Vancouver

Vancouver's hosting of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games is benefitting one very deserving group of travellers: Those with disabilities.

"The Games are a catalyst for change of the very best kind," says Bruce Dewar, CEO of a Vancouver not-for-profit society called 2010 Legacies Now. "We are
using the Games as a driver to get people thinking about how to make (Vancouver) one of the most accessible places in the world."

With an estimated one in eight people worldwide living with a disability, and $13 billion being spent annually in North America by travellers with disabilities,
Vancouver has tagged the group as one of the fastest growing market opportunities in the world.

Testing shows Vancouver2010.com and CTVOlympics.ca are almost impossible to use for some people with physical disabilities, and hard to use and understand for blind or deaf people.

John Furlong made a promise

In 2004, Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) CEO John Furlong
promised that the Web sites for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games would be accessible to disabled people. This was important, because a blind man in Australia
could not use the Web site of the Sydney 2000 Olympics and later won a human-rights case against the Sydney Olympic organizing committee and IBM.