Include the commercial recreation and hospitality industries in planning. Public and private agencies in the cities of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, have recently published tour guides featuring information on accessibility at hotels, restaurants, museums,coliseums, and other facilities. The directory provides information on the accessibility of programs and facilities at commercial outdoor recreation operations such as ski resorts, trout ponds, whitewater outfitters, and scuba schools. Information should not be limited to public parks and recreation facilities. Businesses benefit through expanded markets when they remove barriers.
Major problems can occur when information provided in such guides is incorrect.
It is important that the information collected be accurate and current, and that terms used in your publication be clearly defined. This is another instance in which an access consultant can be a real asset. Therefore, it is important to make clear to the reader the limits of your guide, and encourage its use in a more general,not a literal fashion. Although design often calls for unique solutions to specific demands, the adoption of key strategies improves the process. In the late 1970's and early eighties, the federal government and several states produced a number of guideline publications on creating accessible park and recreation facilities and, to a lesser extent, programs.