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Guest comment: Brian Seaman, Tourism for All UK/Holiday Care
Disability rights and wrongs – Tourism for All? 2004 is here and in October the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 will come in to full effect, requiring all businesses to be accessible to employees and customers ? are you ready? The Disability Rights Commission have said that the travel and hospitality sector are not up to speed on the obligations we have as an industry to be more accessible. The Act requires that all businesses are accessible to employees and customers. There is a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments, to both the physical environment and the way we all work. Whether you are a hotelier, travel agent with a shop front, an employer with a back office, a call centre operator, tour operator, airport handler, airport operator or airline; the Act is going to have an impact. Is this just more red tape, bureaucracy, cost and regulation? Has the industry spent the last nine years planning ahead and preparing for October, so as to minimise the costs to business? Is this a lawyers charter ? to create another compensation culture based on discrimination cases? The DDA is about equality. It is about the right of people with disabilities to participate in and enjoy every aspect of life like everyone else. It is about our Society?s obligation to make reasonable adjustments, not just to the physical environment but to the way we do things and train our employees. I guess most people would support these objectives as good and worthy, but that does not address the fears of the costs and practical implications for the industry. That is where Tourism for All UK comes in as your industry charity. Tourism for All UK celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and is the amalgamation of Holiday Care and the Tourism for All Consortium. We believe in enabling change by helping the industry to address these issues in a practical and constructive way. If we can help or you would just like to know more, contact me, Brian Seaman, on 0845 124 9974 or e.mail me at [email protected]. You can find us at www.holidaycare.org/advice.asp. Brian is Head of Inspection and Consultancy at Tourism for All UK/Holiday Care.
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