The learning training guide focused on touristic industry basics, international sign language, and use of our game-tool will be online soon.
The main objective of the “TOUR FR(I)END – Friendly Redesign of Inclusive Experiences N’ Destinations for Deaf people” project is to make tourism more accessible and adapted to deaf and hard of hearing people, to provide them a nice and joyful experience. The project aims at achieving this goal by creating different guides for young trainers, coaches, career advisors, and students. This article in particular focuses on the guide for trainers.
It introduces learners to thirteen diverse lessons plans that go from discovering ways of making tourism accessible to learning how to spell proper names or learning basic vocabulary in International Sign Language (and use it in different situations through practices, guidelines, and pre-designed workshops).
Here is the list of the thirteen lessons:
- Lesson 1: ways of making tourism accessible
- Lesson 2: workshop (amateurs)
- Lesson 3: workshop (professionals)
- Lesson 4: workshop (Why not you in a tourism career ?)
- Lesson 5: tell me your name
- Lesson 6: let’s get to know each other
- Lesson 7: be my tourfriend
- Lesson 8: happy and safe stay
- Lesson 9: happy traveller
- Lesson 10: book your hotel
- Lesson 11: ordering at a restaurant
- Lesson 12: let’s go sightseeing
- Lesson 13: other main dialogues
All the lessons follow the same structure and share a common template, that way it is easier for the learners to understand and follow them. Each lesson plan has a title ; a list of objectives ; the scope of the course and what topics will be discussed ; a suggested number of participants ; an explanation of how the participants will be selected ; a description of the activities and the specific materials needed to implement each activity ; and evaluation sheets.
Something remarkable about this learning guide is its innovative conception: it directly addresses youth trainers to enhance their skills in terms of accessible tourism of deaf people ; it makes youth trainers mentors and ambassadors of inclusive tourism ; it involves approaches and tools specifically addressing learning international signs in relevance to tourism ; and it directly applies to the development of skills of young people who want to work in the field of tourism and make it accessible.
Overall, this learning training guide, along with the other ones, offers a great opportunity for those youngsters who want to work in the field of tourism or simply learn about inclusion and accessibility.
According to a study requested by the European Parliament’s TRAN Committee in 2018, tourism is a major industry within the EU that has the capacity to offer great social and economic benefits to its countries. However, only 9% of touristic services in the EU provide accessible offers to the visitors (European Parliament, 2018).
This percentage is the reason TOUR FR(I)END was created: in a world where tourism is growing and becomes more accessible for everyone, we need to make sure that it understands and it adapts itself to the needs of the visitors, by developing a common promotion on accessible tourism so we can improve the experience of those who need it.
Soon you will be able to browse this learning training guide and download it on our website: THE OUTPUTS – TOUR FR(i)END
There, you will also have the possibility to discover all the TOURFR(I)END material!
Sources:
European Parliament. (2018, May). Research for TRAN Committee – Transport and tourism for persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility. Https://Www.Europarl.Europa.Eu/RegData/Etudes/STUD/2018/617465/IPOL_STU(2018)617465_EN.Pdf. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/617465/IPOL_STU(2018)617465_EN.pdf
Visit the Website: http://tourfriend.eu/ 
Follow the project on Facebook @tourfriendeu
#TourFriend #erasmusplusproject
In collaboration with: LES APPRIMEURS, Challedu- inclusion | games | education, Citizens In Power (CIP), Enjoy Italy di Alessandro Gariano