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This study aims to examine a topic of growing significance to hospitality and tourism scholars and practitioners – how emerging technologies can fulfill accessible hospitality and tourism services for people with disabilities.

A systematic review of the literature based on the Web of Science database and qualitative research were conducted. Specifically, bibliometric analysis and thematic analyzes of expert interviews were used. The obtained views from experts in the field further validated and enriched the obtained findings.

The primary topics of exploration in existing literature were identified, such as social networks and data-empowered services. The potential areas of further advances are also revealed such as the need for cross-country collaborations and potential gaps between scholarly and practitioner interest in the topic.

This research is limited by the scope of adopted search keywords and databases.

This study offers vital practical implications for the future integration of emerging technologies to fulfill accessible hospitality and tourism. It also demonstrates the pressing need for more interconnected global collaborations for this important initiative.

This study emphasizes how the hospitality and tourism industry could better leverage technological power to empower people with disabilities. It also points out the importance of an inclusive process for technology implementation for accessible hospitality and tourism services to fully represent the interests of disabled customers (including the consideration of their different backgrounds).

This study sheds light on the future research directions of technological empowerment of accessible hospitality/tourism. It also makes methodological contributions by demonstrating what bibliometric analysis has to offer to relevant fields of studies. The solicited views of experts in the field from different countries on the topic further add to the depth and value of the findings while demonstrating the combination of these two approaches as a promising mixed-methods route to produce richer and more robust findings.

This research study aims to evaluate the capacity and sustainability of an accessible society as a smart society and services with the help of MOOCs and assistive technologies within the learning analytics framework.

Qualitative research was employed in this research that interview forms were conducted to get data from 60 participants. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data.

Research results revealed that MOOCs and assertive technologies are crucial for smart society and opens a map for open pedagogy. Accessible media, services and applications in smart societies are key elements for disabled people lives.

Research is limited to numbers of research participants in northern part of Cyprus.

Establishing strategies and policies for the smart and accessible society and services are intensified need for the disabled people within the framework of learning analytics.

Assistive technologies become medium of facilitating accessible and smart society and services for everyone.

Education plays a great role to enrich services of societies in order to create inclusive efforts to the life of disabled people. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) underline the main theme of making inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. In this respect, accessibility, inclusiveness, equity, equality, quality for lifelong learning are main components to foster accessible and smart society for everyone. Integrating the importance of learning analytics creates a value for understanding of being smart society.

The purpose of this study is to address problems associated with the accessibility of academic library databases.

This study evaluates 32 databases and measures their accessibility to users of adaptive technology.

Based on the results of this study, 72 percent of the evaluated databases were rated as marginally accessible or inaccessible, reflecting a low level of compliance to federal web accessibility legislation and international web accessibility standards. To measure database accessibility to adaptive technology users, this study operationalized accessibility into ten component parts as the Tatomir Accessibility Checklist (TAC) and tested each database on each component.

Findings of this study can be used both by those who purchase and manage databases in libraries to identify the most accessible databases and by designers of the databases to improve specific features.

Federal legislation and increasing support for the full inclusion of all students in precollege education have resulted in higher expectations and increased participation of students with disabilities in academic programs that have prepared them for college studies. As a result, greater numbers of people with disabilities are attending postsecondary academic institutions and participating in distance learning offerings. This article focuses on the role that libraries can play in assuring that all distance learning students and instructors have access to the electronic resources they offer. It can be used to help libraries develop policies, guidelines, and procedures for making their electronic resources accessible to people with disabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the principles of universal design can be implemented by faculty and course designers to help give all learners access to equivalent information. It describes how information communication technologies can create barriers to information access, particularly when course content is rich in multimedia, but also how such technologies can be utilized to creates bridges to accessible content through designing for accessibility from the outset.

This paper offers a brief review of current international guidelines and US legislation related to information communication technologies in higher education. It documents the challenge of meeting these best practices and legal mandates, as evidenced by recent legal cases in the USA resulting from inaccessible course content in higher education. Finally, it describes how universal design can enhance accessibility for individuals with visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments and provides concrete suggestions for making content more accessible to all learners, not just those with disabilities.

Given the challenges of creating accessible content that provides equivalent information to all learners, faculty and course designers can implement the principles of Universal Design to enhance the learning environment for all students and ensure they are in compliance with guidelines and regulations. Such compliance is facilitated by emerging standards for accessible content and emerging technologies for making content accessible to all without the need for special accommodations.

This paper focusses on concrete approaches to achieving accessibility in higher education, a matter of increasing concern for moral reasons (it is the right thing to do) and for legal reasons given recent lawsuits.

The maker movement is showing signs of gaining popularity as it matures. As information institutions, libraries find themselves admirably positioned to serve as hosts for formal makerspaces that encourage turning ideas into reality. Though equipment for innovation is becoming more affordable and therefore more available for general use, many products do not include accessible design, which hinders the significant population of potential inventors who have disabilities. This chapter seeks to provide guidance to organizations that want to implement universally accessible makerspaces.

This chapter is the result of a semester-long project in which students at the University of Maryland worked with a local library seeking to build a new universally accessible makerspace. Article reviews, interviews, and solicitations for information from the field helped form the understanding and suggestions provided in this project.

Interaction with field experts led to specific suggestions for library staff on policy, equipment, and staffing.

Accessible makerspaces make it possible for anyone to exercise creative endeavors by providing equipment and materials that encourage innovation regardless of ability.

Literature about universally accessible library-owned makerspaces is very scarce. This chapter serves to bring together writing and practice in both universal accessibility and makerspaces to provide a starting point for other institutions considering implementing similar services.

Outlines barriers which face those with disabilities. Presents the US Federal Government’s view under the recent legislation and introduces the work of the Access Board. Examines Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and its probable impact on the public and private sector and also considers the exceptions the act allows. Provides a representative sample of comments from private industry organizations.

The author takes a comprehensive look at the accessibility of e-resources for all people, including those with disabilities, in the context of collection development (CD).

Employing a combination of research methodologies — policy analysis, content analysis, and phone survey—the author explores the extent to which the needs of people with disabilities are considered.

Several professional library organizations recommend accessibility-sensitive selection and procurement procedures. However, not all students enrolled in library school programs might learn about the issue. Few books on the subject cover the issue adequately. Nationwide, CD policies requiring conformance to accessibility standards are the exception; and when librarians meet to make decisions about the selection of specific e-resources, the needs of people with disabilities are rarely on their radar screens.

Researchers conducting similar surveys in the future might want to not only select a statistically more representative sample of academic libraries but also widen their focus and include both accessibility and usability in their investigations.

Textbook authors and course instructors in the area of CD need to address accessibility and usability. Librarians need to raise the issue with database and e-book vendors during license negotiations.

The acquisition of e-resources designed to be accessible and usable for all will enable people with disabilities to participate more fully in our information-driven society.

The data collected provide for a broad discussion of the extent to which the needs of people with disabilities are considered in connection with CD.

Students’ professional training often focuses on narrow technical considerations that exclude accessibility concerns and universal design perspectives. This can make them ill‐equipped to understand the importance of accessibility approaches let alone become advocates for them. This article explores how students who design Web sites and work with computer end users in support capacities can be introduced to accessibility approaches and empowered to promote them in organizational contexts. The issues involved can also be used as springboards for examination of larger matters concerning universal design perspectives and humanistic approaches to management.

In this chapter, the authors examine the challenges presented by supporting higher education students with disabilities in an online learning environment and put forth a discussion and recommendations for delivering literacy supports to geographically disparate students in fully online courses by embracing the social model of disability and universal design principals as opposed to the typical medical model of disability that it pervasive in educational systems. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, educational institutions are required to promote auxiliary aids and services. Broadly defined, these aids are meant to enhance communication, inclusion, and participation of people with disabilities. The discussion of the resources put forth in this chapter begins with an exploration of the evolving consensus on the nature of disability and the standard (medical) model for providing accommodations and supports for students with disabilities, which was developed before the rise of online and blended learning environments. Next, the authors explore the problems inherent in the use of the medical model and highlight how the social model and universal design for learning can be utilized to empower learners and enhance their learning experiences in online and blended learning environments. The discussion returns to the importance of inclusion, participation, and engagement for students with disabilities no matter the modality of learning. This chapter concludes with a comparison of two models of support and recommended changes for implementation of best practices to enhance literacy supports in online learning environments.