Disabled community in Indonesia is still being marginalized. They have yet to be able to utilize public facilities that are provided by the government because most of those facilities are not disabled friendly, including those in the tourism area.
“All this while, the right of disabled people to do sightseeing particularly in Yogyakarta seems to be marginalized. Moreover, tourism managers and the regional government do not have exact data on the number of disabled visitors, facilities for disabled people, and the management is not friendly towards disabled people,” said Febri Handoyo, a student of UGM Vocational School on Wednesday (14/6) at UGM campus.
Febri with Aufi (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences), Anggit (Faculty of Psychology), and Shola (faculty of Psychology) who have concerns on those issues conducted a survey of the facilities and educational tourism management for disabled people in Yogyakarta. The result is expected to be an evaluation reference for tourism management and the regional government.
Febri said the government has provided the disabled friendly facilities but not all tourism spots have facilities which can help the disabled people during sightseeing.
“Several tourism spots already have disabled friendly facilities, but they have yet to qualify the standard set by the government,” he added.
Febri hopes his team’s research can be used as a reference and an evaluation both for the government and the educational tourism management. Therefore, inclusive tourism which provides comfort for all visitors, including disabled people, can be realized in the future.
“We hope the disabled people will no longer be marginalized, particularly when they travel in the educational tourism spots,” said Febri.