Defining the Market of Travelers With Disabilities
The market is out there. They are traveling. They are spending. And they have much, much more disposable income as they wait for the right products.
There are four fundamental points to consider when developing travel products for maximum appeal. This article examines the first.
Start with in-depth knowledge of your market. Much of your homework on this market niche has been done for you.
Simon Darcy, Bruce Cameron, Eric Lipp, Canada's Keroul organization and the UN have produced some fundamental research that all travel writers, travel professionals, and hospitality managers ought to be familiar with. (See below.)
But you can misread the data if you start out with an anemic definition of the breadth of the market of travelers-with-disabilities.
Misunderstanding who you are serving, you can make unnecessary investments, overlook opportunities for low or no-cost solutions, fail to create collaborations, or not capitalize on what is called the "Curb-Cut Effect" - the unintended positive consequences of good design for temporarily able-bodied persons (all non-disabled persons are only temporarily able bodied.)
The United Nations Definition of Disability
The United Nations definition of disability looks at both physical capacity and social participation. It asks, "How does a certain lack of physical ability affect a person's options for social participation?"
It recognizes that society builds environments, products, and practices. They are under human control unlike the natural environment. These created entities may be designed in ways that either do or do not require an individual to have certain capacities. They can be designed to include or exclude. The presumption of good design is toward inclusion.
The UN's argument here is not for some special services unique to persons with disabilities but for the unfettered access to those generally available goods and services by persons experiencing a lack of physical capacity.
The definition assumes that both citizenship and the dignity that comes of being a human person places a responsibility for others on each of us - as individuals, or associations such as governments, non-governmental agencies, and businesses.
This responsibility has some proportionality to the relative privilege - that is the wealth, power, or social access - of that individual or association.
When an imbalance in opportunities for access occurs it is the responsibility of the one with the privilege of access to rectify it. Obviously, it is more cost-effective, not to mention more just, to create with everyone in mind.
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