Il linguaggio e la traduzione del turismo accessibile. Uno studio preliminare

The aim of this paper is to outline some of the key-features characterising accessible tourism discourse and its translational practices, through the description of the preliminary results of a corpus-based analysis carried out on a selection of tourist texts dedicated to the promotion of destinations, services and attractions addressing tourists with disabilities. Notwithstanding the ethical and commercial importance of accessible tourism, research on the linguistic and translational aspects of this sector is largely missing: the relevant literature on accessible tourism is mainly focused on issues of physical accessibility and barriers and on the economic implications concerning the practical organisation of business activities, services and facilities addressing disabled tourists. Nonetheless, language itself can become a barrier in the context of accessible tourism, particularly if its promotional texts are not 'fully accessible' due to their insufficient distribution and limited availability or the lack of accuracy in their layout and linguistic features, including the scarce number of relating translations. The following analysis will try to propose considerations that may enhance linguistic accuracy in and awareness on the production of accessible tourism promotional texts, to demonstrate how language and translation can become effective tools to overcome those barriers that actually make accessible tourism still 'not very accessible'.