Assignment 1 Identifying Unmet Needs DO NOT COPY PASTE BUT PAR.docx

Assignment 1: Identifying Unmet Needs
DO NOT COPY PASTE BUT PARAPHRASE!!!!!!
1: Nature of the area + the potential (one paragraph each)
Accessibility Consulting Company
Nature: description of the business (use info from last term:
what is it, components of the business)
We have selected the tourism industry but more particularly the
accessible tourism area as our area of interest. Accessible
tourism is tourism dedicated to people having special needs and
is not yet developed enough. We believe disabled people should
be able to enjoy the tourism industry, no matter if they are able
to walk or not, to see or not or to hear or not.
We would like to create an online platform in the form of a
website in California, USA, that gives users access to places
with accessibility features. Due to California's population of
more than 6 million disabled adults, we believe it is the best
location for us to develop this project (CDC, 2022).
Our headquarters would be in California due to its high rate of
mobility and we would like to concentrate on a particular city
with significant demand before expanding. We aim to serve as
the link between disabled customers and businesses given the
fact there is a huge gap that needs to be filled.
Due to our conviction that persons with any physical limitations
should have greater access to information, we made the decision
to design this whole new concept.
What exactly is it about? Our main objective is to give
consumers who are concerned about impairment access to clear
information so they can verify any infrastructures imposed by
the destinations. It does not only apply to hotel facilities, but
also to catering, transportation, and excursions disabled people

would like to participate in.
We provide a website platform where customers can directly
access information that has been updated by businesses and
locations regarding the degree of accessibility accommodations
they have. The business owner only needs to pay a fee to
register on our website, and after that, we would have an
automated system that would authenticate their registration and
only require them to supply the required paperwork. It is done
in order to verify the veracity of the information they share on
our site.
Customers simply need to tap once on their phone to gain
immediate access to the provided information. It would be
convenient for them since they do not have to browse for places
that might be capable of accommodating them (or not).
Additionally, this would lessen information communication
errors brought on by conflicting contact information.
People now have the ability to communicate nationally and
globally, which was previously impossible, via the internet. The
advancement of the internet and the development of technology
have provided countless opportunities for communication
among persons with impairments. Utilizing the advantages
provided by the internet such as placing online orders for goods
and services to have everything delivered right to their door or
participating in excursions that are mobility-friendly is a smart
way to make things move. The services can be given with just a
tap on their devices. Even if a person lacks the physical
capacity to locate the information, they can still do so through
our website.
We would develop a powerful marketing strategy to convince
the companies interest in working with us to better attract the
public’s attention. Releasing explicit information to spread
awareness and keeping up with social media activity is a good
way to attract customers. Moreover, we also want to work with
other platforms that are attempting to strengthen the arguments

for this community. There are certain platforms that are
introducing vacation packages for those with physical
disabilities but this is an opportunity for us to provide a wider
variety of choices from which to select.
The potential:
In today’s world, disabled people are either confirming through
contact with the establishments or simply trying their luck to
see if they can be accommodated; there are no dedicated
platforms that are focusing on boosting information collection
to give ease to this population.
"More than 1 billion individuals live with a disability
worldwide" (Who, 2021). It makes up 15% of the world's
population, 3.8% of which have functional difficulties,
necessitating the provision of supplementary care services
(Who, 2021).
In fact, people with disabilities have made the decision to travel
less, primarily because of the poor services they received but
also because they had to double-check every place they go to
make sure the facilities are fully functional. At some point, it is
too much effort for, most of the time, negative outcomes. In
fact, a study shows that seven out of ten respondents with
impairments said they travel less frequently every day because
of their constraints (Bts, 2022).
Regarding California’s population, 6.7 million Californians, or
1 in 4 of the state's adult population, are disabled, making up
23% of the adult population (CDC, 2022). It is therefore a
market where solutions may be more than needed and useful for
disabled people.
The market's depreciation has, however, decreased the flow of
reliable information, prompting customers to take extra
precautions to make sure that offers are consistent with the

facilities they require. This element affects a visitor's
perception of their entire trip. Explaining the facilities and the
number of guests they can hold in detail is the simplest way to
allay client anxieties. The destinations face difficulties due to
the demand for more professional help in this area. We
specifically intervene in this situation to satisfy the needs of the
client. Disability discrimination disturbs people since it subjects
them to unfair treatment as a result of our society's ignorance.
2:
Disabled people face challenging situations on a daily basis
because of their physical condition. The number of problems
they are facing is infinite but can be regrouped into different
categories. First of all, transportation is not easy for them given
the fact that it is not always adapted for people with special
needs. Let’s take a pretty simple example. In Paris, a historical
city and capital of France, metro stations are decades old and
were built with stairs given the fact elevators did not exist.
Today, it is impossible to place elevators in those kinds of
stations because of the way the metro station has been built at
first. Walls cannot be demolished or the whole metro station
will be destroyed.
Moreover, they can face accessibility issues in many places
such as hotels, restaurants or any touristic places.
Concerning the hotel industry, disabled people have special
requirements that are often ignored by persons that have never
faced this kind of challenge. By this fact, when it comes for
example to hotels, they receive poor service because of this lack
of knowledge from the employees. It is therefore easy to
conclude that hotel employees are not trained adequately which
fosters severe prejudice against people with disabilities
(Who,2021).

To go further, a study from the Bureau of Transportation
Statistics shows that 7 out of 10 participants with disabilities
travel less frequently every day because of their condition (Bts,
2022). It is confirmed by a study from NHTS that emphasises
the fact that 34.1% of people with disabilities between the ages
of 18 and 64 do not travel daily (Gov, 2018). It is reliable given
the fact that some hotels are not accessible enough. In other
words, some hotels in California do not respect the ADA
standards, standing for The Americans with Disabilities Act. It
has been established in order to make sure every type of
customer can access the property, whatever their physical
conditions to avoid any kind of discrimination.
Accessible rooms are also impacted by the usual demand and
supply relationship in economics. In fact, accessible rooms in
hotels are really limited and therefore are proposed at a higher
price which is completely unfair for disabled customers that
only want to travel as everyone does. At the cost of their
disability, they need to spend more money than a regular
customer for a service quality that is most of the time inferior
than the one received by normal guests.
To better illustrate the previous discussion, we would like to
share a lawcase regarding the breach of the ADA standards from
a hotel. A disabled person wanted to go on a trip and therefore
booked a room that was mentioned as “accessible” on the
hotel’s website. The customer called the hotel to confirm that
the room is indeed accessible but also that the room is available
for her stay dates. The hotel clearly confirmed all those
information but once the customer reached the hotel, the
property was not able to offer them an available room. If it was
with a regular customer, the employees could have found
another room but, in this case, the guest was not even able to
stay at the hotel because of her physical condition. This is a
perfect example of unmet needs within the hotel industry
towards disabled persons (EIN News, 2019).

Finally, disabled people also like to travel around the world as
they are not different in this aspect and would like to live some
experiences as everyone does like going up the mountains or
visiting a winery just to illustrate it. Let's use the example of a
customer who wants to take a boat trip to demonstrate earlier
assertions. A person without any disabilities will have no
trouble accessing the boat, but what about someone with a
disability? Consider that if the disabled person requires a
wheelchair, it would be impossible for them to enter the boat
without assistance. As a result, a disabled individual won't
consider getting into a boat because he already knows it will be
problematic.
From a more general perspective, disabled people must conduct
thorough research to ensure that the establishment is accessible.
This set of people will not visit if the website does not provide
enough information or the amenities are not up to par. This is
applicable to any tourism industry nowadays and this lack of
information is clearly discrimination towards disabled people
that never asked for anything else than visiting places that
actually meet their physical needs.
Moreover, disabled people are facing emotional stress and
social isolation because of their limited capacity to go outside
and enjoy life as a person without a disability can. This is due
to the lack of accessibility in California in an infinite number of
places. Melina Karp, Vice President of Consumer Centered
Quality at Commonwealth Care Alliance says: “When a person’s
disability includes a mobility impairment, one issue that can
arise is increased physical and social isolation. As opportunities
for social engagement get smaller and smaller based on an
individual’s ability to navigate their physical surroundings,
depression and anxiety can also develop” (Seervai, S., Shah, A.,
& Shah, T. ,2019). Therefore, there is a real need to move
things in order for disabled people to reduce stress related to

their physical condition and increase their mental well-being.
A physical need is an important preoccupation today in
California that needs to be changed as quickly as possible.
Disabled people have the right to live a normal life and to be
able to enjoy travel experiences without being worried whether
their physical condition allows them to access this place or not.
JUSTIFICATION + EXAMPLES
Disability and health. (2021). Retrieved 11 October 2022, from
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-
sheets/detail/disability-and-health
Bts. (2022). Travel Patterns of American Adults with
Disabilities | Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Retrieved 11
October 2022, from
https://www.bts.gov/travel-patterns-with-disabilities
Gov. (2018). Travel Patterns of American Adults with
October 2022, from
EIN News. (2019). Retrieved 11 October 2022, from
https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/495508829/dannlaw-
files-lawsuit-alleging-homewood-suites-by-hilton-mahwah-and-
hilton-worldwide-repeatedly-violated-the-ada
Seervai, S., Shah, A., & Shah, T. (2019). The Challenges of

Living with a Disability in America, and How Serious Illness
Can Add to Them. Retrieved 12 October 2022, from
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-
reports/2019/apr/challenges-living-disability-america-and-how-
serious-illness-can
A. Okoro, C. (2018). Prevalence of Disabilities and Health Care
Access by Disability Status and Type Among Adults — United
States, 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2022, from
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-
disability-impacts-all.html
Disabled People in the World: Facts and Figures. (2021).
Retrieved 11 August 2022, from
https://www.inclusivecitymaker.com/disabled-people-
in-the-world-in-2021-facts-and-figures/
August 2022, from
Assignment 2: Generating Products to Meet the Unmet Need
In Assignment 1 you identified unmet needs that you could
target with a new product. In this assignment, do the following:
Organize the customer needs and come up with a set of product
specifications that could meet those needs better than current
products.

Generate Concept(s). This is a brainstorm-type exercise. Come
up with at least five ideas that could meet these unmet needs.
These could be physical products, a set of services, or some
combination. Use your imagination.
Refine the concept using ideas in Chapter 5 of your textbook.
You do not have to go through ALL the steps described in the
textbook, as that would be too extensive.
Describe the final product form. Describe the market for that
product by defining who would buy it and what kinds of
products it would pull sales away from. Make sure you have
searched for similar products in similar markets on the internet
(so you have to describe the market as well).
In each step, but especially Steps 1 and 4, provide your
reasoning for your choices.
Written reports should show professional quality. They should
be well-written and well-organized. Use paragraphs and topical
paragraph headings. Where appropriate, organize your report by
the questions asked in the assignment. It is a good idea to state
the question as a paragraph heading, then give your answer to
the question. Then reread the question and answer together to
be sure your answer addresses the specific question. Leave a
space between paragraphs. Bullet points are allowed.
Reports must include a cover sheet, like what you would use if
submitting a printed report. Your cover sheet should include
the Course Name, Assignment Title, Date of Submission, and
the full names and nicknames of each member of the group.
Only ONE group member should submit the report on Canvas.
Prepare your report in a word processor with a spelling and

grammar checker. If your English is not strong, you are likely
to need stronger grammar checking than what is available in MS
Word.
When your report is fully proofed and is formatted the way you
want it, save your final version on your computer, then also
save it as a PDF file. Submit your PDF before the deadline at
the link in Canvas for the assignment's submission. All written
work must be submitted online as a PDF file. Only ONE group
member should submit the report on Canvas.
Summarize how our product match all the customers needs
(speak about all the aspects of our business that help disabled
people)
!!!!Come up with 2 different concepts (2 ideas, products or
services,..) that could also answer to customers needs 2page!!!!
10 brainstorming ideas:
1.define your purpose 2.choose participants 3.choose a
facilitator 4.brainstorm spontaneously; copiously 5.no
criticisms, no negatives 6.Record ideas in full view 7.Invent to
the “void” 8.Resist becoming committed to one idea 9.Identify
the most promising ideas 10.refine and prioritize
(page: 117)
Market research = potential customers, rivals products(similar
services)
Talk about the profitability, numbers = justification, reasons:
more fo the step 4
Do not talk about financial aspect in details, it will be for later
But say why this business will be profitable (if its not, there are
no reasons for opening it)

1.Summarize how our product match all the customers needs
(speak about all the aspects of our business that help disabled
people)
Due to their limited ability to go outside and enjoy life as a
person without a condition can, people with disabilities often
experience emotional stress and social isolation. This is a result
of California's general lack of accessibility in countless
locations. Melina Karp, Vice President of Consumer Centered
Quality at Commonwealth Care Alliance says: “When a person’s
disability includes a mobility impairment, one issue that can
arise is increased physical and social isolation. As opportunities
for social engagement get smaller and smaller based on an
individual’s ability to navigate their physical surroundings,
depression and anxiety can also develop” (Seervai, S., Shah, A.,
& Shah, T. ,2019). In order for people with disabilities to lessen
the stress associated with their physical state and improve their
emotional well-being, there is a real need to make changes.
With our new concept, we give the opportunity to disabled
people to share experiences with people that face the same daily
challenges. We want to create a community through this website
by reuniting them together to do not feel lonely anymore. For
example, on our platform, customers will have the possibility to
go on group tours even if they are travelling alone. In this
situation, they will only be with people they do not know and
might create strong relationships thanks to that.
In the tourism industry, there is in general an important lack of
information about accessibility in different places that includes
hotel facilities, transportation, tours, parks or restaurants.
We want to give access to people, with impairment problems, to
clear information regarding the infrastructures imposed by the
destinations.
At the same time, on our platform, the different information
provided on the website is updated frequently by businesses
regarding the degree of accessible features they have. It is

useful given the fact that sometimes the business might be
doing some construction work and therefore it might not be
accessible for a certain period of time. It will be accordingly
updated on our website.
There are still too many situations where disabled people have
to double-check the place’s accessibility by sending a mail or
by making a phone call to make sure they can be welcome there.
This is mainly due to the poor reliability of the information
provided on businesses’ websites. Information communication
errors happen as we have seen in a law case opposing a disabled
customer to a big chain hotel. To sum up, a disabled person
booked a room mentioned as “accessible” on the hotel’s
website. The customer called the hotel to confirm that the room
is indeed accessible but also that the room is available for her
stay dates. The hotel clearly confirmed all those information but
once the customer reached the hotel, the property was not able
to offer them an available room (EIN News, 2019)
From our side, we require the different businesses to provide us
with the needed paperwork regarding their accessibility
information as proof. To check, we want to develop a software
able to recognize the reliability of those papers to avoid any
falsification and the accuracy of the data. By doing that, we are
sure about the reliability of the information provided and avoid
any problems welcoming disabled persons.
Moreover, when planning a trip, it is complicated for a disabled
person to have to go through different websites, each useful for
a part of the trip. It, in fact, takes time for them to go through
all those websites looking for accessible places. Imagine that it
takes at least twice more time than any other regular customer.
By this fact, we want to develop a platform that combines in
one website places that are fully accessible. Customers only
have to choose where they want to go, and what they want to
visit among the different places proposed. They only need to tap
their phone once to obtain the available information right away.

They would find it convenient because they would not have to
look for suitable places (or not) through different websites.
Most of the time, disabled people receive poor service from
employees because they are not trained enough and therefore do
not have the required knowledge to take care of a customer with
a disability.
To solve that, we have a website that directly links disabled
customers with businesses which will then be able to answer
any customers’ concerns. Moreover, businesses that are on the
platform are aware of disabled people’s differences and
employees are trained accordingly.
EIN News. (2019). Retrieved 22 October 2022, from
https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/495508829/dannlaw-files-
lawsuit-alleging-homewood- suites-by-hilton-mahwah-and-
hilton-worldwide-repeatedly-violated-the-ada
Seervai, S., Shah, A., & Shah, T. (2019). The Challenges of
Living with a Disability in America, and How Serious Illness
Can Add to Them. Retrieved 22 October 2022, from
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-
reports/2019/apr/challenges-living- disability-america-and-how-
serious-illness-can
3. Refine the concept using ideas in Chapter 5 of your textbook.
You do not have to go through ALL the steps described in the
textbook, as that would be too extensive.
No criticisms, no negatives
Every proposal should be considered, regardless of how absurd
it may seem. Then we determine which choice could be applied
to our work. Throughout this process, we promote various forms
of imaginative thinking without passing judgment on what any
one person has expressed.

As we are getting more exposure, we want to gain a better
insight towards this community. We reach a point where we
want to come up with a solution for the obstacles and concerns
they are facing as it touches physical needs.
Due to the nature of our project, we would like to appease the
critics by introducing fresh offerings to a segment that has
received little attention. The main goal is to improve the entire
visitor experience for clients with disabilities. The idea behind
our business concept would be to create a more convincing
environment while having an optimistic result.
Resist becoming committed to one idea
- Every idea should go through a process in order to get the
desired result; in this case, our first step is to provide an
internet platform. We believe that our adherence to our basic
values will define who we are in this industry. We are dedicated
to paying close attention to disabled customers and to
combining and balancing the needs of our clients regardless of
their physical limitations. To turn our concepts into a reality,
we are consistently aligning for incremental innovation. We
would constantly develop new products and services linked to
mobility as long as customers benefit from the platform we
built.
Identify the most promising ideas
Before choosing a prospective business, background market
research is crucial. For the accessibility market, we decided to
launch in California due to the significant market gap area. The
community's unmet demands for particular services and the
dissemination of knowledge have greatly distorted supply and
demand. We have seen that there is not yet a particular platform
with transparency regarding the infrastructure and the level of
customer impairment they can support.
The unmet demands and the statistics have shown that the
accessibility platform may be a promising sector for investment.
Due to the first-runner advantage, we might be able to capture a

sizable portion of the market.
Refine and prioritize
As we focused down from the brainstorming, we would be
concentrating on the platform to partner with new businesses,
catering venues, hotels, and locations that could be able to offer
services for people with impairments.
This will be our first action once the social platform is
introduced. To establish a standard for the accuracy of the data,
we shall develop our own system of verification.
Considering we will provide an intangible product, we would
always prioritize the needs of our customers, therefore we put
user experiences a high priority.
We would introduce a sub-product focused on accommodating
people with disabilities as the platform matures. We will
contemplate expanding into another city once the client
capacities reach a certain point.
4. Describe the final product form. Describe the market for that
product by defining who would buy it and what kinds of
products it would pull sales away from. Make sure you have
searched for similar products in similar markets on the internet
(so you have to describe the market as well). JEANNE
There are currently no specific online platforms focusing on
tourism but for disabled people and this is how we came up with
the idea of developing a website that connects customers to
locations with accessible features. We think the USA is the
perfect place for us to launch this business given the fact there
are more than 6 million disabled persons living there. (Bts,
2022).
On this website, we will be able to connect disabled people to
businesses such as hotels, restaurants, tour guides or excursions

accessible for people with physical impairments. Customers can
enter the dates of their desired stay, what kind of activity they
would like to be part of, and the platform will give a panel of
different options to choose from. The time when disabled people
had to go through deep research to find an accessible place is
now over: welcome to the new area where disabled people have
their own platform with places that suit them and their needs.
We decided to start small by targeting firstly California, but the
main goal is to become national and even international one day.
In fact, according to Who (2021), “More than 1 billion
individuals live with a disability worldwide”. The market
potential is huge, making it 15% of the world’s population.
Concerning California, 6.7 million inhabitants or 1 of 4 adults
are disabled, equivalent to 23% of the population (Bts, 2022).
People with disabilities have actually decided to travel less,
mostly due to the subpar services they received but also because
of the reliability of the information provided on businesses’
websites. In fact, disabled people always have to check to make
sure the facilities are fully accessible for them. It eventually
becomes too much work for, often, unfavourable results.
According to a research by Bts (2022), seven out of ten
participants with impairments indicated their limitations prevent
them from travelling daily.
In fact, the market's decline has slowed the supply of
trustworthy information, causing customers to exercise more
vigilance to ensure that offerings are compatible with the
facilities they need. This factor influences how a visitor feels
about their entire vacation. The simplest way to ease customer
concerns is to thoroughly explain the facilities and the number
of individuals they can accommodate. The need for more
specialized assistance in this area puts the destinations in a
difficult situation. In this instance, we expressly step in to meet
the client's needs. People are disturbed by disability
discrimination because it subjects disabled people to unfair

treatment as a consequence of our society's misunderstanding.
As our idea is to take what actual online travel agencies are
doing but specialized in accessible places, we believe that
disabled people will not use those platforms anymore but will
directly use our website instead. In fact, they will gain time,
energy but, most importantly, confidence and self-esteem.
According to FlyOfinder, the five most used online travel
agencies in the USA are Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity,
FlyOfinder and Skyscanner. Therefore, we believe we will pull
sales away from those five platforms mentioned. However, our
impact is still small given the fact we are starting with
California to expand furthermore in the future.
Our product being unique, we do not have any direct
competitors. Similar services can be assigned to traditional
travel agencies that will make the work and the research for the
customers. As explained previously, disabled people are not
well taken care of and rapid growth in this market is more than
conceivable. Furthermore, we will make money by asking for a
monthly fee from the different businesses that want to be
present on our website. We will also take a commission of 15%
on each transaction made through our platform. At the same
time, we do not have a lot of costs if it is to taking care of the
website and promoting our concept. The profitability of our
business will therefore be consequent, our target market being
no less than 6.8 million people. It is at the same time interesting
for the businesses that would like to work with us given the fact
that we will bring them more visibility towards disabled people
and consequently more revenue.
October 2022, from https://www.bts.gov/travel-patterns-with-
disabilities

FlyOfinder. (2022). Top 5 online travel agencies (OTA) in
USA: Flyofinder. Retrieved October 22, 2022, from
https://www.flyofinder.com/blog/top-flight-deals/top-5-
online-travel-agencies-in-usa

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