IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i5p2840-d511557.html

Travelling with a Guide Dog: Experiences of People with Vision Impairment

Author

Listed:
  • Jillian M. Rickly

    (Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG8 1BB, UK)

  • Nigel Halpern

    (Department of Marketing, Kristiania University College, 0107 Oslo, Norway)

  • Marcus Hansen

    (North Wales Business School, Wrexham Glyndwr University, Wrexham LL11 2AW, UK)

  • John Welsman

    (Guide Dogs, Reading RG7 3YG, UK)

Abstract

There is considerable research on people with vision impairment (PwVI) in the transport, travel and tourism sectors, which highlights the significance of real-time information and consistency in services to accessibility. Based on interviews with guide dog owners in the United Kingdom, this paper contributes an additional dimension to our understanding of transport accessibility for PwVI by focusing specifically on guide dog owners’ experiences in the travel and tourism sector. A guide dog is more than a mobility tool, but a human–dog partnership that improves the quality of life for PwVI; however, it also introduces constraints related to the dog’s welfare and safety. Further, lack of understanding of guide dog owners’ rights to reasonable accommodation leads to discrimination through service refusals and challenges to service access. This paper concludes that the limited and inconsistent public knowledge of disability diversity has serious ramifications for transport accessibility and suggests specific industry and legislative interventions in response.

Suggested Citation

  • Jillian M. Rickly & Nigel Halpern & Marcus Hansen & John Welsman, 2021. "Travelling with a Guide Dog: Experiences of People with Vision Impairment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-13, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:5:p:2840-:d:511557
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2840/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2840/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deka, Devajyoti, 2014. "The role of household members in transporting adults with disabilities in the United States," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 45-57.
    2. Marston, James R. & Golledge, Reginald G. & Costanzo, C. Michael, 1997. "Investigating travel behavior of nondriving blind and vision impaired people: The role of public transit," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt9gb6d4b4, University of California Transportation Center.
    3. Lucas, Karen, 2012. "Transport and social exclusion: Where are we now?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 105-113.
    4. Ross, Timothy & Bilas, Patrick & Buliung, Ronald & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2020. "A scoping review of accessible student transport services for children with disabilities," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 57-67.
    5. Aarhaug, Jørgen & Elvebakk, Beate, 2015. "The impact of Universally accessible public transport–a before and after study," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 143-150.
    6. Church, A. & Frost, M. & Sullivan, K., 2000. "Transport and social exclusion in London," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 195-205, July.
    7. Golledge, Reginald G. & Marston, James R. & Costanzo, C. Michael, 1997. "Attitudes of Visually Impaired Persons Toward the Use of Public Transportation," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt34x1z4m8, University of California Transportation Center.
    8. Golledge, Reginald G. & Marston, James R., 1999. "Towards an Accessible City: Removing Functional Barriers to Independent Travel for Blind and Vision-Impaired Residents and Visitors," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt79n6s0p0, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    9. Small, Jennie & Darcy, Simon & Packer, Tanya, 2012. "The embodied tourist experiences of people with vision impairment: Management implications beyond the visual gaze," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 941-950.
    10. Mengqiu Cao & Robin Hickman, 2019. "Urban transport and social inequities in neighbourhoods near underground stations in Greater London," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(5), pages 419-441, July.
    11. Rickly, Jillian M., 2018. "Considering service animals in tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 57-58.
    12. Martens, Karel, 2018. "Ageing, impairments and travel: Priority setting for an inclusive transport system," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 122-130.
    13. Peña Cepeda, Elizabeth & Galilea, Patricia & Raveau, Sebastián, 2018. "How much do we value improvements on the accessibility to public transport for people with reduced mobility or disability?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 445-452.
    14. Yung-Hsiang Cheng, 2010. "Exploring passenger anxiety associated with train travel," Transportation, Springer, vol. 37(6), pages 875-896, November.
    15. Low, Wai-Ying & Cao, Mengqiu & De Vos, Jonas & Hickman, Robin, 2020. "The journey experience of visually impaired people on public transport in London," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 137-148.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qiao, Guanghui & Song, Hanqi & Prideaux, Bruce & Huang, Songshan (Sam), 2023. "The “unseen” tourism: Travel experience of people with visual impairment," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    2. Wen, Jun, 2023. "Animal-assisted interventions and vulnerable tourists," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Low, Wai-Ying & Cao, Mengqiu & De Vos, Jonas & Hickman, Robin, 2020. "The journey experience of visually impaired people on public transport in London," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 137-148.
    2. Cabello, Nicolás & Galilea, Patricia & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2025. "Valuing improvements to bus universal accessibility for visually impaired users: A case study in Santiago, Chile," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Busco, Carolina & González, Felipe & Walters, Jeffrey P. & Rozas, Katherine, 2025. "A system analysis of gender-based perceptions of transportation security in the Valparaiso region of Chile," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    4. Duvarci, Yavuz & Yigitcanlar, Tan & Mizokami, Shoshi, 2015. "Transportation disadvantage impedance indexing: A methodological approach to reduce policy shortcomings," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 61-75.
    5. Walter Alando & Joachim Scheiner, 2016. "Framing Social Inclusion as a Benchmark for Cycling-Inclusive Transport Policy in Kisumu, Kenya," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(3), pages 46-60.
    6. Bantis, Thanos & Haworth, James, 2020. "Assessing transport related social exclusion using a capabilities approach to accessibility framework: A dynamic Bayesian network approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Paweł Pistelok & Daniel Štraub, 2021. "Evaluation of the Road Policy in the Light of Vision Zero in Jaworzno, Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-20, August.
    8. Ning, Yihong & Deng, Songyuan & Chen, Yuche, 2025. "Navigating barriers: examining social equality through transportation disadvantages and perceived healthcare accessibility in South Carolina," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    9. Alberts, Anna & Pfeffer, Karin & Baud, Isa, 2016. "Rebuilding women's livelihoods strategies at the city fringe: Agency, spatial practices, and access to transportation from Semmencherry, Chennai," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 142-151.
    10. Walks, Alan, 2018. "Driving the poor into debt? Automobile loans, transport disadvantage, and automobile dependence," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 137-149.
    11. Karen Lucas, 2012. "A critical assessment of accessibility planning for social inclusion," Chapters, in: Karst T. Geurs & Kevin J. Krizek & Aura Reggiani (ed.), Accessibility Analysis and Transport Planning, chapter 13, pages 228-242, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Sebastian Seriani & Vicente Aprigliano Fernandes & Paola Moraga & Fabian Cortes, 2022. "Experimental Location of the Vertical Handrail to Improve the Accessibility of Wheelchair Passengers Boarding and Alighting at Metro Stations—A Pilot Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-22, July.
    13. Hallgrimsdottir, Berglind & Wennberg, Hanna & Svensson, Helena & Ståhl, Agneta, 2016. "Implementation of accessibility policy in municipal transport planning – Progression and regression in Sweden between 2004 and 2014," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 196-205.
    14. Benevenuto, Rodolfo & Caulfield, Brian, 2020. "Measuring access to urban centres in rural Northeast Brazil: A spatial accessibility poverty index," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    15. Golledge, Reginald G. & Marston, James R., 1999. "Towards an Accessible City: Removing Functional Barriers to Independent Travel for Blind and Vision-Impaired Residents and Visitors," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt79n6s0p0, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    16. Hisham E. Bilal Salih & Kazunori Takeda & Hideyuki Kobayashi & Toshibumi Kakizawa & Masayuki Kawamoto & Keiichi Zempo, 2022. "Use of Auditory Cues and Other Strategies as Sources of Spatial Information for People with Visual Impairment When Navigating Unfamiliar Environments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-16, March.
    17. Giovanni Vecchio & Bryan Castillo & Rodrigo Villegas & Carolina Rojas Quezada & Stefan Steiniger & Juan Antonio Carrasco, 2023. "Elderly Walking Access to Street Markets in Chile: An Asset for Food Security in an Unequal Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Benevenuto, Rodolfo & Caulfield, Brian, 2020. "Examining transport needs in the global south using a screening framework," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    19. Plyushteva, Anna, 2023. "Affording mobility: Attending to the socio-material affordances of transport un/affordability," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    20. Zhao, Pengjun & Yu, Zhao, 2021. "Rural poverty and mobility in China: A national-level survey," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:5:p:2840-:d:511557. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.