Travel, Disability, and Universal Design: The Rolling Rains Report
Currently a research and educational campaign on tourist experience of people with disabilities - a group that has historically been denied access to tourism the next phase of this project scales sustainable development projects piloted in Asia and the Americas. It implants local collaboratives, directed by people with disabilities, to provide tourism product consultation, infrastructure design, and destination development services to the tourism and hospitality industry. It matches the profit motive of industry with the pent-up demand for travel opportunities by people with disabilities through a series of local projects grounded in the destination's disability community but linked globally through electronic communications, publishing, conferences, and professional networks.
Your idea
This will be the address used to plot your entry on the map.
Street Address
1748 Dalton Place
City
San Jose
State/Province
CA
Postal/Zip Code
95124
Country
United States
Year innovation began
2003
Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant
Quality of tourism management and impact on the destination
Place your video embed code here from YouTube, Google Video and other video sharing websites. How to embed a video from YouTube.
Paste your code here
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Community Organization
Geographic location
Multiple locations.
Plot your innovation within the Mosaic of Solutions
Main insight addressed
Incorporate sustainable practices
Name Your Project
Travel, Disability, and Universal Design: The Rolling Rains Report
Describe Your Idea
Currently a research and educational campaign on tourist experience of people with disabilities - a group that has historically been denied access to tourism the next phase of this project scales sustainable development projects piloted in Asia and the Americas. It implants local collaboratives, directed by people with disabilities, to provide tourism product consultation, infrastructure design, and destination development services to the tourism and hospitality industry. It matches the profit motive of industry with the pent-up demand for travel opportunities by people with disabilities through a series of local projects grounded in the destination's disability community but linked globally through electronic communications, publishing, conferences, and professional networks.
Innovation
What is the goal of your innovation?
To make the tourism industry an authentic partner in the aspirations, rights, and culture of the disability community.
How does your approach support or embody geotourism?
Currently this approach is a research and educational campaign emphasizing the quality of tourist experience and benefiting tourists who have historically been denied access to tourism - people with disabilities.
The upcoming phase applies best practices from Universal Design to improve the quality of tourism management (Inclusive Tourism) and its impact on the destination (Inclusive Destination Development). We believe that Green Design embodies environmental sustainability and Universal Design closes the circle with the social sustainability of inclusion.
From the start this project has been a product of disability culture. Its core tool (the Seven Principles of Universal Design) is an embodiment of the political aspirations of disability culture. The tool was forged from the Disability Rights Movement and this project prioritizes benefit to people with disabilities as travelers, potential travel industry professionals and residents of travel destinations.
This includes transforming a destination by introducing independent, self-directed people with disabilities as economic actors, guests, and ultimately equals; nurturing entrepreneurial destination residents, some with disabilities, wanting to serve tourists with disabilities. It emphasizes grass-roots culturally-informed experimentation with Universal Design as an approach to social and environmental issues.
Describe your approach in detail. How is it innovative?
This project scales sustainable development projects piloted in Asia and the Americas. It implants local collaboratives, directed by people with disabilities, to provide tourism product consultation, infrastructure design, and destination development services to the tourism and hospitality industry. It melds the profit motive of industry with the pent-up demand for travel opportunities among people with disabilities through a series of projects grounded in the local disability community but linked globally through electronic communications, publishing, and conferences.
The next phase will establish three Centers of Excellence that provide access and tourism opportunity audits as well as tourism policy analysis and strategic development leading to contracts in: Tour package design; Familiarization tours (fams); Infrastructure design, Sourcing, & construction using Universal Design (http://tinyurl.com/3atjkq); Training on people with disabilities as a market - as customers & employees; A multi-lingual online resource documenting & advocating for sustainable Universal Design best practices in economic development. People with disabilities of the USA alone spend $13.6 billion annually on travel. One of the world’s largest industries, tourism, can create lasting social change for one of the world’s fastest growing underserved populations, people with disabilities - including senior
What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?
Industry partners familiar with Universal Design, willing to implement it as a competitive advantage, able to participate in joint government/industry/disabled peoples' organization travel behavior data collection projects, and adhering to legally mandated accessibility criteria, a Code of Practices, and voluntary Guidelines for Minimum Accessibility exceeding legal mandates.
Further partnerships with industry professional associations, institutions of higher education, and vocational institutions preparing travel and hospitality industry workers are always beneficial.
Impact
In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
Engage the industry's self-interest in profit to serve travelers and citizens with disabilities through inclusive economic development.
Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts? 200 words or less
The approach has been moderately successful since 2003 generating 52 articles, 12 print and 8 radio & television interviews, two books, one special issue of an academic journal, and a daily blog on travel, disability, and Universal Design (begun January 1, 2004). Participation in 7 national or international conferences on Inclusive Tourism during that time included travel, research, and consulting in Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the US.
Because this phase of the project has been preparatory, coalition-building, and conceptual rather than location-based most impacts on local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics are largely the accomplishments of our partners. We have been satisfied to be a think tank, innovation incubator, and best-practices disseminator for the industry to impact disability culture as a whole while overseeing market growth and industry practice globally rather than locally. To the extent that we have strengthened the cultural and economic sustainability of our partners we have contributed to their local successes. Perhaps they will chose to tell the stories of their local success and strategies in the Comment section below.
How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
This program works dwith local disabled people's organizations (DPOs) to assure accuracy of destination information, legitimacy of development priorities, and authenticity in marketing in Australia, South and SE Asia, the EU, North, and South America. Research shows that travelers with disabilities rely on word-of-mouth recommendations at a slightly higher rate than other travel sectors (ODO 2005). We stay slightly longer, often bring one or two people with us, and spend slightly more (Darcy 1998). There is an explosive pent-up demand for travel that experts estimate would double our travel if destinations were made accessible (ODO 2007). People with disabilities are hungry for engagement.
Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area’s cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?
Physical access to previously inaccessible cultural and natural riches is often the first step in true cultural literacy and green values. The interaction of local and foreign people with disabilities inevitably awakens reflection by each on their personal experiences of inclusion and exclusion, awareness and evaluation of their own culture, and exposure to undiscovered shared aspects of disability culture such as resiliency, interdependency, resistance, humor, and artistic expression. The presence of people with disabilities as unashamed social actors such as tourists with economic means is still a socially disruptive and artistically energizing event in many parts of the world
In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
This project brings together local disabled people's organizations, governmental tourism authorities, and the tourism industry by providing all with common language, vision, tools, and priorities. At the national level we have participated in or organized conferences on Inclusive Tourism in Brazil, and Japan (2004), Australia and Taiwan (2005), the US, Korea, and Thailand (2007). Research has been published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. Articles have been written for DPOs in Sri Lanka, India, Mexico, Brazil and the EU. Book projects are underway with Nicaragua and Brazil. Collaborations creating accessible tourism products are in process in Costa Rica, Thailand, and Canada.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?
In its current phase it is financially sustainable through low-overhead. Communications via a public blog, a private Web 2.0 innovation incubator, and numerous articles and interviews are low-cost. Labor is donated. Investment is required to launch the second phase that will establish three Centers of Excellence in Inclusive Tourism over the course of two years. The spike in demand for research and consultation on Inclusive Tourism from destinations and the tourism industry around the world was the impetus for this new phase. Destinations will bid for and fund a Center of Excellence guaranteeing their long-term commitment to implementation and establishing the initiative's sustainability.
How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
The initiative is currently financed entirely by the donated labor and resources of the founder.
What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
The ideal expansion would be to open three projects outside the US impacting at least one rural and one urban setting. The expansion would integrate the key tourism stakeholders around an interest in the disability community as customers, employees, suppliers, and consultants. The expansion would blur the lines between infrastructure accessibility projects for citizens with disabilities and those designed for (and potentially financed by the income generated from) tourists with disabilities. Demonstrating the economic viability of (re)designing these locations as destinations-of-choice for travelers with disabilities is a key strategy of expansion - examples of inclusion enriching culture.
What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
As a project managed by a single person it has reached its growth limit. It can have incrementally increased impact through endurance over time as the message disseminates and its reputation grows but to have greater impact it must have the resources to retain a diverse group of committed individuals who are closer to strategic destinations and there influencing the day-to-day practice of government and the tourism industry.
Interest in the goals of this project are not lacking. It is the ability to scale up to a level equal to the demand that is needed.
The Story
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
Dr. Scott Rains writes daily on travel and issues in the tourism industry of interest to people with disabilities. His work appears online at http://www.RollingRains.com and http://withtv.typepad.com/weblog/travel/ . Rains’ articles have also appeared in New Mobility, Emerging Horizons, Contours, Design for All India, Accessible Portugal, Audacity, Travel and Transitions, eTur Brazil, Co-Walking Korea, Turismo Polibea, Current Rehabilitation, [with]TV, and Disaboom among others.
For his research on the topic of Universal Design and the travel and hospitality industry he was appointed as Resident Scholar at the Center for Cultural Studies of the University of California Santa Cruz (2004-05)
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.
This is an experiment in social inclusion involving the tourism industry. Now we are ready to extend it to three countries with a base in the US.
I have been paralyzed since October 12, 1972. In historical terms that means I am of the first generation of the Disability Rights Movement. This project reflects the disability community's desire - and financial means - to travel freely and participate fully in the global community.
I created the first Disabled Students Commission at the University of Washington. My peers have gone on to be disability rights leaders in the US, their own countries, and in organizations like the World Bank. With this project we are regrouping and organizing for inclusion on a global scale.
This idea came to me in a conversation with my wife during an anniversary trip as we looked ahead to issues we would face in the decades ahead. No one knows how quadriplegics age. We have always died too soon to provide reliable data. Now people with disabilities are aging together in large numbers and, as Boomer peers join us, there is a resurgence in effort to address unfinished issues. We are not letting up on our pressure to fight discrimination - and we want to travel. So I set out to be the English-speaking expert on this topic for our community. This project is the result of encouragement to take the think tank and innovation incubator approach of www.RollingRains.com and morph it into local projects.
Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on the competition homepage.
Currently a research and educational campaign on tourist experience of people with disabilities - a group that has historically been denied access to tourism the next phase of this project scales sustainable development projects piloted in Asia and the Americas. It implants local collaboratives, directed by people with disabilities, to provide tourism product consultation, infrastructure design, and destination development services to the tourism and hospitality industry. It matches the profit motive of industry with the pent-up demand for travel opportunities by people with disabilities through a series of local projects grounded in the destination's disability community but linked globally through electronic communications, publishing, conferences, and professional networks.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Carte-Blanc.jpg | 247.94 KB |
| scott-with-bunun.jpg | 1.5 MB |
| DSC04517.JPG | 1.39 MB |
| portage_1.jpg | 491.2 KB |
| ACQUA-RIDE-AMPTUTADO.jpg | 113.32 KB |
| Bratislava-Photo.jpg | 275.16 KB |
| RAFTING.jpg | 153.87 KB |
| RAPEL-FOZ.jpg | 136.13 KB |
| TIROLESA.jpg | 154.15 KB |
 | 158 weeks agofdvad sdvdew said: People with disabilities account for approximately 70 million of India's population and the aging population adding to it makes it an ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 163 weeks agoicontouct icontouct said: We have started wheelchair accessible car rentals in Mumbai- India. http://www.samarthatravels.com ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 214 weeks agoLeonie Johnsen said: Hey Scott, thanks for your reply. Checked out NZ on Wheels. Amazing what is out there that I did't know about; Even more embarrassing - ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 214 weeks agoScott Rains said: Hi Leonie, . I am so glad you found my work and that it has been helpful to you. . Yes, I have been to NZ but only to the North ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 214 weeks agoLeonie Johnsen said: Hi Scott, I have read your entry with great interest. I have an entry here as well - a travel-guide book and website of eco-friendly ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 215 weeks agoJim Coffey said: Dear Scott, Your efforts here hit home in a very dramatic way for me this weekend. I was at a conference in montreal over the ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 215 weeks agoindra oyunbaatar said: Dear Scott, We are writing from Mongolia to support your innovation that will bring a bright future to the people with ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 215 weeks agoClaude Rallins said: ---------- Claude "GeoT" Rallins www.GeoTourism.tv about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 216 weeks agoScott Rains said: . The community commentary on this proposal to establish a network of Centers of Inclusive Tourism has been extraordinary! Changemakers ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 217 weeks agoScott Rains said: Hi Sandra, . Good find. Thanks for sharing the information. . I have not been to Wellington but I hope anyone reading this site who ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
