Beaches for Everyone? World's First Water Wheelchair with Smart Safety Features for Barrier-Free Tourism

• Published in: Journal of coastal research Vol. 116; no. sp1; pp. 478 - 482
• Main Authors: Oh, Changho, Kim, Kwi-Baek, Lee, Hyunjin, Nam-Jo, Sandy Kyunghwa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Fort Lauderdale Coastal Education and Research Foundation 04.01.2024; Allen Press Inc
• Subjects: Alarm systems; Beaches; Coastal management; COASTAL RESCUE & TOURISM; Coastal research; Disabilities; Early warning systems; Geriatrics; Industrial safety; Marine tourism; Mobility; mobility impaired; Older people; Payment systems; Population growth; Population studies; Safety; Tourism; Tracking; Water; water safety; water wheelchair; Wheelchairs; Women
• ISSN: 0749-0208; 1551-5036
• DOI: 10.2112/JCR-SI116-097.1

Oh, C.; Kim, K.-B.; Lee, H., and Nam-Jo, S.K., 2023. Beaches for everyone? World's first water wheelchair with smart safety features for barrier-free tourism. In: Lee, J.L.; Lee, H.; Min, B.I.; Chang, J.-I.; Cho, G.T.; Yoon, J.-S., and Lee, J. (eds.), Multidisciplinary Approaches to Coastal and Marine Management. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 116, pp. 478-482. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. This study aims to evaluate a smart-safety-featured floating water wheelchair to meet the needs of marine tourism for the mobility-impaired population. Our society's shared concept of the disabled is identified as those registered as disabled in the government office with intellectual, physical, and mental disabilities. However, all of us who will grow old and live with some disabilities or limitations are in the mobility-impaired group. The difficulty in mobility causes them to be in the limited tourism area even though the demands have become higher than in the past generations. Tourism is an activity that humans constantly want to pursue, but they are involuntarily excluded from traveling freely due to various obstacles and restrictions. Considerations in society are necessary not only for the disabled but also for the elderly, infants/young children, and pregnant women who are vulnerable to mobility. Therefore, barrier-free tourism should be introduced in the tourism industry not just for the disability but for the increasing population of mobility-impaired tourists. Introducing the water wheelchair is one of the safest and most convenient ways of bringing fair tourism among them. Currently, manufacturers produce different forms of water wheelchairs in some countries with the problem of being unable to customize different users' sizes and needs. Therefore, under the premise of the popularization of barrier-free marine tourism, this study examines the essential features of producing non-Westerners-focused products for the first time in the world. Moreover, ICT-based smart water wheelchairs can have the enhanced safe and convenient features of location tracking-based technology, QR code payment system, and alarm system. Both the theoretical and practical contributions of this study can be found in the tourism industry and the studies of the aging population.