[Travelandtourism] Department of Justice Settlement with Carnival Cruise Lines Corporation - Carnival must upgrade ships and pay $350K After Disability Violations

[margo and isis]

Hey, it's about time!

Margo and Isis

-----Original Message-----
From: Travelandtourism [mailto:travelandtourism-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Cheryl Echevarria via Travelandtourism
Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2015 11:08 AM
To: 'NFB Travel and Tourism Division List'; new-york-news at nfbnet.org;
nyagdu at nfbnet.org
Cc: Cheryl Echevarria
Subject: [Travelandtourism] Department of Justice Settlement with Carnival
Cruise Lines Corporation - Carnival must upgrade ships and pay $350K After
Disability Violations

Good morning all:

 

On July 23rd, 2015 while I was listening to the 25th Anniversary
Celebration from the Department of Justice and the EEOC it was announced
that Carnival Cruise Lines Corporation which includes Carnival, Holland
America, and Princess Cruise Lines has reached an agreement to resolve an
investigation into complaints that the cruise line failed to adequately
provide accommodations for those with disabilities.

 

Which includes accessibility on their websites not only for consumers but
for those of us who are in the travel industry.

 

Here is the link to the story from July 23rd, 2015

 

http://consumerist.com/2015/07/23/carnival-must-upgrade-ships-pay-350k-afte
r
-disability-violations/

 

Please remember when you are traveling or planning on traveling that you
have access to things that should be happening for you.

 

In the past, I have had articles written about Norwegian Cruise Lines,
where not only myself but other travel professionals that are disabled have
worked very hard to get Norwegian to have at least for us as blind people,
accessible websites for the consumer and the people who work in the travel
industry. Like Braille Menus, when cruise lines like Royal Caribbean have
been told that the blind don't use braille anymore, so they stopped
offering it.

 

Or that in the article about Carnival Cruises will be having access
officers on each of the ships to address issues, like have Muster Drills
(Life Boat Drills on the procedures, etc). This has been in place with
Norwegian, at least since I have been a travel professional since 2009. 

 

As long as you arrange these things prior to boarding or when making
reservations that can accommodate these things. Yes, some things may not be
perfect, but when I travel or my clients travel and they come back to me
and say, he this didn't work or we never got this or that. I take care of
it, so it should never happen again. 

 

But, what needs to be done is, with anything that needs to be worked on, is
that we need to know what is wrong, or it cannot be fixed, no use in
complaining about something, if you are not going to take action against
it, the other person won't do it either. So nothing get fixed.

 

25 years have come and we still have to work hard to change more things.
Our 75th Anniversary is here and we still have to do to, it will never be
over, even though we want it to be fixed.

 

Let us know.

 

 

Cheryl Echevarria, President

National Federation of the Blind's Travel and Tourism Division

A proud division of the 

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND - "Live the life you want"

www.nfbtravel.org <http://www.nfbtravel.org> 

To join the talk list

http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/travelandtourism_nfbnet.org

631-236-5138

cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com

 

 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can have the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.

 

 

Cheryl Echevarria 

Travel is our specialty and offering the best of meaningful travel for all
ages is our passion!

http://www.echevarriatravel.com

reservations at echevarriatravel.com

631-456-5394

 

Visit my website to get my FREE report, "Top 5 Good Reasons to Use a Travel
Professional"

 

I build my business on referrals. Please pass my details on to friends and

family members that deserve the best vacation that they can imagine

 

P.S. - Families of all sizes is my specialty. Whether you are just starting
out and looking for that romantic destination for your destination wedding
or honeymoon. Booking that planned family vacation to Walt Disney World or
that bucket list trip that Grandma  & Grandpa are planning for the family,
I would love to help you. 

 

We have partnered with Braille Smith. www.braillesmith.com for all her
braille needs.  Gail Smith is the Secretary of the NFB of Alabama

 

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