Engendering collaborative accessibility through tourism: From barriers to bridges

Abstract

This article challenges dominant assumptions about disability and accessibility in tourism and adopts a relational perspective to explore how collaborative accessibility can emerge through interpersonal interdependencies. We used polyphonic vignettes to weave the personal tourism stories of 17 people into two situated micronarratives that capture the dynamic relations between people with and without visual impairments. Our findings suggest that dependence on others, responsibility for others, confidence in one's own abilities in relation to others, assumptions about others' interests and collective experiencing can enable or constrain the agencies of those involved. Our discussion of how tourism stakeholders can leverage these interdependencies to engender collaborative accessibility with people can inform future disability-inclusive approaches in tourism research and practise.