonstrates with evidence the growing market potential of people with disability and the ageing. 

Simon Darcy is an Associate Professor in the UTS Business School, an Associate Member of the Centre for Health Technologies and Core Member of the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre.

By:

Arif Ongu,
Equity and Diversity Unit