Accessible tourism for the visually impaired in Catalonia: improving the legal framework

Abstract

This dissertation will help discover the barriers that people with visual impairment find when doing tourism. The researchers of the project found that there was a lack of acknowledgement of the blind market in the touristic sector and their ability to do tourist activities. Thus, resulting in the motivation to do a deeper research on the elements impeding this market from growing in the touristic sector. The dissertation will include the identification of whether the Catalan legislation and laws are enough to ensure that the needs of the blind people are covered and if they can enjoy their tourist activities, as any other traveler would. The study also checks if the current touristic companies in Catalonia are adapting their products for this emerging segment and which adjustments need to be done for tourism to be more accessible to the visually impaired tourists. The last objective is to make recommendations to improve the current Catalan laws to enable blind people to enjoy tourism and encourage them to be more comfortable in a touristic environment. The research is going to be done through analyzing academic journals about accessibility for disabled people and through interviews, surveys and observation research. Analyzing all these findings has allowed to identify the needs and requirements of the blind community when doing tourism and recommend to the touristic institutions how they can increase the current situation that people with a visual impairment find when doing tourism in Catalonia.