Predif Courses: Accessible Tourism and Customer with Disabilities Attention

PREDIF , The Representative State Platform for Physically Disabled Persons, is a non-profit organization that works to improve the quality of life for people with severe physical disabilities. Represents and makes programs for nearly forty thousand people and has an experience, through its member federations, for over 30 years.

PREDIF is a benchmark in accessible tourism. Chairs the Committee on Accessibility and Inclusive Tourism CERMI, and their protocols and standards in the field of accessibility are the consensus around the disability sector.

PREDIF has a training program with the name "Accessible Tourism and Customer Service for Disabled and other various needs" , part of the agreement signed by PREDIF with Vodafone Spain Foundation and the Royal Board on disability, which aims to contribute to the normalization of leisure and tourism for people with disabilities through training.

The courses are free of charge and are ultimately intended to raise awareness, inform and train students and professionals in the tourism sector to improve the care provided to people with disabilities in institutions and tourist destinations, as well as provide tools for professionals to know auto- diagnosing the accessibility of tourist establishments, manage maintenance and implement improvement actions.

The courses are taught flawlessly and enjoyable by Tatiana German Selva, Technical Director PREDIF and Isidro Martin PREDIF technical accessibility. In the course there are interesting practices that test participants in order to sensitize them on how to provide better service in their tourism facilities for people with disabilities.

Courses can be requested by:

- Universities in the Spanish territory that offer the degree of tourism or any related with this sector.
- Students of Tourism or other related careers.
- Professional tourism sector of government and / or local tourism businesses

In the Accessible Tourism are equally important both accessibility features presenting the tourist accommodation and the services offered therein by the staff of customer service. It is therefore important that tourism professionals are trained to enable them to know in depth the needs of people with disabilities and develop the skills and abilities to provide care and adequate service.

Course Syllabus
? What is accessible tourism?
? Impact of tourism habits of people with disabilities in tourism
? Customer with disabilities and diverse needs
? Best Practices for Accessible Tourism in Spain
? Basic Access Accessibility Legislation and Tourism mandatory
? How to improve the accessibility of tourist resources?
? How to organize tourism activities accessible?
? How to make a self-diagnosis of accessibility and provide customer information correctly?

Teaching System :
The courses are physically attended and have a duration of 8 hours. Course certificate will be given to participants.

Registration (limited capacity) :
To register, one must complete the registration form and send it to the following email: elopez@predif.org. More information, please contact Elena López (elopez@predif.org) or by phone on 91 371 52 94 from 8:00 to 15:30 h.

Accessible Madrid (www.accessiblemadrid.com), had the opportunity to participate last November 19 in one of these courses "Accessible Tourism and Customer Service Disabled or other various needs" , held at the Faculty of Social Work at the Complutense University. Arturo Garrido from Accessible Madrid participated in a roundtable with other private and public institutions (such SEGITTUR, in the person of Rosa Muñoz-Elena) aimed at this sector. The purpose was to tell the experience as accessible tourist operator in Madrid, organising accessible tours and travels and renting mobility scooters. It was a great success!

The course in Madrid was attended by:

- Ignacio Tremiño, CEO of Policy Disability Support.
- Santiago Moreno, CEO of Vodafone Spain Foundation.
- Joaquin Castillo, Director General of Tourism of the Autonomous Community of Madrid.
- Francisco Sardon, president of PREDIF.
- Miguel Ángel García Oca, president of Aspaym Madrid.
- Andoni Alonso, academic secretary of the Faculty of Social Work UCM.
- Carmen Miguel, professor and coordinator of students with disabilities in the School of Social Work UCM.