A special focus on accessibility

DEREK Hanekom has simple story about how most of us don’t even notice those who are different from us – and it’s about the showers you find in hotel, guest house and self-catering accommodation around the country.

“We all know that these days, there is no more soap, there are this little bottles – of body wash, shampoo or body lotion.

“It’s not difficult for us to see which is which. But what about blind people? “How do they tell,” he asks. In the audience at World Tourism Day in Parys in the Free State, a group of blind people listens, their heads inclined in his direction.

A few of them nod. They know all about trying to find their way in world of “normal” people. Normal people who don’t notice them or think about them.

That’s what Hanekom is determined to start changing, especially in the tourism industry. September has been Tourism Month, with a special focus this year on Universal Accessibility. Its slogan, #TourismForAll, applies to people with disabilities, but also, says Hanekom, “we need to create affordable access for groups of marginalised people, our pensioners, those who have very little disposable income and the youth”.

That is why SA Tourism has been allocated a ring-fenced amount of R100 million specifically to promote local travel.

But, Hanekom acknowledges, “efforts to get more South Africans to tour their own country, and to build a stronger domestic tourism economy, depends on making domestic tourism more affordable.”

There is a business impeative in that, he says, because “tourism businesses who create affordable access for the domestic market will be rewarded by additional customers”.

The big challenge for the entire tourism industry is to provide for the specific needs of domestic and international tourists living with disabilities.

“We need to provide accessible airport transfers, wheelchair vehicles, and appropriately designed streets and pavements,” says the minister.

“Hotel rooms, restaurants and other facilities must be adapted to the needs of the blind, the deaf and people living with physical disabilities. Professional staff should be on hand to help customers with special needs, and to provide information about local attractions that cater for their needs.

“Facilities in public places, like washrooms and waiting areas at bus stations, should be designed for universal accessibility.”

“I am calling on everybody in the tourism business, and anybody who may deal with disabled people, to think for moment, and put yourselves in their shoes.

“Look at your hotel, your guest house, your museum and decide if you could not do more to make it easier for people who are not as fortunate or as blessed as the rest of us.”