Tourism for Disabled Travelers: Breaking Down Barriers Through Network Interactions

The chapter starts from the basic idea that collaboration in digital platforms allows removing the barriers that make tourism inaccessible to the disabled. Indeed, through the use of platforms, it is possible to plan a complete tourism experience thanks to the synergies created by the network collaboration. Two main steps lead to the drafting of this chapter: the first concerns the literature review on the theme of tourism for the disabled and aims to highlight the scientific landscape in which the studies move and to understand their evolutionary trend; in particular, attention is paid on studies focused on collaboration through platforms and is aimed at verifying the state of the art in this specific field of study. The second step is a field check, aimed at identifying the main platforms dedicated to accessible tourism and understanding to what extent online platforms can support the removal of barriers for disabled tourists. The contribution is twofold: the theoretical point of view identifies the main trends and gaps in the existing literature; on the other hand, the practical vision provides a map of different digital platforms for accessible tourism and their peculiarities, making an overview of the environment and legislation affecting accessible tourism.