The development of the innovative educational method of ACCESSIBLE tourism in Central Europe

We applied for this project to address the growing demand for accessible tourism, i.e. tourism for people with all kinds of disabilities, driven by an ageing population and the increasing number of people with disabilities—estimated at 10–16% globally. Despite its legal, ethical, and economic importance, accessibility remains underrepresented in tourism education. Most service providers are unaware of the real needs of people with disabilities, which go far beyond ramps or reserved parking spaces. (And also, of the significant business potential that accessible tourism means for them.) There is a lack of comprehensive training materials and university-level courses addressing these issues, which is shown e.g. by the fact that there is only one Hungarian higher education institution to offer a course on accessible tourism in its training programme. Our previous experience in the PeerAct project showed the need for a deeper and broader analysis and highlighted the importance of involving people with disabilities more actively. This project filled those gaps by developing innovative educational content and involving PWD in the development process and its dissemination and addressed unmet educational needs with real-world relevance.

The main objective of the project was to address the lack of focus on accessible tourism in education and training. Although up to 10% of the global population may be affected by accessibility issues (UNWTO), this topic remained underrepresented in both tourism research and curricula. The project aimed to fill this gap by developing a comprehensive course curriculum, an innovative teaching methodology, and a study book to support tourism education in several countries. Through these tools, future tourism professionals could gain a holistic understanding of how to effectively serve people with disabilities, while also raising awareness of the legal, ethical, and economic importance of accessibility in tourism. The project also aimed to integrate the real needs and experiences of people with disabilities into the teaching materials. A further objective was sensitisation, raising awareness of society about the travel needs of people with disabilities.

The project consisted of four main professional work packages (WPs), each contributing to innovative teaching materials tailored to the needs of people with disabilities (PWD). WP2 involved a comprehensive literature and legal review, collection of good practices, and analysis of data from a 1000-person survey and situation assessments among PWD in English and partner countries’ languages. This WP also created a literature database and common repository. WP3 built on WP2 results to develop a study book with a syllabus, brief modules (4-, 8-, and 12-class modules), and an e-learning platform, available in English and translated versions. WP4 focused on developing an innovative teaching aid and methodology, which were refined through pilot trainings involving PWD and findings of students’ feedback, ensuring practical applicability. All results were provided in English and national languages. Throughout the project, dissemination activities such as publications, events, conferences, meetings, and workshops ensured not only broad visibility but also the effective sharing of project results, while project management activities supported the smooth implementation of all work packages.

Results of the WP2 are literature and legal review, collection of good practices, analysis of the results of the situation assessment among PWD and 1000-person survey, collection of good practices on partner and on consortium level. Furthermore, a database of literature and common repository of the above-mentioned materials. Materials in English and national languages of the respective countries. WP3 main results can be listed as follows: the results of WP2 incorporated into a study book, 4-, 8- and 12 class brief modules and E-learning platform and syllabus, in English version and translated into national languages of partners. WP4 results are the follows: Innovative teaching aid and teaching methodology which were tested and finetuned along with the Brief modules and E-learning platform based on the findings of Pilot trainings and involvement of people with disabilities. Results are available in English and on national languages of partners. Projects results were disseminated via national and international publications, dissemination events, conferences, and different communication tools. In summary the project resulted in innovative novel-teaching practice-oriented gap-filling teaching materials based on real-life needs of PWD.