As part of the TOURISTIC project – which is focused on finding new and innovative answers to all challenges by upskilling disabled people in Digital Skills applied to the design of innovative commercial services and products in Online Accessible Tourism, we are progressing with the development of O1, a European framework of reference on Digital Skills applied to the design of innovative commercial services and products in Online Accessible Tourism,

In identifying teachers needs are/ what students’ needs are, we have identified an Irish Universal Design for customer engagement in tourism services Standard

A standard for the application of Universal Design for customer engagement in tourism services (Irish Standard (I.S.) 373:2013) has been developed by the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD) in collaboration with the National standards Authority of Ireland. This standard outlines best practice guidance on achieving better customer communication and engagement in the area of accessible tourism services through the use of universal design.

Accompanying the standard are a set of comprehensive best practice guidance on applying the guidance provided in the standard – in particular how to use Universal Design as a tool for better engaging with accessible customers in tourism. The developed toolkits are available for free download in an accessible PDF format and comprise 4 different documents, each providing guidelines on a different area relevant for the application of universal design for tourism services/ businesses:

• A Business Case and Overview
• Written Communication
• Face-to-Face, Telephone & Video Communication
• Electronic & Web Based Communication

Each set of guidelines provides a clear and applicable set of suggestions and activities related to the use of universal design to ensure that all potential customers can easily access and make use of the information being provided.