Special Needs

Special Needs

Traveling with Disabilities <br> ph by Nathan Anderson unsplash.com
Traveling with Disabilities
ph by Nathan Anderson unsplash.com
Today one of the most discussed words is certainly “Inclusion”. Speaking of Inclusion we are referring above all to social issues, immigration and people with disabilities. Debates and congresses are organized around the word Inclusion, books are written, theories are formulated and solutions are dictated. But true inclusion, unfortunately, translates into everyday life almost always in backwardness and much more to do. For us at MeTour, who deal with Travel, inclusion means Accessible Tourism, in implementation and in compliance with art. 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (in Italy, for example, ratified with Law No. 18 of 02/24/09). Tourist inclusion is therefore a duty, not because it is imposed, towards those with "special needs", who can travel without any limitation, in complete freedom, enjoying the emotions that only a Memorable Journey can leave.
Inclusive Trips <br> ph by Marcus Aurelius from Pexels
Inclusive Trips
ph by Marcus Aurelius from Pexels
MeTour and the "Special Needs"
Guided by passion and love for our work, we offer Disabled Travelers the necessary support for the creation, execution and coordination of experiential travel and tours all over the world, through structures and services selected by type and degree of disability . Ensuring this is not an easy job because disabilities are not all the same and everyone has specific 'special needs' to be met. To achieve this, we have specifically structured and trained a part of our team, which through constant updating of its knowledge in the field of "special needs", has the task of:
- collaborate with specific associations in the various areas of disability with the aim of information, training and inclusion of disability in the tourism sector
- always studying and implementing New Services and Tourist Offers with an attentive eye to the opportunities that come from technological innovation.
- coordination, training and information of our partners in relation to the specific needs of these travellers
- Verification of compliance by our partner of the regulations on the subject and, in any case, the application of a careful policy in the field of inclusion
- a continuous and constant scouting of new offers of services and specific structures
- Consultants ready to listen to specific needs to organize a "tailor-made holiday", in full comfort and safety, but above all unforgettable.
everyone has their own "special needs"
Disabilities are many and each "category" has its own related special needs. It is unthinkable to think that a hotel, because it has rooms with bathrooms accessible even for wheelchairs, has catered for all types and degrees of disability! There are many disabled people in wheelchairs, but there are also disabled people who cannot travel in one half because they need dialysis one or more times a week. Just as the necessary ramp for wheelchair access may not make the museums accessible to deaf or Czech people.
For this reason it is necessary to analyze disabilities by distinguishing them into "categories" so as to analyze them to understand the specific "special needs" linked to each of them. From our analysis we think that disabilities can be grouped into 4 categories: Motor, Sensory, Psychic, Medical, Alimentary, Allergic .
Motor disabilities include those people who, due to age, physical condition, moment, have difficulty walking or performing certain operations with their limbs. It therefore includes the simple elderly who get tired or who have little strength or resistance, people in wheelchairs, people with reduced mobility because with aids such as sticks or others who have difficulties due to prostheses. In these cases it is important that structures and/or bathrooms, but also services or tours are accessible, for example, to people in wheelchairs, that traking routes clearly indicate the length and degree of difficulty or that a sporting activity is compatible with "special needs" of these Travellers.
ph by pexels-kelson-downes
ph by pexels-kelson-downes
Sensory disabilities are of those people with a limited or total reduction of visual, auditory or hearing and visual functions at the same time. In these cases it may be required that the structure accept animals such as guide dogs for a blind person, that offer tactile tours or guides that speak sign language.
A particular chapter should be made for mental disabilities with many sub-categories and many distinctions, but for simplicity we say that they belong to those people who can experience a simple discomfort such as claustrophobia, people who suffer from depression or anxiety, rather than disorientation, up to people with important neorogic deficits (to which motor deficits are sometimes linked). For these Travellers, it is certainly necessary to listen carefully, understanding on a case-by-case basis what their "special needs" are, because a simple notice or sign could suffice for those suffering from claustrophobia, for example, for a tour that takes place in narrow or blinds, up to personal assistance in those most important cases.
Medical disabilities are also many and varied. In this category we think of Travelers suffering from epilepsy, for example, of people who need to undergo dialysis cycles once or more a week, or post-surgery medications, but also simple blood pressure monitoring. In these cases it is important to know that there is a medical center in the structure, whether and at what distance there is a hospital or a center equipped for peritoneal dialysis.
ph pexels-pixabay-210205
ph pexels-pixabay-210205
In the case of food disabilities it is perhaps excessive to talk about disabilities, but in any case they are people who, due to allergies (sometimes severe) or metabolic disorders, have special needs with respect to foods and their preparations. In these cases we can think of Celiac people, for example, diabetics, or with particular intolerances. In these cases it will be the Traveler's responsibility to inform them and the restaurateur's responsibility to have clear menus with the list of ingredients, specific preparations or specific cooking procedures.
Disabilities caused by mild or severe allergies are now increasingly frequent, ranging from allergies, for example, to nickel (often used in creams and dergents), to pollen rather than to bees, to foods such as strawberries, to rarer allergies to plastic materials. in these cases, as with food, it is important that the traveler knows his own pathology well and clearly declares it to the restaurateur rather than the hotelier. The task of restaurateurs will be to have clear menus with the list of ingredients, specific preparations or specific cooking procedures, while for hoteliers it will be to adopt, for example, detergents or hypoallergenic products in their establishment and include in their protocols particular attention to the cleaning of the rooms, mattresses, carpets and furnishings with respect to dust mites or animal hair.
ph by pexels-lukas-rodriguez
ph by pexels-lukas-rodriguez
ACCESSIBILITY
MeTour intends to provide punctual and transparent information on accessibility on its website and in the files of its offers, so that everyone can independently (or with the help of one of our consultants) create their own tailor-made holiday, contemplating all the your personal needs or limitations. This required our Team to work on 2 areas: The first was the improvement of the offer files on our site through the adoption of specific icons, with the aim of providing the Traveler with "special needs" punctuality and immediacy of which hotels, rather than museums, tours or activities you can use and, if necessary, which aids are made available to you according to the degree and type of disability. The second was to ask our partners to complete their forms with all the information necessary to determine the degree of usability of what is offered. All this has not been easy because there is no homogeneous, unambiguous and international standard of accessibility for all the various structures, whether they are Accommodation, Recreational, Means of transport or Paths. For each service or structure, accessibility and usability must be assessed individually in relation to the order and degree of disability. But the work done allows us to guarantee on MeTour cards with complete and clear information and, for every "special need", the right Hotel, Farmhouse, Bathing Establishment, Museum, Tour, Experience, Entertainment, Means of Transport etc. whether the disability is motor for an elderly person or a person in a wheelchair, sensory for a blind or deaf, medical for a dialysis patient or diabetic, or simply a family with small children.