The Melbourne and Olympic Parks (M&OP) have released their Diversity and Inclusion Plan, 2014-2017. The parks – with a number of ovals, courts, and arenas – cover 40 hectares and host an extensive range of events such as the Australian Open tennis Grand Slam, other major sporting events, and cultural events (for example, concerts by Andrea Botcelli, The Rolling Stones, and Miley Cyrus). The Plan is based on six key customer focused objectives. These are that people of all abilities:
1). Can navigate around M&OP
2). Have easy access to all information about M&OP
3). Can enjoy events and functions with their family and friends
4). Have access to the full range of seating options
5). Will be treated as equal and valuable guests in all dealings with M&OP, and finally, that
6). M&OP will leverage its accessible conference facilities to actively promote its expertise in conferences for all abilities.
The plan goes on to detail what strategies will be used to achieve these objectives. These include the creation of enhanced accessible wayfinding and navigational information on site and online, working with transport providers to enhance accessible public transport to venues, and improving accessible seating and enhance the booking procedure to include total information about accessible seating.
M&OP are to consider a new conference facility strategy to market their facilities to the global disability conference market. We say that if they do in fact carry out their access enhancement programme, marketing by M&OP should extend beyond this market as all conferences – no matter the subject – are attended by a certain percentage of people who have disabilities who would appreciate fully accessible facilities.
Source: Access Tourism NZ
