Attention brought by 2010 Paralympics could provide boost to B.C. tourism

VANCOUVER, B.C. - For eight years, Huey Tollett anonymously toiled away on an online guide for the disabled visiting the resort town of Whistler, B.C.

He started small, and over time, saw a few hits a month become hundreds. Then last fall, out of nowhere, thousands of hits started pouring in. Puzzled, he traced them back to a surprising source - the website for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Organizers had linked to his website under the heading of accessibility tourism options for the Games.

"I was honoured," he said.

More so, he was vindicated.

Tollett, a former military pilot, started the website when he was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, a disease that left him deaf and took away his sense of balance, after more than a dozen tumours grew in his body.

He found that convincing businesses to be more accessible took two things he didn't have - power and money.

Then the Games came to town.

"Any attention, at least in Whistler, is all because of the Olympics and Paralympics," Tollett said.

With thousands of spectators and athletes and historical levels of media attention, expanding accessibility in both Vancouver and Whistler is now seen as crucial.

It's not just about providing a high standard of service during the two Games, but also capitalizing on one of the fastest-growing markets in tourism - people with disabilities.

The disabled are estimated to spend more than $13 billion each year on travel in North America.

Leveraging the opportunities provided by the exposure of the Games is a key driver behind the millions now being poured into creating better accessibility for the disabled in the province.

It's a switch in perspective that has startled long-time advocate for the disabled Carla Qualtrough, president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee.

"We've always seen it as more of a rights-based issue," she said. "But when you talk about it as a matter of it being good for business, businesses listen differently."

The tourism industry in B.C. is now running a program assessing businesses for accessibility which gives them a set of symbols to indicate what services are available.

Qualtrough said businesses are often surprised to learn how cut off their stores are and move quickly to make changes.

But providing services to people with disabilities, both athletes during the Games and tourists, goes beyond wheelchair ramps, said Dave Clark, manager of visitor services for Tourism Whistler.

"Physically there are restaurants that are three flights up. Are we ever going to make that accessible with a ramp? Probably not," he said.

"But it doesn't mean somebody who is visually impaired can't go there and enjoy it and read a braille menu."

Olympic organizers are also picking up on that level of detail, said Qualtrough, who is legally blind.

At the recent alpine test events, she was able to follow a runner along the ground to guide her to the stands, rather than be left to find her own way on the snow.

"It's sometimes difficult to accommodate every disability, which doesn't mean you shouldn't try," she said.

"But the biggest thing you can do, and the biggest thing I am hoping (organizers) will continue to do is not to put everybody in the same cookie-cutter approach."

Ironically, during the Olympics it will likely be harder for the disabled to get around, despite all the emphasis placed on accommodating their needs, said Jane Dyson, the executive director of the B.C. Coalition for People with Disabilities.

Parking spots in the downtown will disappear and while public transit will increase, buses will be jam-packed with tourists.

In addition, routes that the visually-impaired have come to know by heart will change.

But Dyson said there's time and room for that to be improved.

"I think that Vancouver is a long way ahead of other places, even though we certainly have many gaps in what we have here," she said.

Across the province, 2010 LegaciesNow, a non-profit affiliate of the Games, is funding over $2 million worth of accessibility projects.

"We need to be thinking of it much broader and being more creative, never sitting back and saying we've got it right," said Bruce Dewar, the executive director of the society.