Scott Rains
San Jose, CA USA
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http://independent.academia.edu/ScottRains
Dr. Scott Rains writes daily on travel and issues in the tourism industry of interest to people with disabilities. His work appears online at www.RollingRains.com.
During 2014 his research and speaking engagements include Brazil and Nepal.
Rains’ articles have appeared in numerous publications: Reação, New Mobility, Emerging Horizons, Venture, Brave New Traveler, Challenges, TravelBiz Monitor, Enabled Online, Contours, Accessible Portugal, Audacity, Travel and Transitions, eTur Brazil, Success & Ability, Turismo Polibea, and Disaboom among others.
In 2009 he was selected as Person of the Years in the US by New Mobility magazine. Recently he was a Benetech Fellow at the Bookshare initiative for print-disabled readers. For his research on the topic of Universal Design and the travel and hospitality industry he was appointed as Resident Scholar at the Center for Cultural Studies of the University of California Santa Cruz (2004-05). Rains has been retained as a consultant on Inclusive Tourism at the invitation of India, Australia, Italy, Barbados, Thailand, Thailand, Georgia, and South Africa. He is a lifetime Honorary Member of the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) and a resource person to UNESCAP.
He is active as a consultant and speaker. Select presentations include:
• Keynote address at the Encuentro America Solidaria (funded by the World Bank) at the invitation of Ecuadorian Vice President Lenin Moreno.
• Facilitated Southern African Regional Consultation on Disability, Development, and Tourism for the Global Partnership on Disability and Development (a secretariat of the World Bank)
• Address to the Carlo Besta National Neurological Institute at Neurology in the Third Millennium: From Disability to Social Reinsertion conference (2009) and REATECH – Milan 2012
• Presentations during 2009 consultation throughout South Africa on Inclusive Tourism in anticipation of 2010 FIFA World Cup
• Four full-day workshops on the disabled traveler market for travel professionals in India (New Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai); accessibility consultations with Kerala tourist destinations; capacity-building session