Organizational features of service of tourists with disabilities

To make the guest not feel slighted availability of rooms for people with disabilities - is not the only condition for a comfortable stay of the disabled people at the hotel. It is necessary to provide the possibility of movement on the most significant areas of the hotel - restaurant, business, entertainment, and especially health ones.

For this purpose all public facilities must require these conditions:

* it must be equipped with extended doorways;

* there should be no thresholds in the building that can impede the movement of the wheelchair;

* the health department should be equipped with an additional bathroom for wheelchair users.

If there is no possibility at the hotel to ensure the movement of guest in a wheelchair in a store or a business center, there is still should be found a way to provide him with all the necessary services.

Beside the proper equipment of the hotel, it is very important to have at the hotel personnel a high-qualified staff specially trained to serve and work with disabled people.

In the job descriptions of the doormen, waiters and maids should be included a paragraph about helping people with disabilities.

Western experience shows that providers of services (the owners of hotels, restaurants etc.) sometimes refuse to provide service to the visually impaired person, just because he is accompanied by a guide dog. This is a clear sign of discrimination. Of course, the guide dog must be trained by appropriate manner, and be friendly in the environment where there is a lot of people.

It is allowed to the guide-dog to be in public places, in all forms of hotel

enterprises, public transport, as well as in passenger aircraft, ships. The guide-dog

should not be distracted by eating and talking. Guide dogs are working.

It is important that staff of the restaurant have been trained in the basic rules of communication with visually impaired and hearing-impaired visitors. The waiter must have read the menu to the visually impaired guest.

Taking an order the waiter should duplicate the description of the table to the visually impaired visitor: "The glass is on your right", "Spices are in the center of the table". The waiter also should use a pen and paper in a conversation with hearing-impaired visitor.

The maid need to be prepared for the fact that the rubbish and dirt in the rooms will be in unusual places. There may be a need to wash the night vase. If the quest is in wheelchair, the maid should be prepared that the corners of the room, the bed and the chairs can be stained with the wheels.

All this conditions will create the comfortable and convenient movement for

disabled tourists and will positively impact on the quality of their accommodation.

3.3 Elaboration of proposals regarding equipment of guestrooms for disabled people at the "11 Mirrors Hotel"

There is just one room at the "11 Mirrors Hotel" on the first floor equipped for the guests in wheelchairs.

The number of guestrooms equipped for disabled people should increase for simultaneous stay of more visitors with such problems.

So, there are special requirements of equipment of the room for tourists with disabilities, which can provide the maximally comfortable accommodation of disabled person.

1. There should be a complete absence of thresholds in the room designated for guests with disabilities. All doorways should have a minimal width of 0.9 m. Doors are supplied with magnetic stopper, that allows to fix it open. A door eye must be placed at the level of 1.2 m.

As long as disabled people do not travel very often, therefore it should be

ensured that the numbers assigned to them in their absence has been used constantly, so it should be comfortable and cozy for all guests: for example, the same door eye should be mounted on a standard level too.

2. Room area must exceed the area of the usual "standard" - it is 28 sq. m.

3. It is important to pay attention to the saving of room: room corners should be equipped with protective panels (removable and replacable), to the wheelchair would not scrape it.

If the room has a special place for storing of street wheelchair, there should be provided a special wheelchair for movement within the hotel premise. It would help to maintain the room in more cleanest state.

4. * It is better to set a TV a returnable panel;

* Writing desk should be curved so that would be able to drive up a wheelchair to it (see Addition D);

* Outlets and switches should be located at a height of 1-1.2 m;

* Wardrobe should be equipped with a folding hanger at the level of 1.1-1.2 m and it is desirable to be a closet type (another alternative is a floor hanger on wheels for suits).

5. Also the room should be equipped with extra pillows on sofas and chairs. Additional blanket should be located at a height not exceeding 1.2 m.

The bed should be constructed in special way to ease the use for person in wheelchair (see Addition D). Beside the bed should be a zone for turning the wheelchair on a 360 degrees. It is ideal when at the rooms are provided with special equipment for moving from wheelchair to bed, to which are designed a special bedside handrails.

6. The phone in the room for people with disabilities should be portable.

7. There is a set of special devices, elaborated by British firm "Rehab & Medical", that facilitate self-service of guest: items for writing and special cutlery (see Addition D).

8. The correct and elaborated equipment of the bathroom is the most important part of designing of room for the persons in wheelchair (see Addition C).

* To make guests with disabilities feel comfortable in the bathroom, firstly, it is necessary to predict room dimensions - there would be a need to deploy a wheelchair in it.

* The bathroom should be equipped with special handrails to facilitate the transition to the bathroom and the toilet seat;

* The toilet should be higher than usual;

* Sink, on the contrary, should be located lower than normal, it is better if it is bent in the middle;

* Shower should be mounted at 0,9-1 meters from the bottom of the tub and have a folding seat. Also the shower header should have a two-level fixation;

* Mirrors, hair dryer, dispensers for soaps and shampoos are placed at the level of sedentary person;

* It is extremely important to equip the bathroom with the call button of maid.

At the meeting of all these requirements the rooms for disabled people in wheelchairs will be maximally comfortable and convenient for their accommodation.

Conclusions

On the basis of conducted research can be made following conclusions.

Analysis of international documents shows that during the many years policy towards the disabled has changed: it has gone from usual care for the people with disabilities to determining of their rights, freedoms and conditions of development. Has started to appear the organizations of disabled persons and their families who were argued for improving the living conditions of such people. Disability Rights for a long time have been the subject of close attention from the UN and other international organizations.

The main provisions of international documents meet the main provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration of Children's Rights, the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, Declaration on the rights of mentally retarded persons and Declaration of the Rights of the disabled. As the domestic and international practice shows its implementation also contribute to the development and progress of modern society.

The question of social protection of disabled people is one of the issues that must be solved primarily because there are many problems in the lives of 2.5 million disabled persons in Ukraine, that require legal and regulatory settlement.

The Law of Ukraine "On the basis of social protection of disabled persons", adopted in 1991 and supplemented and improved in the next years, guarantees them opportunities to participate in economic, political and social spheres of society equal to all other citizens, and creates the necessary conditions that allow disabled people to enjoy a full life according to their individual abilities and interests.

Recently to the issues of tourist service for people with limited mental and physical abilities was given more attention that indicate the positive development

of Ukrainian society in this direction.

A significant structural component of service organizations are enterprises of the hotel industry. To stabilize its position on the background of growing competition hotel companies must maximize the use of innovative trends when choosing a competitive advantages. All of the above determines the relevance of research of development and implementation of social innovations in the hospitality industry.

Most highly developed countries create favorable conditions for the life of persons with disabilities, which leads to activation of their social and labour activities, increasing of prosperity and the needs of different kinds of service (including hotel, restaurant and travel services). Considering the significant increase of the share of people with disabilities in the total number of world population, they are an important segment of potential customers, that are not covered by different kinds of service due to low availability of service environment.

In the research has been considered the experience of service for disabled people at some world hotel companies, namely at the Park-Hotels for elderly people, the network Toyoko Inn, hotels of Scandic network, Majestic Hotel & Spa, La Residence hotel in the Abano Terme resort, the "Prilagodjeni hoteli" and Lykia Group hotels. All these hotel companies were able to show an exemplary results in the improvement of service for people with disabilities and examples of suitable equipment at the hotel premises for accommodation of such type of tourists.

As for the situation in our country, Ukraine has already carried out certain efforts of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the disabled people, including the field of Accessibility of environment and Universal Design. But most Ukrainian hotels and other accommodation enterprises still are not adapted for the accommodation of people with physical disabilities.

As the object of this research has been chosen the "11 Mirrors Hotel" - a five-star design hotel located in the center of Kyiv. Currently an accessibility for the guests with special needs at the hotel is provided, but only for the individuals with limited mobility of legs, in particular - the persons in wheelchairs. The hotel has a ramp, and movement from the lobby to the rooms and restaurant carried out on the elevator. For the visitors in wheelchairs is equipped one guestroom on the first floor.

For the improvement of service of disabled people at this hotel enterprise were proposed elaborated recommendations regarding:

* implementation of the concept of universal design;

* proper equipment of all hotel premises convenient not only for people with limited mobility but for persons with limited vision and hearing too;

* equipment of rooms for people with wheelchairs.

During the writing of the work all tasks and the purpose of the research has been implemented. In particular:

* the theoretical information on organizational features of service of disabled tourists were gathered, systematized and analyzed;

* the current state of development of service of tourists with disabilities in the world and Ukraine were characterized;

* the advantages and disadvantages of service of people with disabilities at the hotel industry were defined;

* the level of service of tourists of such type in the Ukrainian and world hotels were compared;

* the main requirements of equipment of hotel premises for accessibility of people with physical disabilities clarified;

* the recommendations regarding improvement of conditions of service of disabled people at the "11 Mirrors Hotel" were elaborated.

So, the main proposals and recommendations regarding organization of service for tourists with disabilities at the "11 mirrors Design Hotel" that were elaborated during the conducting of the research, consist in the implementation of the concept of universal design for all room stock of the hotel or increase of number of rooms for disabled people equipped with implementation of all necessary requirements.

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