Sasol, the international integrated chemicals and energy company, has partnered with Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) to deliver an “Accessibility Awareness and Audit” training to a team of inspectors from the Tourism Licensing department.
The two-day workshop, held as part of the “Accessible Qatar” initiative, involved theoretical sessions at the QTA headquarters, and inspection practice at the Mondrian Doha Hotel. It also aims to continuously promote awareness about accessibility.
Jennifer Stirling and Issam Azzouri, Sasol’s accessibility consultants, led the workshop and shed light on the models of disability, various access barriers, and how to identify them in tourism venues.
Attendees reviewed the accessibility standards included in the Hotel Grading and Classification System released by QTA. They also discussed how Accessible Qatar auditing techniques can be used to uphold these standards across the hospitality sector, and in exhibition and tourism events venues around the country.
“We are grateful to Accessible Qatar for helping us empower our inspectors with the skills necessary to identify accessible venues,” QTA’s Tourism Licensing director Mohamed al-Ansari said in a statement.
Early last year, QTA introduced a new hotel grading and classification system, which directly links the number of stars a hotel has with how accessible it is.
Al-Ansari noted that QTA also has a regulatory mandate to ensure that the development of the tourism sector is inclusive of the disabled community’s needs.
“This training allows us to work more closely with hotel establishments to ensure they are meeting the accessibility requirements to maintain their classification, and to uphold the high standards of hospitality Qatar is renowned for,” he added.
In the coming weeks, al-Ansari said QTA will train hotel staff across Qatar on meeting the needs of guests with physical and mental disabilities, in collaboration with the Qatar Society for Rehabilitation of Special Needs.
The Accessibility Auditing workshop is among a series of planned training events to be provided to other sectors in the country.
This week, Sasol is also conducting a training for the Accessibility Forum members of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.
Accessible Qatar is a smartphone application and website, the first of its kind in the region to provide the disabled community with instant and reliable information about the accessibility of public venues and tourist landmarks in Qatar.
Combining expertly-audited data with user-submitted reviews and ratings, Accessible Qatar gives the disabled community and tourists the confidence to visit different accessible destinations.
The initiative aims to encourage venues to become more accessible by making information about their level of accessibility available to the public online.
Currently, more than 100 locations around Qatar in the hospitality, tourism and retail sectors have been audited by Accessible Qatar.
By sharing auditing techniques with public sector partners, Sasol aims to increase the number of audited venues covered by the Accessible Qatar app, which allows people with disabilities to identify the venues that meet their needs.
The Accessible Qatar app is available in both English and Arabic, and can be downloaded free of charge on App Store, Google Play store, Windows Phone Store and on the website (www.AccessibleQatar.com).
A team of inspectors from QTA’s Tourism Licensing department took part in a two-day workshop recently.
