Gauge has been appointed by the Department of Tourism to audit tourism facilities at national parks around South Africa. The audits indicated that many facilities required improvements. This was the case even with facilities that have built recently when accessibility regulations and standard have been in place. Recommendations from the study, therefore, include the development of tools for improved universal accessibility. These tools aim to ensure that universal accessibility is integrated into policy and procedures and is not an ‘afterthought’ that may, or may not, be addressed.

Recommended tools include: a universal accessibility policy that ensures this is addressed in the planning, procurement and management of facilities, a universal accessibility toolkit that provides easy-to-use checklists which can be used to support assessments of existing facilities and design proposals and universal accessibility training to ensure that key personnel understand key concepts and can apply these.