Some visitors like to know what they’ll find at a destination before they travel. Other visitors must know before they go.
What’s an Accessible landing page? It’s a collection of links to accessible experiences (i.e. attractions, museums, zoos, outdoor nature trails, tours, etc.) Plus, it has links to accessible ground transportation from the airport as well as public transportation options. A destination can link to local hotels that have swimming pool lifts, or anything that might help.
See three destination examples of accessible landing pages here:
> State: Utah
> City: Visit Mesa AZ — A robust page that’s fully developed
> County: Lee County, Florida
Why You Need an Accessible Landing Page
There is a near-complete lack of information about destination accessibility found on-line.
According to the most recent “State of the American Traveler” Report by Destination Analysts and Miles Partnership, 20% of Americans that traveled in the past two years were either disabled or visited a destination with a friend or family member with a disability in their party.
If you provide accessible information for people who are disabled today, that information will be used by more and more people in the coming years. Among America’s 75 million baby boomers, 40% will age into a disability after their 65th birthday. Nevertheless, they’ll travel. Not only do they have the time, they also have the resources. Baby boomers control 58% of all discretionary spending in the U.S. and stand to inherit $13 trillion from their parents.
A True Story From Amelia Island
Jake Steinman, Founder of TravelAbility, shared this story. “Nate Aron, Business & Partner Relations Manager from Amelia Island Convention & Visitors Bureau, approached me last month about producing their accessible landing page and I asked what was stopping him.
He responded that he was concerned that it needed to be compliant. That, however, is not the role of the DMO. His partners need to provide information for various industry segments and then it is up to those suppliers to worry about compliance.
He asked if we could give him further guidance.
On the flight home from Florida, I decided to Google “Accessible things to do on Amelia Island” and up came a blog post by Sylvia Longmire, (SpintheGlobe.net) a service-disabled travel writer, that details the attractions, cafes, restaurants, and experiences for wheelchair users. After 20 minutes of researching and collecting the URLs to everything appearing in that article, I sent them Nate with the subject line: “Here’s your accessible landing page…or at least a start.”
And while Rome wasn’t built in a day the Amelia Island accessible landing page was. This URL popped up 24 hours later! https://www.ameliaisland.com/accessibletravel
So, you see…it’s easy. And once it’s ready, you can add your landing page here for additional exposure: travelability.net/add-your-destination.
