| Summary: | This study was conducted as the product of ten years' experience and learning in the area of tourism and disability since the researcher first knew the topic. There has been a growing interest in disability issues in tourism studies. Exclusion of disabled people from tourism has mostly been studied in terms of the issues for disabled tourists, whereas there have been few studies on disabled people's involvement in the different stages of the design of tourism up to now. Moreover, although public participation approaches have been regarded as useful tools to involve local people in tourism, they have a weakness in embracing people who are excluded from society and whose needs are not obvious. This study was intended as an investigation of the involvement of disabled people in different areas of tourism. The concepts of design and inclusive design were introduced to tourism, and the idea of inclusive design of tourism was established as an effective approach to promote the inclusion of disabled people in the design of tourism. The aim of this research was to answer the following two research questions: (1) Are disabled people included/excluded from the design of tourism? and (2) How can the barriers toward inclusive design of tourism be overcome? Thus, the ultimate goal was to explore the way toward inclusive design of tourism. It took a methodological position of the constructivism- interpretivism paradigm informed by the critical perspective, and 35 semi-structured face-to- face interviews were conducted with the key tourism stakeholders in the area of tourism and disability in the South East England region. The findings of the study show that both inclusionary and exclusionary practices exist in the design of tourism. The forms of and reasons for the involvement and non-involvement of disabled people in the design of tourism were examined. A variety of barriers to involve disabled people in the design of tourism were identified, and the ways to overcome the identified barriers were suggested in order to achieve and promote inclusive design of tourism. The main possible contribution to theory that emerged from this study was the introduction of the concepts of design and inclusive design to tourism, leading to the development of the idea of inclusive design of tourism, which can address the issue of exclusion of disabled people from different areas of tourism and promote inclusionary practices in tourism.
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