ETAG Business Briefing: Catering for customers with hearing loss & dementia
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Joining instructions and link will be sent via email once you register for the event – please check your junk mail too.
The third event in our Accessible & Inclusive Tourism Series, in partnership with VisitScotland, will explore ways that tourism businesses can become more accessible for customers with hearing loss and those living with dementia.
One in four international travellers or their companions travel with accessibility needs, the most prevalent of which are hearing/vision impairment and mental health. Over 40,000 younger people (under the age of 65) live with dementia and two thirds of people with dementia live in the community, a third live in care homes.
Focusing on supporting tourism businesses in Edinburgh to provide a warm welcome to all customers, this session will provide valuable insights and practical tips to help you feel more confident in providing a quality experience to customers with non-visible disabilities or impairments.
Contributions will be from Marina Di Duca, VisitScotland’s Inclusive Tourism Manager, Professor Carol Sargent and Tomas Gerrard from Deaf Action.
Speaker Biographies
Carol Sargent, Sargent Group Consulting
Carol’s family’s experience of dementia turned her life on its head. She left her scientific career and founded and led a specialist dementia holiday organisation for 8 years, leaving it in 2022, to establish Sargent Group Consulting to enable more choice in holidays for the dementia community.
Sargent Group Consulting provides dementia inclusive advice to inform travel businesses of their existing dementia inclusivity, and highlights simple cheap options to become more inclusive.
Tomas Gerrard, Deaf Action
Tomas is a deaf BSL user who works within policy and fundraising for Deaf Action, a charity organisation providing services for deaf people across Scotland. Deaf Action has a social aim of celebrating deaf culture, language and heritage. This has led to the annual Edinburgh Deaf Festival taking place as part of the famed Edinburgh August Festivals.
Tomas will talk through the importance of providing an accessible space for deaf BSL users and provide practical information on the things that can be done to improve accessibility by those in the Tourism Industry ranging from common sense tips to strategies that your organisation can invest in the long-term.
N.B. Joining instructions and link will be sent via email once you register for the event.
Image credit: VisitScotland / Kate Abbey