The Intersection of Technology,Accessible Tourism and Tourists With Intellectual Disabilities: Proposing a Novel Conceptual Framework

Abstract

This research aimed to understand the experiences of tourists with intellectual disabilities using travel technologies , and to identify determinants and deterrents. A qualitative approach was adopted to execute the research across two studies. In Study 1, topic modeling analysis of online travel forum discussions was conducted to unearth consumer concerns around accessibility. Study 1 revealed that the voices of people with disabilities were omitted in the forum data. Building upon Study 1, in Study 2 we conducted four focus group interviews with tourists with intellectual disabilities to understand their opinions, attitudes, and perceptions towards the use of technology before and during travel. The findings yielded a redefined model conceptualizing the technology usage of tourists with disabilities, particularly for tourists with intellectual disabilities. Implications for co-creating experiences with technology with tourists with disabilities were discussed in relevance with theory and practice.

Keywords

acceptance accessible technology accessible tourism intellectual disability traveler universal design

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anney

V. N.

(2014). Ensuring the quality of the findings of qualitative research: Looking at trustworthiness criteria. Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies, 5(2), 272–281.

Ali

Scior

Ratti

Strydom

King

Hassiotis

(2013). Discrimination and other barriers to accessing health care: Perspectives of patients with mild and moderate intellectual disability and their carers. PloS One, 8(8), e70855. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0070855.

Ali

Terrah

Ali

(2021). Antecedents and consequences of user engagement in smartphone travel apps. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 12(2), 355–371. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTT-09-2020-0221

Alvesson

Sandberg

(2014). Problematization meets mystery creation: Generating new ideas and findings through assumption-challenging research. In Jeanes

Huzzard

(Eds.), Critical management research: Reflections from the field (pp. 23–40). SAGE Publications. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446288610

Ayeh

J. K.

(2015). Travellers’ acceptance of consumer-generated media: An integrated model of technology acceptance and source credibility theories. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 173–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.049

Bagozzi

R. P.

Davis

F. D.

Warshaw

P. R.

(1992). Development and test of a theory of technological learning and usage. Human Relations, 45(7), 659–686.

Blei

D. M.

A. Y.

Jordan

M. I.

(2003). Latent dirichlet allocation. Journal of Machine Learning Research, 3(Jan.), 993–1022.

Braddock

D. L.

Hemp

Rizzolo

M. C.

Tanis

E. S.

Haffer

(2015). The state of the states in intellectual and developmental disabilities: Emerging from the great recession. American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Buchholz

Müller

I. M.

Ferm

(2013). Text messaging with pictures and speech synthesis for adolescents and adults with cognitive and communicative disabilities–professionals’ views about user satisfaction and participation. Technology and Disability, 25(2), 87–98.

10.

Buhalis

Sinarta

(2019). Real-time co-creation and nowness service: Lessons from tourism and hospitality. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36(5), 563–582. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2019.1592059.

11.

Burnett

J. J.

Baker

H. B.

(2001). Assessing the travel-related behaviors of the mobility-disabled consumer. Journal of Travel Research, 40, 4e11. https://doi.org/10.1177/004728750104000102

12.

CDC. (2022). Disability Impacts All of Us. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html (accessed on August 12, 2022).

13.

Center for Universal Design. (n.d.) Universal Design Principals. https://projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/design/cud/

14.

Crawford

D. W.

Jackson

E. L.

Godbey

(1991). A hierarchical model of leisure constraints. Leisure Sciences, 13, 309–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490409109513147.

15.

Darcy

(2012). (Dis)embodied air travel experiences: Disability, discrimination and the affect of a discontinuous air travel chain. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 19, 91–101. doi:10.1017/jht.2012.9.

16.

Darcy

Cameron

Pegg

(2010). Accessible tourism and sustainability: A discussion and case study. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18(4), 515–537. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669581003690668.

17.

Daruwalla

Darcy

(2005). Personal and societal attitudes to disability. Annals of Tourism Research, 32(3), 549–570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2004.10.008

18.

Davis

F. D.

(1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319–340. https://doi.org/10.2307/249008

19.

Dawe

(2006). Desperately seeking simplicity: How young adults with cognitive disabilities and their families adopt assistive technologies. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1143–1152).

20.

Dirks

Bühler

(2018). Assistive technologies for people with cognitive impairments—Which factors influence technology acceptance? In International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 503–516). Springer.

21.

Dorcic

Komsic

Markovic

(2019). Mobile technologies and applications towards smart tourism – State of the art. Tourism Review, 74(1), 82–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-07-2017-0121

22.

Edmonds

Kennedy

(2017). Convergent-parallel approach. In An Applied Guide to Research Designs (pp. 181–188). SAGE Publications, Inc, https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781071802779

23.

Gibbs

S. M.

Brown

M. J.

Muir

W. J.

(2008). The experiences of adults with intellectual disabilities and their carers in general hospitals: A focus group study. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 52(12), 1061–1077. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2008.01057.x

24.

Gillovic

McIntosh

Cockburn-Wootten

Darcy

(2018). Having a voice in inclusive tourism research. Annals of Tourism Research, 71(C), 54–56. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2017.12.011

25.

Ginis

K. A. M.

van der Ploeg

H. P.

Foster

Lai

McBride

C. B.

… Heath

G. W.

(2021). Participation of people living with disabilities in physical activity: a global perspective. The Lancet, 398(10298), 443–455.

26.

Green

Abbott

Davidson

P. M.

Delaney

Patradoon-Ho

DiGiacomo

(2018). Interacting with providers: An intersectional exploration of the experiences of carers of Aboriginal children with a disability. Qualitative Health Research, 28(12), 1923–1932. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732318793416

27.

Guner

Acarturk

(2020). The use and acceptance of ICT by senior citizens: A comparison of technology acceptance model (TAM) for elderly and young adults. Universal Access in the Information Society, 19(2), 311–330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-018-0642-4

28.

Höglund

Larsson

(2019). Midwives’ work and attitudes towards contraceptive counselling and contraception among women with intellectual disability: focus group interviews in Sweden. The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care, 24(1), 39–44.

29.

Honnibal

Montani

(2017). spaCy 2: Natural language understanding with Bloom embeddings, convolutional neural networks and incremental parsing. To Appear, 7(1), 411–420.

30.

Hsiao

C. H.

Tang

K. Y.

(2021). Who captures whom–Pokémon or tourists? A perspective of the Stimulus-Organism-Response model. International Journal of Information Management, 61, 102312.

31.

Huang

Y. C.

Chang

L. L.

C. P.

Chen

(2019). Examining an extended technology acceptance model with experience construct on hotel consumers’ adoption of mobile applications. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 28(8), 957–980. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2019.1580172.

32.

Iso-Ahola

S. E.

Mannell

R. C.

(1985). Social and psychological constraints on leisure. Constraints on Leisure, 111–151.

33.

Jeong

Shin

H. H.

(2020). Tourists’ experiences with smart tourism technology at smart destinations and their behavior intentions. Journal of Travel Research, 59(8), 1464–1477. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287519883034

34.

Kabadayi

Ali

Choi

Joosten

(2019). Smart service experience in hospitality and tourism services: A conceptualization and future research agenda. Journal of Service Management, 30(3), 326–348. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-11-2018-0377

35.

Kim

(2016). An extended technology acceptance model in behavioral intention toward hotel tablet apps with moderating effects of gender and age. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(8), 1535–1553. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-06-2015-0289

36.

Kirilenko

A. P.

Stepchenkova

S. O.

Dai

(2021). Automated topic modeling of tourist reviews: Does the Anna Karenina principle apply? Tourism Management, 83, Article 104241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104241

37.

Kong

W. H.

Loi

K. I.

(2017). The barriers to holiday-taking for visually impaired tourists and their families. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 32, 99–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2017.06.001

38.

Koufaris

(2002). Applying the technology acceptance model and flow theory to online consumer behavior. Information Systems Research, 13(2), 205–223. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.13.2.205.83

39.

Kroll

Barbour

Harris

(2007). Using focus groups in disability research. Qualitative Health Research, 17(5), 690–698. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732307301488.

40.

Lam

Cho

(2007). A study of hotel employee behavioral intentions towards adoption of information technology. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26(1), 49–65.

41.

Lehto

Luo

Miao

Ghiselli

R. F.

(2018). Shared tourism experience of individuals with disabilities and their caregivers. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 8, 185–193 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2017.04.001.

42.

Mackenzie

Scully

J. L.

(2007). Moral imagination, disability and embodiment. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 24(4), 335–351. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5930.2007.00388.x

43.

McCausland

Brennan

McCallion

McCarron

(2019). Balancing personal wishes and caring capacity in future planning for adults with an intellectual disability living with family carers. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 23(3),413–431.

44.

McCausland

Stancliffe

R. J.

McCallion

McCarron

(2020). Longitudinal use and factors associated with public transport and other travel options for older people with an intellectual disability in Ireland. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 33(3), 442–456. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12686

45.

McKercher

Darcy

(2018). Re-conceptualizing barriers to travel by people with disabilities. Tourism Management Perspectives, 26, 59–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2018.01.003

46.

Michopoulou

Buhalis

(2010). Accessible Tourism Stakeholder Analysis. Channel View Publications.

47.

Min

K. K. F.

Jeong

(2019). Consumer adoption of the Uber mobile application: Insights from diffusion of innovation theory and technology acceptance model. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36(7), 770–783. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2018.1507866.

48.

Navarro

Garzón

Roig-Tierno

(2015). Co-creation in hotel–disable customer interactions. Journal of Business Research, 68(7), 1630–1634. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.02.007

49.

New South Wales Government (2018). Cognitive impairment and the NDIS. https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/disability/Pages/NDIS-and-cognitive-impairment.aspx

50.

Office of Disability and Employment Policy. (2022). Customized employment. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/program-areas/customized-employment

51.

Olya

H. G.

Gazi

Z. A.

Aksal

F. A.

Altinay

(2018). Behavioral intentions of disabled tourists for the use of peer-to-peer accommodations. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30(1), 436–454. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-08-2016-0471

52.

Raab

Berezan

Krishen

A. S.

Tanford

(2016). What’s in a word? Building program loyalty through social media communication. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 57(2), 138–149. https://doi.org/10.1177/1938965515619488

53.

Raspa

Fitzgerald

Furberg

R. D.

Wylie

Moultrie

DeRamus

… McCormack

(2018). Mobile technology use and skills among individuals with fragile X syndrome: implications for healthcare decision making. Journal of intellectual disability research, 62(10), 821–832.

54.

Richardson

(2000). How we live: Participatory research with six people with learning difficulties. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32(6), 1383–1395. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01624.x.

55.

Sechoaro

E. J.

Scrooby

Koen

D. P.

(2014). The effects of rehabilitation on intellectually-disabled people: A systematic review. Health SA Gesondheid, 19(1), 1–9. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC157795

56.

Sedgley

Pritchard

Morgan

Hanna

(2017). Tourism and autism: Journeys of mixed emotions. Annals of Tourism Research, 66, 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2017.05.009

57.

Thompson

C. J.

Tambyah

S. K.

(1999). Trying to be cosmopolitan. Journal of Consumer Research, 26(3), 214–241. https://doi.org/10.1086/209560

58.

Ubel

P. A.

Loewenstein

Schwarz

Smith

(2005). Misimagining the unimaginable: The disability paradox and health care decision making. Health Psychology, 24(4S), S57-S62. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.24.4.S57.

59.

Venkatesh

Thong

J. Y.

(2012). Consumer acceptance and use of information technology: Extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. MIS Quarterly, 36(1), 157–178. https://doi.org/10.2307/41410412

60.

Verdonschot

M. M.

De Witte

L. P.

Reichrath

Buntinx

W. H. E.

Curfs

L. M. G.

(2009). Impact of environmental factors on community participation of persons with an intellectual disability: A systematic review. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 53(1), 54–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2008.01128.x.

61.

Wang

Ding

Teodorski

Mahajan

H. P.

Cooper

(2016). Use of assistive technology for cognition among people with traumatic brain injury: A survey study. Military Medicine. 181(6), 560–566. https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00704.

62.

World Health Organization. (2015). WHO global disability action plan 2014–2021: Better health for all people with disability. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/199544/1/9789241509619_eng.pdf

63.

World Tourism Organization. (2005). Accessible tourism for all.

64.

Yau

M. K. S.

McKercher

Packer

T. L.

(2004). Traveling with a disability: More than an access issue. Annals of Tourism Research, 31(4), 946–960. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2004.03.007

65.

Zahra

S. A.

(2017). How people with disabilities use the web. W3C: Web Accessibility Initiative. https://www.w3.org/WAI/people-use-web/tools-techniques/

66.

Zhang

Gao

Cole

S. T.

Ricci

(2019). Beyond accessibility: Empowering mobility-impaired customers with motivation differentiation. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 31(9), 3503–3525. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-08-2018-0663

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.17 MB