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The Rolling Rains Report on Travel, Universal Design & Disability
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A review of the travel & hospitality industry from a disability perspective.
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The Lights of Africa Tour
Lights of Africa is an 8-month media expedition throughout Southern and Eastern Africa. Its purpose is to seek out, produce and disseminate inspiring and creative media stories about this compelling region.Four major themes - Biodiversity Conservatio...
Moçambique : Os Deficientes e a Exclusão Social (Portguese)
A TRISTE DÁDIVAAndando pelas ruas do grande Maputo nota-se claramente que as vias de acesso foram projectadas somente para pessoas que não possuem nenhum tipo de deficiência física, principalmente ao que se refere a pessoas que usam cadeira...
Athena: Building the Inclusive Tourism Sector in the Czech Republic
Project goal The main goal of the ATHENA project is the creation of conditions and tools for human resources development and employment in the accessible tourism sector in the Czech Republic. This will be achieved by transnational cooperation with EN...
Caltrans to Spend $1 Billion for Disabled Access Retrofitting
This is news nobody wants to hear."Wait", you say, "This is good news. Accessibility is being achieved!"But what were the costs to human lives so many decades after Universal Design was created? What about current US economic stimulus spending on inf...
Jetstar Takes on a Paralympian This Time - and Loses Again
Kurt Fearnley had just crawled along a 60-mile jungle track in Papua New Guinea. But when he arrived at Brisbane airport a few days later, Jetstar-- an offshoot of Qantas airlines -- asked him to check in his wheelchair.Kurt adapts q...
Newsflash: Universal Design Plays in Peoria!
Peoria, Illinois' PJStar begins an article on the nationwide trend across the US to adopt Universal Design in homes with this:Spacious. Luxurious. Exquisite attention to detail. Handicap accessible - that's not the first adjective that jumps to mind ...
Magnus Berglund: The Man Who Teaches Hotels to Treat Us Like a Guest
The more I learn of Scandic Hotels and their Handikappambassadör / Disability Co-ordinator, Magnus Berglund, the more i want to know about both. Magnus Berglund has been Scandic's Disability Ambassador for six years. Now his work has been featured ...
New Mobility Magazine Person of the Year 2009: Scott Rains
Maybe it is just the approach of Halloween but there is something eerily similar to writing your own epitaph in announcing that one has been awarded a major prize.From New Mobility magazine to Scott Rains:We at New Mobility are impressed with your wo...
Victory in Sri Lanka: Dr Ajith Perera the Peaceful Warrior Leaves a Legacy
SC orders disabled-friendly buildings From the Dail News by Wasantha RAMANAYAKE The [Sri Lankan] Supreme Court yesterday ordered that public buildings to be constructed in the future should be easily accessible to disabled persons. ...
Can Haiti Be Brought Back into the World Tourism Circuit?
If so it will require the sort of Green/Universal Design convergence and disability and development thinking that has been percolating through innovative destination development projects around the world. With no such known projects slated for Haiti ...
Videotape Inclusive Tourism Stories
Flip Video Spotlight is giving away free Flip Video UltraHD 120 minute camcorders. Submit your short case study sharing how your organization is using video to make a difference. Click on the link for examples and send your case study......
AccesssAbility India on TV: Starting Up
I run this with gratitude to the work of my friend Shivani Gupta and in tribute to her recently deceased husband, and my friend, Vikas Sharma.As you may imagine the death of Vikas is a loss for the entire Indian......
AccessAbility will be on Starting Up Tonight
One of New Delhi's foremost promoters of Inclusive Tourism, AccessAbility, will be featured tonight at 7:30 pm on Starting Up. The video will be available on their YouTube Channel tomorrow. From the Starting Up site:Starting Up captures the spir...
Hi Pierre, We\'re Neighbors!
Pierre Omidyar just made the news in Silicon Valley but its impact may be first felt closer to the Great Rift Valley. He has targeted his philanthropy on a area bustling with activity benefiting people with disabilities through innovation in the tour...
Wisdom & Folly: Two Attitudes Toward Universal Design
Today's news clippings illustrate the Achilles Heel of the Me Generation - hubris - and its treatment - a bracing dose of reality therapy: A survey released earlier this month by the National Association of Home Builders shows...
Sally O'Neill Opens the Skies for Travelers with Disabilities
eTN has picked up on story about Sally O'Neill's campaign for inclusion in air travel.Kudos to Sally, eTN, and the Association for Airline Passenger Rights:Sally O'Neill is a 17-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, and all she wants when she flie...
Scandic Hotel Accessibility - A New Interntional Standard for Service
Scandic has established the new international hotel industry standard for best practice in travel decision-making. As a result of five year planning process:"Scandic has become the first hotel chain to gather all its information for guestswith ...
WheelchairTraveling.com by Ashley Lyn Olson
Ashley Lyn Olson is a new name in the area of Inclusive Tourism but she is positioning herself to make a big impact. Check out her site WheelchairTraveling.com and welcome her to the community promoting inclusion in travel!From her press......
BlindAid: Haptic Mapping for Blind Travelers
From " Researcher invents virtual maps for visually impaired" A new software tool creating virtual maps will help the visually impaired navigate through unfamiliar places. Visually impaired often rely on others to provide cues on navigating through t...
Javed Abidi Nominated for Guardian Achievements in International Development Award 2009
Congratulations to Javed Abidi the first person profiled in the RollingRains.com Leader Profiles section and now candidate for an international development award.From National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP):It gives u...
Able Radio: From South Wales to the World
From their web site:Able Radio is a station presenting information and entertainment for people with a disability or life limiting medical condition. Our programmes of course are also of interest to everybody and within the schedule we hope you will....
UD in Action: The Sunderland House Project
Here is a presentation on the the Sunderland House Project. It is a collaborative effort to exemplify the best practices of Universal Design. Universal Design Tapper KCDBView more documents from Kansas City Design Build.......
Booking a Hotel Room Online
Candy Harrington looks into the changed landscape around onine hotel booking:Avid traveler Bonnie Lewkowicz had grown tired of being shut out of bargains on Hotels.com, just because she needed a wheelchair-accessible room. "It just didn't seem fair t...
Free DAISY Reader from Freedom Scientific
Press release:(St. Petersburg, Florida - August 10, 2009) -- Freedom Scientific today announced that it is now providing FSReader, its popular DAISY book reader, free to users of its PAC Mate™ and PAC Mate Omni™ accessible Pocket PCs. "Because we...
New Portable Communication Device
From Disability News India:A new portable device for deaf-blind people allows them to have face-to-face conversations, make phone calls using a text relay service and communicate by SMS. The DeafBlind Communicator (DBC) consists of a Braille note-tak...
The Think Tank Initiative
Who will take up the think tank role for Inclusive Tourism in South Asia and South America?Think Tank Initiative Invites Expressions of Interest From Institutions in Latin America and South Asia The Think Tank Initiative supports independent policy t...
São Paulo: Número de ônibus adaptados para deficientes sobe 54% (Portuguese)
Notícia publicada pelo Movimento Nossa São Paulo Número de ônibus adaptados para deficientes sobe 54% Publicado em: 04/08/2009 - 17:39 Porém, frota total de ônibus municipais na capital tem 235 veículos a menos Boa notícia para ...
Whirlwind Wheelchair International: Franchise Opportunities
Dear Colleagues, The U.N. Standard for the Equalization of opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the World Health Assembly Resolution WHA58.23 all point to the importance of wheelc...
Tactile in Thailand: The Touching Thailand Tour
Thailand has a long, sustained policy of inclusion of people with disabilities in tourism. Below is announcement of one such example that was brought to our attention by anthropologist Susy Barry who contributed to the project:All visitors to the Nat...
Nepalese biker with disability on mission to forge unity
With his right hand amputated below his elbow following an accident as a child, Rakesh Gole, a Nepalese, struggled hard growing up with his disability. Born to a farmer's family of the Tamang tribe in the Nepalese village of Makhwanpur......
