Maria and Tom organising a festival in the city

Maria and Tom organising a festival in the city

Maria is the general manager of an international dance festival. Your city is hosting the international dance festival in 2 years’ time. Some of the dancers have physical impairments. You have to make plans for welcoming the dancers and all the visitors.

You are the tourism manager of your city.

Maria has previous experience in event organisation and and points out the importance of accessibility for the participants and the potential visitors with impairments and other access requirements.

She asks you how you plan to prepare the destination for the event regarding accessibility.

What would you do?

Reply that you understand that accessibility is quite an important and high priority task for the event and the city. You say that it surely involves many stakeholders such as user groups and all the authorities and organisations responsible for key areas. You will allocate this task to one of your most experienced staff members, as the accessibility manager, and you will also hire an access expert to get consultancy.

Reply that you know that all the dance venues are accessible but they will be checked once more in case they need some maintenance. For the city you will work with your team and be sure that the relevant legislation is applied. You will start working on the organisation of the festival and allocate «accessibility» to one of your team members, to check the accessibility as one of the final tasks before the opening of the festival.

Re-assure Maria that several other events have been organised by your team. You follow the usual proceedure for checking the main streets and squares and the accessibility of the specific dance venues which have been used in the past for similar events. There was no problem for performers and spectators with disabilities but you will make a final check.

Only applying the accessibility legislation may not be enough. For a successful event you may have to go beyond legislation and make a detailed action plan. Accessibility affects the whole tourism chain and cannot be added at the end. Quite the opposite, it should be considered right from the start. I would suggest to hire an access consultant to advise you on these matters and develop an action plan.

Try again!

I am afraid that you underestimate the importance of this matter for the whole city. Only checking the accessibility of some streets and the venues, is not enough. There are so many other key factors to be considered, as accessibility affects the whole tourism chain. You have to consider transport, the places that visitors might like to visit, accommodation and restaurants, outdoor areas etc. I would suggest to hire an access consultant to advise you on these matters and develop an action plan.

Try again!

Very good! I am happy that you understand the importance of accessibility for this event which also applies to the city and the services to be used by the visitors. I think it is absolutely necessary to have an access consultant involved and make an action plan.

Well done, go ahead!

You are the tourism manager of your city.

John is an access consultant who is hired to provide consultancy for the event. Together with John you work on developing the action plan. There are a lot of tasks to be considered within the allocated budget: the accessibility of the venues, accessibility of transport, cultural venues and sites, outdoor spaces and key access routes, signage and information, accommodation and restaurants.

John also suggests to consider budgeting the following:

Read the suggestions

- Offer a basic training on accessibility and disability awareness to all your staff. - Publish information regarding accessibility on your website, in the form of an Access Guide which will also be useful for all the citizens with access requirements. - Make the Access Guide in both languages, your national one and in English. - Check your website as he has identified some accessibility problems.

What would you do?

You reply that you have to be careful with the budget, so you will only do what is absolutely necessary. You do not think it is important to train your staff since you have an accessibility expert to follow all actions. The accessibility of the website might also be a problem. You may have it checked but there is not much you can do about it because it is complicated. Better to leave this task out of the action plan for this event. Perhaps you will do it another time, in the future.

You reply that you have to be careful with the budget, so you will try to do what is absolutely important. Perhaps you may avoid staff training. You do not think it is important to train your staff since you have an accessibility expert to follow all actions. The Access Guide can only be available in the national language to avoid the extra cost for the translation into English.

You reply that you are very happy that he fully understands how closely connected all these actions are for a successful outcome, not only for this particular occassion but for the touristic development of your city in the future and the quality of life of all the citizens.

Try again!

Try again!

Good job!