Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber Magazine 2024 - 12

ACCESSIBILITY FOR TRAVELERS
Improving the Destination
Experience for ALL Visitors
Top, left to right: Grace
Fisher Foundation's
Inclusive Arts
Clubhouse; Santa
Barbara Zoo. Below:
MOXI The Wolf
Museum of Exploration
+ Innovation. Opposite
page: (pictured left
to right) Ron Skinner,
Chris Benedict, and
Kaia Joye Wesolowski
at MOXI.
KNOWN AS THE American Riviera,
Santa Barbara has been a beautiful
place to visit for more than a century.
Attracting visitors from all over
the world has been an honor and a
privilege. Looking to the future, the
hospitality community is asking how
we can be more inclusive to visitors
who have different abilities?
With our existing expertise in providing
visitor information, we are well
positioned to be a conduit for the
detailed information and resources
disabled travelers need whether
that's including more photos of
travelers with limited accessibility
experiencing the destination, providing
service animal guidance, or
expanding online search terms. Our
goals are to begin familiarizing
our front-line staff with accessibility
FAQs, such as City and
County beach wheelchair
programs and autism-friendly
resources at local attractions
like the Santa Barbara
Zoo and MOXI The Wolf
Museum of Exploration +
Innovation.
One special local attraction, Grace
Fisher Foundation's Inclusive Arts
Clubhouse, was created by a local
young woman who was paralyzed
from the neck down at age
17. Inspired by her transformative
experiences with music therapy and
adaptive art, she became the driving
force behind creating an accessible
community clubhouse in La Cumbre
Plaza. Opened in 2023, the 3,500
square foot facility features creative
stations for art classes, a dance studio,
gallery walls for art exhibits and
calming quiet areas. They also offer
parent-caregiver yoga classes.
Another inclusive play area for
children currently in development,
Gwendolyn's Playground is being
created on donated City land near
East Beach. When it opens in 2025, it
will be the most inclusive playground
on the Central Coast. Victoria
Strong,
Founder and Executive
Director of the Gwendolyn Strong
Foundation, expressed, " All children
should have the opportunity to get
to be one of the kids, to be at the
center of fun, to belong. Standard
playgrounds are not accessible and
leave far too many families on the
sideline. Public playgrounds should
be inclusively designed to celebrate
our differences and the many ways
we learn, setting the standard of
the more tolerant, cooperative, and
compassionate society that we all
deserve. "
Recently, we learned that more
than 1 billion of the world's population
identify as disabled. When you
include family members and friends
who travel with people with disabilities,
the market is calculated to be
3.3 billion globally. In the U.S., it is a
population of more than 50 million
who spend upwards of $58 million
on travel annually. And with boomers
aging, the number of visitors with
mobility challenges and hearing
impairments will further rise.
According to a study released in
2022, destinations can better attract
visitors with mobility disabilities by
focusing on two areas:
increasing
accessibility information and
expanding accessible
infrastructure.
Travelers with disabilities seek
For more information visit nevergiveup.org
12 SOUTH COA ST MAGAZINE SBSCChamber.com
http://www.nevergiveup.org http://www.SBSCChamber.com
Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber Magazine 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber Magazine 2024
