“Respect is Checked in!”: Understanding the Atitudinal and Programmatic Dimension in Hotels from the Vision of Hotel Managers and Consumers With Disabilities

Abstract

Over the years people with disabilities were relegated to the lower strata of society. In many cultures, to have a disability was synonymous for being sick, being unproductive and invalid. These individuals conquered previously unimagined rights, for example, the right for accessibility in any consumer environment. So with a qualitative approach to descriptive research and through discourse analysis of twenty-three semi-structured interviews, this study identified what accessibility of shares hoteliers means, especially regarding the attitudinal and programmatic dimension. We also verified the implementation of the rights under the perspective of hoteliers and consumers with disabilities. Therefore, we observed that managers interviewed always point out the access dimensions as structural issues of the hotels. Consumers with disabilities, in most speeches, bind accessibility primarily for the right to come and go. Therefore, the results showed that this research is relevant, given that people with physical disabilities are consumers and have the right of access in all environments, including tourism services.