TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Museums & Attractions

Belgium Destination Launches Plate-like Brochures for Deaf and Blind Visitors

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Our Takeaway: This groundbreaking technology enables blind or deaf visitors to access videos with professional level audio descriptions and sign language interpreters that can be accessed by hovering the phone over a QR code on each page. Attendees at The Emerging Markets Summit in Savannah will be able to feel and touch the actual English language versions of these books as well as the meet the developer, Alain Cloet founder of Picture Live, in person.  

The city of Ghent has launched a hardbound tourist itinerary book for hearing and visually impaired visitors, as reported by Belgian news outlet VRT. The campaign includes special booklets which contain tactile pictures of seven attractions in the historic center of Ghent, along with an audio description that people can listen to via their cell phones. There is also a version with sign language.

“It is a booklet with plates of seven Ghent sights you can touch,” Alain Cloet, who came up with the idea, told VRT. “Tactile plates are photos covered with a tactile layer. The tactile plates include an audio description that people can listen to using their mobile phones. There is also a version using sign language. A video will appear on your mobile with a sign language interpreter explaining the sight.”

The walks include a QR code to activate audio description and a link to videos in Flemish Sign Language. On the smartphone, visitors can listen to a description or watch a movie in Flemish Sign Language. The designers will continue to develop and refine the product so that it becomes even more accessible and user-friendly. Read More.

EnChroma and Visit Seattle Help Color Blind Museum Guests to Experience Many Shades

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Woman wearing Enchroma glasses stands on stairs in a museum looking at artwork on the wall

Since the first person in America to test Covid positive was from Seattle,  Ali Daniels, Chief Marketing Officer of Visit Seattle, was looking for an antidote to the barrage of negative publicity that would also allow  them to control the narrative.“We noted that Tennessee received many awards and recognition by helping color-blind travelers enjoy fall foliage after having EnChroma lenses inserted in their viewfinder telescopes,” Ms. Daniels told us. “Arts and culture are one of our differentiators. Having Enchroma glasses placed at over 20 locations during our 2022 Refract Glass Art Festival resulted in video testimonials of people emotional their first time experiencing a full range of colors.”

Often overlooked, color blindness affects one in 12 men (8%) and one in 200 women (.5%), 350 million people worldwide. While people with typical color vision see over one million shades of color, people who are color blind only see an estimated 10% of hues and shades.

Our Takeaway: The positive reaction from visitors and the community was so profound that they are now exploring other opportunities to apply EnChroma’s technology to enhance the visitor experience at key landmarks. Read More.

For more information about EnChroma, contact Kent Streeb at kent@enchroma.com.

Legoland Puts All the Pieces Together for Guests on the Autism Spectrum

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Legoland Resorts announced last month that all its North American theme parks would become Certified Autism Centers (CAC) by March 31st. Legoland parks in Florida and California received autism certification in 2022. The company’s newest theme park in New York will receive autism certification when it reopens in March.

The certification involves specialized training for staff, sensory guides at each ride advising if there are features such as bright lights and loud sounds that might impact visitors who are on the spectrum, and the availability of low-sensory areas and quiet rooms. Read More.

Our Takeaway: Parents with children on the autism spectrum are not willing to have their families forgo vacation experiences at theme parks and attractions. They will choose to spend their money at places that are welcoming to all of their children. Credible certification is a key to winning the trust and confidence of these travelers.

Michigan Group Tour Guide on a Mission to Include Everyone

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Grand Rapid’s Tours Around Michigan Founder has received accolades for adapting her tours to all kinds of travellers.

Tourism was a passion that married Candice Smith’s love of storytelling with her high level of customer experience. Her experience working with spoken language interpreters made it an easy transition to working with sign-language interpreters too. This work quickly resulted in her receiving Certified Tourism Ambassador (CTA) Of the Year for Kent County, MI and a WAVE Award for Best Attraction. Read More.

Our Takeaway: Group tour operators everywhere are trying to accommodate aging clients, several of whom are couples with a spouse with a disability.  This operator may have found one approach.  Look for the trend of bus operators to remove seats to make room for wheelchairs and retrofit coach entries with ramps.

Ciao! Blogger Cory Lee Spends Five Wheelchair-Friendly Days in Rome

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Photo of Blogger Cory Lee dressed in blue jeans and a blue shirt sitting in his wheelchair in front of theColiseum

Since he ate his first slice of pizza, Cory Lee Woodard dreamed of visiting Italy. In September 2021 during the Omicron era of COVID-19, Cory, and some friends, made their dream trip reality, beginning in the Eternal City of Rome, then continuing on to Venice for a few days.  Over the course of five days in Rome, they toured historical sights, saw more beauty than they could imagine, and ate a lot of great Italian food. Despite Rome being an older city, they found it surprisingly accessible as well. To discover all the accessible Rome attractions that Cory experienced view his day-by-day itinerary here.

TravelAbility Insider Insight: What we love about Cory Lee’s blog posts is the indomitably positive approach he uses to cover travel. Here he uses an in-country accessible travel specialist, Rome and Italy Travel, one of many such services around the world that have made wheelchair travel to ancient cities possible.