Sensory accessibility management
Definition
Accessible Tourism or Tourism for All is not limited to the elimination of physical, sensory or communication barriers, but rather aims to ensure that tourist environments, products and services can be enjoyed on equal terms by any person with or without disabilities.
Accessible Tourism only exists when accessibility has been incorporated into the entire tourism value chain. It is not just about having an accessible hotel or an accessible tourist attraction, but the travel experience as a whole must be taken into account: its planning, tourist information, public or private transport, accommodation, tourist and leisure activities, restaurants, etc [1].
Accessibility has become an intrinsic factor in tourism quality, quality tourism can no longer be conceived when it is not available to everyone, quality tourism must be accessible to everyone and no one should be left out of it for any reason or circumstance [2].
Accessibility can be understood in relation to three basic forms of human activity: mobility, communication and understanding; all three subject to limitation as a consequence of the existence of barriers.
Universal Accessibility is an essential quality that tourist environments, products and services must have so that they can be used autonomously, safely and in a standardized way by anyone, regardless of whether they have certain limited abilities. It is understood that universal accessibility includes the idea of conceiving without barriers everything that is created or designed new (in this sense it is similar to the idea of Design for All); but it also incorporates the progressive adaptation of what has already been done with barriers.
The inclusion and non-discrimination of people with disabilities and other diverse needs is an obligation included in Spanish legislation. In tourism it must also be considered, since this group of people has the right to leisure and enjoy their vacation time under the same conditions as the rest of the people as specified in its article 30 of the “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”, signed in New York on December 13, 2006 by the United Nations, ratified by Spain in 2007 and in force since May 3, 2008.
The lack of access and the barriers present in the environment condition social participation and, consequently, the exercise of fundamental freedoms (right to education, right to employment, social and health services, right to culture, personal integrity, etc.) to a greater extent than the functional limitations themselves.