Why does tourism need to engage with critical disability studies?

To cite this work: Hansen, M. (2025). Why does tourism need to engage with critical disability studies? Disability Dialogues. Sheffield: iHuman, University of Sheffield. 

Dr Marcus Hansen is Senior Lecturer in Tourism & Events Management at Liverpool John Moores University and Director of The Liverpool Centre for Olympic Research on Inclusion

Accessible tourism involves developing tourism experiences that ensure equitable access regardless of physical or cognitive abilities. A critical part of our understanding of accessible tourism are its three important values identified by Darcy and Dickson (2009): independence, equity, and dignity. Tourism services or experiences that fail to provide equitable treatment for individuals, regardless of their access requirements, or that do not facilitate equal levels of satisfaction while preserving personal dignity and independence, represent a fundamental departure from the core principles of accessible tourism (Halpern et al., 2025). 

Accessible tourism relates to all aspects of tourism services/experiences, throughout all stages of the consumer journey with the understanding that one constraint to access can result in a negative experience or no experience at all (Connell & Page, 2019). From the moment the consumer is thinking of travelling somewhere, to travelling to/from/within a destination, the services delivered and the experiences created need to be accessible. Like a domino effect, one inaccessible part makes the entire consumer journey inaccessible (Garrod & Fennell, 2023). Information provision, physical infrastructure and attitude/awareness are critical elements of accessible tourism. Yet, barriers to access remain for people with access requirements, discouraging and even excluding them from engaging in tourism-related activities.  

As an academic field, accessible tourism has seen a considerable growth over the past two decades. However, I would argue that accessible tourism scholarship is currently at a crossroads, having become stagnant. It has become one in which the same messages and ideas keep being regurgitated. It is heavily based on the social model of disability, along with the notion that disability training and awareness need to be improved. Yet, if our understanding of disability is constantly changing and evolving (Goodley et al., 2019), should our approaches not also? Indeed, Goodley (2013) questions the applicability and relevance of dominant theories of disability developed during and prior to the 1990s to late capitalist or postmodernist times. This is further emphasised by the fact the accessible tourism literature has completely disregarded other models of disability. 

There is a need to acknowledge that whilst accessible tourism scholarship has produced work of contemporary relevance and importance throughout the preceding two decades, for the field to become truly interdisciplinary and critical, now is the time for new ideas and new collaborations beyond tourism. We need to be ready and willing to embrace new ideas and thoughts that are most likely external to the field of tourism. The purpose of critical disability studies is indeed to acknowledge the past and its role in getting us to this stage; but also to acknowledge the need to look ahead toward new ideas and affiliations (Goodley et al., 2019). Essentially, to be critical. There have been some glimpses of new ideas recently within accessible tourism, such as the introduction of the capabilities approach (Kim & Akwasi-Ampong, 2024), co-design (Dickson et al., 2024) and occupational therapy (Hansen et al., 2021). Yet, the notion that accessible tourism must be informed by the social model of disability seems anything but critical. Elsewhere, it has been argued that any study on disability should be informed by critical disability studies (Jóhannsdóttir et al., 2021). For accessible tourism to be a contemporary field fit for purpose, one that produces theories and solutions that in reality are fit for purpose, we must fully embrace critical disability studies. Accessible tourism is ready for this next stage.

Yet, critical disability studies has received limited attention within the context of accessible tourism, whilst critical disability studies has paid little- to-no attention to accessible tourism. Perhaps somewhat concerningly, Mura and Wijesinghe’s (2023) systematic review of critical theories of tourism contained no mention of critical disability studies. Thus, despite the burgeoning state of the accessible tourism field, limited attention has been paid to what would appear to be an essential concept. This neglect on the part of accessible tourism scholars has significant implications from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. 

Critical Theory represents a theoretical framework that critically interrogates the underlying power structures and systemic inequalities inherent in society, with the ultimate objective of facilitating human emancipation (Mura and Wijesinghe, 2023). While the roots of critical disability studies are in disability studies, the former represents an evolution from the responses to disablement embodied in the latter, including those responses associated the social model of disability (Goodley, 2013; Flynn, 2020). Instead, the “critical” element stems from the interdisciplinary nature of critical disability studies, which is essentially constructed and informed by an array of perspectives internal and external to the disability experience (Goodley et al., 2019). Waldschmidt (2017) argued that a requisite of critical disability studies is indeed its interaction with other critical disciplines that at first sight perhaps have little to do with disability, such as critical feminist, queer, and crip theories. These critical approaches (e.g. gender or postcolonial) to both tourism knowledge production and tourism as lived experience are well-established within the tourism literature (Hollinshead, 1999; Mura and Wijesinghe, 2023). What these fields of study all have in common, of course, is a focus on the power-relations in society that negatively impact the most marginalised members of society. Although alarmingly, critical disability studies remains absent from the conversation within accessible tourism.

Embracing critical disability studies would therefore benefit accessible tourism, with theoretical and practical implications. Although the field has seen considerable growth over the past decade, it has become repetitive, with the same messages and ideas being regurgitated. It is heavily reliant on the social model of disability, emphasising the need for improved disability training and awareness.  However, my contention is that if our understanding of disability is constantly evolving (Goodley et al., 2019), should our approaches not evolve as well?  One wonders how relevant dominant disability theories developed during and before the 1990s remain in our late capitalist or postmodernist times in light of our constantly evolving understanding of disability. This issue is further exacerbated by the fact that the accessible tourism literature has largely ignored other models of disability, such as the affirmation, minority, cultural, non-tragedy, and right models of disability. Instead, focus within accessible tourism remain binary with all attention on medical vs social model of disability. In other fields, this approach is considered outdated and limited. The field of accessible tourism appears to be theoretically lacking in comparison to other fields, being still reliant on and influenced by the social model of disability.

From a practical perspective, people with access requirements are likely to be the main beneficiaries of engaging with critical disability studies. This would challenge accessible tourism to move beyond binary approaches, instead focussing on lived experience and the voices of disabled people. Critical disability studies emphasise disabled people's agency and expertise about their own experiences, by encouraging the inclusion of lived experience, which could transform how accessible tourism research is conducted and how services are designed and delivered. Cross-disciplinary engagement with critical disability studies and accessibility experts—professionals ideally placed to create genuinely accessible tourism experiences and deliver specialised training programs—would ensure the progressive development of accessible tourism approaches through evidence-informed practice.

References

Connell, J., & Page, S. J. (2019). Case study: Destination readiness for dementia-friendly visitor experiences: A scoping study. Tourism Management, 70, 29-41.

Darcy, S., & Dickson, T. J. (2009). A whole-of-life approach to tourism: The case for accessible tourism experiences. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 16(1), 32-44.

Dickson, T. J., Darcy, S., & Schweinsberg, S. (2024). Co-designing accessible tourism with the disability community for embodied choice. Tourism Geographies, 1-22.

Flynn, S. (2020). Theorizing disability in child protection: Applying critical disability studies to the elevated risk of abuse for disabled children. Disability & Society, 35(6), 949–971.

Garrod, B., & Fennell, D. A. (2023). Strategic approaches to accessible ecotourism: Small steps, the domino effect and not paving paradise. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 31(3), 760-777.

Goodley, D., Lawthom, R., Liddiard, K., & Runswick-Cole, K. (2019). Provocations for critical disability studies. Disability & Society, 34(6), 972–997.

Goodley, D. (2017). Dis/entangling critical disability studies. Culture–theory–disability, 81.

Jóhannsdóttir, Á., Egilson, S. T., & Gibson, B. E. (2021). What’s shame got to do with it? The importance of affect in critical disability studies. Disability & Society, 36(3), 342–357.

Halpern, N., Rickly, J., Garrod, B. & Hansen, M. (2025 - forthcoming). Handbook of Accessible Tourism. De Gruyter.

Hansen, M., Fyall, A., Macpherson, R., & Horley, J. (2021). The role of occupational therapy in accessible tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 90, 103145.

Hollinshead, K. (1999). Surveillance of the worlds of tourism: Foucault and the eye-of-power. Tourism Management, 20(1), 7-23.

Kim, S., & Adu-Ampong, E. A. (2025). Disabilities, functionings and capabilities: the capability approach in accessible tourism. Current Issues in Tourism, 28(2), 272-286.

Mura, P., & Wijesinghe, S. N. (2023). Critical theories in tourism: A systematic literature review. Tourism Geographies, 25(2–3), 487–507.

Waldschmidt, A. (2017). Disability goes cultural. Culture—Theory—Disability; Waldschmidt, A., Berressem, H., Ingwersen, MF, Eds, 19–28.