Accessibility for the visually impaired community in hospitality and tourism: A scoping review

People with visual impairment are faced with daily accessibility challenges, including accessing hospitality and tourism venues. This scoping review aims to assess existing literature in hospitality and tourism for people with visual impairment. Two databases, Scopus and Web of Science, were searched using keywords and Boolean operators. Covidence was used for screening and data extraction by two reviewers. A total of 23 articles were included from 2003 to 2024, with a majority (91%) of studies conducted in high-income countries. Many (69.7%) focussed solely on tourism, only one was conducted solely on hospitality, and the others were a combination. Some of the biggest concerns identified were physical inaccessibility barriers, negative societal attitudes, lack of training and awareness of staff, and inaccessible signage/information. In conclusion, there is existing literature on barriers and enablers of travel for people with visual impairment but limited research on hospitality and potential solutions.