Expert Q&A

by Jake Steinman

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet the founders and president of Keroul (translated loosely in French: Quebec Rolls), perhaps the world’s most innovative destination centric organization advocating for disabled travelers, in their offices in Montreal’s historic Olympic stadium. The organization, and its founder, Andre Leclerc, are about to celebrate their 40th anniversary.  Here, a look back and what we can all learn from their endeavor, how they work and a brief Q&A:

Andre Leclerc, who was born with cerebral palsy, founded Keroul after he was picked up hitchhiking to meet his girlfriend. He had been living in a facility for people with disabilities—and the police believed he had “escaped.” It was then that Leclerc recognized the need for an organization that would fight for the rights of people with disabilities and decided to focus on travel and leisure activities.  He would be up against some big challenges. In the 1970s,  there were many transportation issues for the disabled.  While on a trip that included able-bodied members of the group, he realized a sensitivity about people with disabilities that made some of his trip mates uncomfortable. This year LeClerc turns 65 and will retire. Isabelle Ducharme, president of the Keroul Organization, who has worked with Leclerc on day-to-day operations for the past decade will lead. 

We believe Keroul has created a business model that can partially be replicated by many state and regional organizations in the U.S. as baby boomers begin aging into a disability will need a trusted neutral source such as DMO’s.  We took a look at the stunning legacy LeClerc will leave his team and Quebec and are pleased to have the chance to pass along their wisdom. 

Gaining Prestige (and $5 Million Dollars)  The process of acquiring grant funding is not always simple, but it has been successful for the Keroul organization. Today, Keroul is funded by grants from the province of Quebec and Federal entities, private donations, and fundraisers.  By providing persistent advocacy and positive ideas, they gained media attention and political clout. When, years ago, the minister of tourism entrusted Keroul with $5 million in grant funding to disburse over five years to tourism establishments, they planted the seeds for Quebec to become more accessible for locals and tourists. Today Ducharme oversees grants in which Keroul finances up to 80% of the grant, with a limit of $50,000. 

Keroul Is An Accessibility Information Hub  Today the Keroul website has become the epicenter of accessible travel for the province of Quebec. In addition to the funding, Keroul provides a variety of other services for travel suppliers such as accessibility assessment, consulting, and training which can generate additional funds.  Keroul maintains a staff of 10 people full time, several of which perform on-site evaluations of hotels, attractions, and museums after which they receive a designation as accessible, partially accessible or not accessible.   There are 84 accessible hotel properties in the Quebec City area. For information about venues in the province of Quebec, visit www.quebecforall.com/en

A Brief Q&A with Mr. LeClerc and Ms. Ducharme

Q:Can you give us an example of one of the companies that received a Keroul grant? 

Leclerc: Yes, one recently went to an apple picking tour operator who added a lift that would make his tour tram fully accessible.  We provided 80% of the funding and they provided the rest.

Q: Where do you see disability travel five or 10 years from now?

Leclerc: We believe the movement to accessibility will accelerate; we already see it moving more rapidly, not only in the volume of requests for the grants—we’ve had 155 so far—but also by the interest in our services.  While we once had to convince travel enterprises to use our services, now, hotels, attractions, and suppliers are calling us because they want to be evaluated and promoted through our marketing efforts.  

Q: When you receive requests from travel suppliers (i.e. hotels, tours, attractions) to verify their level of accessibility, do you send your staff to verify that, or do you work with outside disability organizations to do this.  If this is internal, how many members of your staff perform this?  

Ducharme: We mostly send our staff. As we have some mandate with organizations across the province, there are often enough opportunities to send someone from Keroul, depending on if the company is willing to wait a few weeks. Otherwise, we also have a network of evaluators that can do the job as well, but only if it’s related to the assessment, as they are only trained to fill out forms for our database, not recommend modifications. Those external evaluators are mostly architects and professionals from the tourism industry. We are contemplating the idea of having people from other disability-related organizations.

Q: How many companies do you certify in an average year? 

Ducharme: We added or reassessed 131 establishments to our database this past year. Next year, we are confident that it will be even more, as two other employees recently joined our team. We are now up to four accessibility advisors, overseen by one manager. 

Keroul will also be overseeing the third edition of  Destinations for All, a worldwide conference covering accessible travel,  organized by Open Doors Organization, in Miami in 2021. Isabelle Ducharme will explain her business model and what other tourism organizations can adapt at TravelAbility Summit, November 12-13, 2019.