Continuing my exploration of the digital world in the context of Tourism, I wanted to discuss the aspect of Accessibility in the tourism space. As I have previously highlighted, the tourism world increasingly expects prospective visitors to put in the proverbial legwork when making travel plans. Everything from research, to booking, to communication is left up to the customer rather than the historical norm of assistance services like travel agents. This then creates a distinct problem upon removing these middle men that were once so necessary.

In the past when travel agents and similar services were still the norm, companies that operated in the tourism space were generally working with trained professionals who could be expected to understand the processes and steps that go in to booking a trip. With this practice falling by the wayside however these companies have increasingly found themselves needing to develop websites and resources that can be used by those who may barely understand the concept of an email.

Landing Page for the BC Ferries website, featuring numerous navigational aids, and directing users toward booking a trip

There are some fairly simple strategies that can go in to developing a website that ensures ease of use for most users however. While writing on the topic of PDF and general document accessibility, Adobe makes a number of recommendations that are broadly applicable to the web space. This includes fairly straightforward things like choosing typefaces and font sizes which are easily readable. As well as navigational aids that make it easy for inexperienced users to find the pages they are looking for

The same landing page at a higher level of zoom, as might be used by an older customer. Notice how some navigational aids have been removed or rearranged in order to still provide a clear direction toward the most common destinations such as booking or schedules

However there are some less obvious points that should be considered as well. Adobe takes care to highlight the need for a clear reading order. While this may seem simple enough, ensuring proper spacing of graphical elements and text, as well as different sections of text can be difficult to account for, especially when considering that different users may have greater or lesser zoom, or may be browsing on a mobile device. This can be daunting, especially for the small often family owned businesses that form the backbone of the tourism industry in Canada. Fortunately there are services like WebAIM which offer training and advising in web design which can be helpful. However the necessity of these services in this field only highlights the shifting realities of the tourism world.

Works Cited:
WebAIM: https://webaim.org/
Adobe: https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2022/11/29/the-complete-checklist-to-pdf-accessibility