The challenge.
Ensuring that all passengers feel welcomed, respected and safe during their journey through a cruise terminal, regardless of their ability or disability, is both a moral and a legal responsibility.
It has two core elements; one, ensuring that the terminal itself has the physical infrastructure in place and; two, ensuring that the staff in the terminal understand the needs of passengers with disabilities and how best to support them.
Associated British Ports turned to us, as custom training development experts, to develop and deliver a training experience that could ignite the right conversations and enable cruise terminal and port staff to proactively ensure inclusivity and safety for all users.
The solution.
We began by acknowledging our own limitations when it came to understanding the different challenges that people with disabilities face on a daily basis.
To counter this, we partnered with the Jubilee Sailing Trust and NeurodiversAtSea in order to identify people with a variety of disabilities who would be willing to share their experiences. This approach enabled us to engage more deeply with the interviewees and gain first-hand insights into their needs in the terminal and their advice to terminal staff.
We used that knowledge to guide the development of the workshop’s content, framing it as an opportunity to hear the voices of people with disabilities rather than as a recitation of dry, impersonal information. This approach served as a bridge between the expectations, thought processes and perceptions of people with and without disabilities.
The workshop was, and continues to be, delivered in person, during a half a day engagement at one of ABP’s cruise terminals in Southampton. The learners have the opportunity to explore challenging concepts, ask questions and participate in open discussions, enhancing their understanding and retention of the material through specifically-designed exercises.
Through this immersive and dynamic approach, the workshop fosters a deeper understanding of the needs of people with disabilities and empowers the participants to effectively apply their newfound knowledge in their personal and professional lives.
In their own words.
Dragonfly worked with us to create a bespoke disability awareness course which encompassed our aims on accessibility whilst taking into account our operations. They used specific real-life experiences and case studies to bring the subject to life. Taking the time to really consider the subject and how we operate made the workshop interesting and highly relevant for our audience in turn enabling open discussions. The course was very well researched and presented, and we would happily work with Dragonfly on future projects.