Disability awareness must improve, admits ABTA

ABTA has admitted the industry needs to raise its awareness of disability issues after a report claimed disabled people feel discriminated against when booking an overseas holiday.

But the association stressed improvements have been made in recent years due to its own in-house efforts.

ABTA head of consumer affairs Keith Richards said training, checklists and voluntary codes have all been introduced to help cater for the needs of the disabled.

Richards’ comments follow a report by charity for the disabled Leonard Cheshire that said nearly half of those questioned in a survey felt their agent or tour operator lacked basic disability awareness.

“The travel and tourism industry has been making improvements to accessibility over many years with the help of tools provided by ABTA,” said Richards. “But like many other industries there’s still much room for improvement. We welcome the comments and suggestions made in the report as ways in which improvement can be achieved.”

He said the issue over how to provide services has been taxing the industry for years and there remains widespread uncertainty about how laws contained in the Disability Discrimination Act should be implemented in practice.

“This is particularly highlighted by the fact that transport (aviation) nor overseas accommodation are covered by UK law,” he said.

Richards explained that a voluntary disability, equality and awareness training course for agents is up and running along with an Air Access Code – also voluntary – which seeks to ensure all new-build aircraft cater for the disabled. The code is likely to become compulsory under government legislation if the voluntary scheme fails to work.

An ABTA spokeswoman said only 280 agents have so far taken the disability course.

“It is something we need to tackle,” she said.

Richards added that access audits on overseas hotels are increasingly being carried out by tour operators while an ABTA checklist for people with disabilities has been drawn up to helps the industry match the best holiday arrangements with the customer needs.

Report by Steve Jones