Acknowledgements endorsements Background methodology executive Summary 11 Recommendations 22 Article — general obligations 38

Inaccessible Tourism Services and Facilities

573. 
     Many people with disability face difficulties accessing places for tourism services. The tourism industry in Australia is content with ‘comfortable inaction’ on making buildings and services more accessible.⁶⁴³
     

Case Study

“In February I went to Sydney for a couple of meetings. I had two days to fill in between those meetings and decided to become a tourist and take a ride on my mobility scooter along George Street. I wanted to access an internet cafe, I wanted to buy a book, and I wanted to get a take-away meal from Chinatown. I completed none of these tasks. Why? Because one of the major streets, in one of our major cities, and the destination of many hundreds of thousands of tourists, was lined with shops and facilities which all required my mobility scooter to climb steps into them. Eventually I had to swallow my pride and at the stepped door of a pharmacy shout for an assistant to come serve me. No other people who wanted something from that pharmacy were served at the door — so why is it that tourists with a disability, as I was in Sydney a few weeks ago, have to accept door step service?”⁶⁴⁴

574. 
     Many people complain about the lack of information regarding accessible tourism operators, while the information that is available is “fragmented”, “generally unreliable” and “inaccurate”.⁶⁴⁵ Moreover, people with disability dislike the negative experience of being segregated from the general public and catered for as a separate group.⁶⁴⁶