Hotelier Middle East – August 2019

HOTELIER MIDDLE EAST | August 2019 | Volume 18 Issue 08

COMMENT & OPINION

18

T

his year marks the ‘Year of

Tolerance’ and 2020 marks

the deadline to make Dubai

completely accommodating to

disabled people. A defining aspect of Dubai

is surely its hotels, so how exactly do they

shape up in this mission?

I have stayed in a lot of hotels in different

countries and have seen how the Japanese

hotel staff reacts to me wheeling

into the lobby, I have seen how

the British do and I have seen

how hotel staff in the UAE do.

Hospitality and tourism are

at the forefront of the Dubai

lifestyle, understandably then,

perfection in hotels is more

important to Dubai than a lot of

other places around the world.

Perfection in treatment towards

disabled people in those hotels however, is a

totally different skill.

Naturally, as with any hotel experience,

the staff are eager to please and will help

you with basically anything you ask them to.

The key thing to draw from that statement

is ‘ask them to’. For the most part, as a

disabled person, the whole asking before

doing isn’t something a fair few hotels seem

to grasp.

I was born in Sharjah, so I’ve been in the

UAE and specifically Dubai enough times

to have my collection of hotel experiences.

For the most part, hotel staff have nothing

but good intentions, they only wish to help

me as much as possible. The issue lurks in

the lack of communication between the

staff and the disabled person.

One of the biggest faux pas in helping a

disabled person like myself – a wheelchair

user - is pushing me in my chair without

asking. Do remember, I am facing forward,

I can’t see someone come up behind me

and start pushing me. To be

pushed without asking then

is a jolt. Hotel staff will very

often push me without asking.

Of course, I understand their

intention of wanting to help

me, it’s appreciated, but if they

were only to stand in front of

me so I could see them first,

and then ask if I want to be

pushed, that small and brief

gesture would go a long way.

An important distinction in the goal

to make a place disability friendly is if it

accommodates the disabled community

or empowers them. A hotel could be

accommodating to me, by putting ramps

in, have staff push me all the time, and

have ‘accessible guest rooms’. All that is

accommodating. Empowering however is

letting me live my own life independently.

If the ramp is too steep for me to go up

without help, if I am pushed without

asking, or if the top shelf of my dresser is

too high for me to reach alone, this is not

empowering. Hotels often help disabled

people, but struggle to let them help

themselves if they wish to.

The key is communication. Ask me if

I need assistance before assisting, as you

would with any other guest. Another crucial

consideration is if I could use the facilities

by myself without relying on someone to

help me.

I can only speak on my own level of

disability, some people require more help

and some less. For me personally, the

assumption should be that I can manage

unless I say otherwise.

Want to enter the debate? We want your view. Drop me an email: [email protected]

About the author:

With more than two decades of

life experience in a wheelchair and

previously working as a mentor teaching

wheelchair skills, Joshua Corder knows

more than most on what it takes to

be a disability friendly place. He has

travelled extensively and has seen the

dos and don’ts of the hospitality industry

first hand.

COMMENT

Accessibility in hotels - we need to talk

Dubai is currently in and facing a number of important years

in its goal to be disability friendly

By Joshua Corder

Contributor, Hotelier Middle East

I can only

speak on my

own level of

disability,

some people

require more

help and

some less.”