The main barrier is in the mind
“There are at least two reasons for further development of accessible tourism. First – the social aspect. How we take care of disabled people defines our level of civilization. The second reason is economic. Tourists with disabilities amount to almost 7% of the global and 11% of the European tourist flow. Thus it’s a big segment of the market that we cannot ignore” – said Sergey Shpilko, head of the Moscow City Committee for Tourism and Hotel Industry, while opening a round table called “Barrier-free tourism in Moscow: reality and prospects”.
Mr. Shpilko noted that Russia is only starting to create an environment where people with limited abilities would feel comfortable. But the capital city has already achieved a lot. Igor Gordeev, deputy director of the Department of social security, said that from a total of 872 cultural sites in Moscow, more than 400 are fully or partially accessible by tourists with disabilities. New busses and trolleys, working the city routes, have low platforms. It’s expected that by 2014 all the city buses will be barrier-free, and by 2016 the trolleys will follow.
New subway stations too are designed to suit the needs of physically challenged. The “historic” stations are harder to alter because of their depth. But still work is being done to make them more accessible by hearing- and visually-impaired.
Moscow in this year alone received 2.5 billion roubles from budget funds for development of barrier-free environment, notes Igor Gordeev. The private funds invested in this enterprise are yet unaccounted for. All the new hotels are wheelchair accessible; the city forbids construction, unless the needs of the disabled are met in the building design. But is really everything being taken care of? Olga Solovyeva, general manager of SUE “Moscow Social Guarantee”, said that many hotels, claiming to be fully barrier-free, are actually only partly accessible by disabled people. Sergey Shpilko points out that it’s important to educate the personnel: hotels or restaurants might not take everything into account just because they don’t have the proper information on the subject. According to him, it’s essential to introduce barrier-free standards, and there’s no need to create anything original – other countries have lots of experience, we just have to use it. The city should encourage tourist sites that have really worked on creating barrier-free environment and admit handicapped tourists.
Inna Margulis, member of the board of the Moscow branch of the National society of the disabled, thinks that even today many tourist spots can be classified as barrier-free. She named the Tretyakov gallery, “Muzeon”, king Alexey’s palace in Kolomenskoe. “The Darwin museum has special tours for different types of disabled people, and at the Fersman museum there are tours for the visually-impaired, when visitors get to touch the exhibit items” – said Mrs. Margulis. The vulnerabilities in Moscow’s barrier free environment, she thinks, are restaurants and public restrooms.
Not all railway stations and airports are perfectly adapted for the handicapped. Members of the round table called Kursky vokzal among one of the most comfortable stations. Almost all the airports have the common problem with restrooms. The issue was addressed by Elena Zhuravleva, representative of “Transaero”. She noted that their company is doing all it can to make flights comfortable for the handicapped: there’s an escort service, wheelchairs to move around the plane, special boarding rules for the disabled and all their staff have undergone special training. Mrs. Zhuravlyeva especially stressed that this is not some kind of a secret – the company is happy to share the knowledge it has gained over the years, especially with smaller companies.
A very important problem was highlighted by general manager of “Paratourism Well” Julia Shilkina – the question of social adequacy towards handicapped tourists. According to her, some parents do not approve of their children having fieldtrips with disabled kids, when the latter really need to communicate with regular boys and girls of their own age. Sometimes hotel staff is not happy to see handicapped tourists because their wheelchairs are scraping the floors. Of course there’s always a solution, if you look for one. For instance, hotels could offer “house” wheelchairs for the guests. Tour guides that didn’t receive special training or have little experience sometimes move way too fast, the handicapped tourists simply cannot keep up. “The main barriers are in the minds”, - regrets Mrs. Shilkina. She also points out that there’s very little information about services for the disabled: “We have spent much time looking for appropriate means of transportation for the handicapped. Turns out, there are companies in Moscow that provide such services, but finding them was not easy”.
Sergey Shpilko called all the participants of the round table to share information on tourist market players that are somehow related to handicapped tourism. Head of the Moscow Committee of tourism and hotel industry promised that a new online resource about tourism in Moscow, which is being prepared by the committee, will have a special section about barrier-free tourism. He also said that by 2018, when the FIFA World Cup will be held in Moscow, the city has to be fully free of barriers. Also the tours for the disabled should become more affordable. “Tourists with disabilities don’t use charter flights, organization of such tours should be very individual, and that’s rather expensive. But even these problems are solvable. As soon as we’ll have proper tours, we’ll have affiliate programs that will reduce the cost of these tours”, - thinks Sergey Shpilko.