Accessibility in Tourism Marketing Communications (5 ECTS)

Learning outcomes

The purpose of this course is to deepen your understanding in accessible tourism and marketing communications. You will learn how to assess and improve the accessibility of tourism company's marketing communications, with the main focus being on the accessibility of company's website content and services. After this course you will understand how to design and improve the digital marketing communications for tourism business according to accessibility principles, taking into account the needs of different customer target groups. After this course you know how to consider the customer needs and accessibility principles in digital marketing. You know what digital accessibility is and can identify accessibility issues in digital sales channels. You know how to analyze the accessibility of digital content and marketing communication channels.

Content

- Accessible marketing communications - Accessibility and customer needs - Website accessibility - Accessible files - Accessibility in digital marketing and sales channels

Prerequisites

Understanding the basics of marketing communications Understanding the special features of accessible tourism

Teaching methods

This course is an online course, and requires participation in webinars and guiding session, independent studying and completion of assignments. To participate in webinars, you need a working camera, headphones and a microphone.

Location and time

When the course starts, Moodle e-learning workspace will open and you can find the timetable of webinars and all the materials. There are two webinars and personal guiding session in Zoom during this course, and in between the webinars you will study independently according to the instructions given by the teacher.

Learning materials and recommended literature

Regional State Administrative Agency. Digital services are for everyone. www.webaccessibility.fi Accessibility.com 2023. Digital Accessibility. www.accessibility.com/digital-accessibility13th Dean Issacharoff 2020. Elementor Team Writes: How to Design for Web Accessibility — Key Principles & Tips. https://elementor.com/blog/web-accessibility-design-guide European Comission. Web Accessibility. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/web-accessibility Visit Finland 2021. Guide to inclusive tourism. https://www.visitfinland.fi/4af121/globalassets/julkaisut/visit-finland/tutkimukset/2021/guide_to_inclusive_travel_2021.pdf. Microsoft 2024. Create accessible office documents. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-accessible-office-documents-868ecfcd-4f00-4224-b881-a65537a7c155 Alexa Heinrich 2024. Accessible Social - a beginner’s guide to creating inclusive social media content. Alexa Heinrich.

Internship and working life connections

You can improve the accessibility of a tourism company's website directly while completing the course assignments. If you do not have access to the company's website, you will use the assignments to produce a development report for the tourism company of your choice.

Exam dates and retake possibilities

There is not an exam on this course.

International connections

International aspect is accommodated to this implementation using also international examples and material of accessible tourism.

Student workload

Orientation into the course (5 hours): Familiarizing yourself with learning objectives, contents, assignments; organizing your time and the own goals for learning. Webinars (4,5 hours): You will attend to the webinars of this course Guidance (0,5 hours): You will attend to the online tutoring session. You will study independently and work with the course assignments (125 hours).

Content scheduling

In the beginning of the course, you will orientate to the course and familiarize yourself with accessible marketing communications and how to take customer needs into account. In the middle of the course, you will focus on website accessibility and towards the end, you will learn more about accessibility in documents, social media and videos. The assignments of this course will progress with the topics.

Evaluation scale

0-5