Evaluation Essay on Royal National Park

Part I: Access Audit

This audit will focus on Royal National Park, one of the public sites in Australia. The park is located in the southern part of Sydney and boasts of being the largest in the country. The park is open to the public every day except on holidays and Sundays from seven in the morning to eight at night (Royal National Park, 2018). This allows visitors ample time to visit the premises and experience the range of fun activities. Royal National Park offers its visitors picnic sites where families or individuals can take time out and have their meals on the natural environment. There is also a walking trail along the bush and cycling area. The park charges reasonable fees that allow individuals and groups to visit the premises based on their budget. The park entry fees are dispatched by machines except for three accessibility areas including the Garie Beach, Bonnie Vale, and Wattamolla. The three make use of cash dispense machines which only accept exact cash, requiring visitors to go with money as opposed to credit cards. The areas are limited by the poor network coverage and power issues.

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The design of the parking bay and location are efficient, with a high capacity of about four hundred vehicles at one moment. Due to the range of services available at the par, the management is assured that there will always be a large number of clients. The park entry points are three while the parking spaces are five. For instance, the Farnell Avenue, in Loftus allows visitors to the park access the Bonnie Vale picnic site or the Garie Beach. One of the areas the management has capitalized is in the constant and real-time traffic updates on the space available for the parking (Royal National Park, 2018). Visitors can access the information on their social media pages and make prior arrangements before traveling to the park.

The park is divided into different sites, which allow the clients make a decision before traveling to the Royal National Park. For instance, visitors that want to visit the Governor Game lookout will pay some entrance fees at the gate and go for the game drive with a qualified personnel working with the park or prefer to go on their own. The paths along the bush trail are characterized by grass and earth, meaning that visitors have to wear the proper clothing and shoes before going there (Royal National Park, 2018). The trail is accessible from the national park and it is safe since wild animals that can attack human beings are not on the path. The trail has a natural lighting even though it is limited in the evening hours. Clients who prefer taking a walk in the evening find it hard to navigate the park due to poor lighting.

The toilets are maintained and accessible to the visitors, since every five hundred meters, there is a cubicle. A large number of cubicles in Royal National Park ensures that there are no people waiting for each other to access the toilet, as this would inconvenience most clients. The staffs also ensure that toilets are clean. Royal National Park has built toilets that people living with disabilities can use, meaning that the needs of all people were put into consideration by the management team.

Part II: Access Report

A justification for choosing the Royal National Park is because the place is public and therefore, it is frequented by thousands of people per year. Hence, the accessibility of the park in terms of security and safety is of importance at it assures the visitors that there is no possibility of having an incident or accident. The park is open to both local and international visitors and accessibility in relation to accessibility is important as it allows the very first-time visitors to get in the place without getting lost or losing direction (Leverington et al., 2010). The fact that the park also allows school going children to get in the premises after making arrangements with the management of their learning institution, then it is necessary to consider the accessibility of the park, as well as its suitability to accommodate the different groups of people who frequent the area.

The main populations accessing the site include both local and international tourists who would want to experience the services found in the park. The park starts its operations at seven in the morning and only closes at eight in the evening. Every visitor must have a ticket before being allowed admission to the national park side and may request to have a guide who can assist in their navigation journey (Royal National Park, 2018). Being open to all people, the Royal National Park receives visitors of different genders, ages, and races. However, some of the populations face a potential risk of being marginalized due to the ignorance in the designs used in the park. For instance, there is a shortage of services that accommodate people living with disabilities. The bush walk service is not accessible to people using wheelchairs as the main method of moving from one place to another since they are characterized by grass and earth. This makes it inconvenient for such marginalized groups to enjoy the services like other people. Their interests and special needs should be considered when the management of an organization is designing the different places. For instance, the ticket dispatch machine accommodates the needs of all people since one only needs to feed the tool the right amount of money. Excluding different populations from accessing the facility means that Royal National Park will have a low rating after reviews from the customers who visit the premise for the first time or frequent visitors.

The scope of the access audit focused on the access points and the ability of the Royal National Park to accommodate the needs of different people since the premises attracts the attention of both local and regional visitors. In addition, being the oldest public park in the country, there is a high expectation of the premises making changes over the years to go through a transformation that improves accessibility. The most important thing about accessibility is the ability to access the park safely and leave well. The services of the park should also be of a high quality and of a questionable value. The implications for the community is that there are limitations for the marginalized groups only. People with disabilities are limited to specific fun activities within Royal National Park due to the lack of facilities that accommodate their needs.

Consider access and inclusion beyond physical accessibility, to the other dimensions of the environment and specific tasks or activities at the site (Royal National Park, 2018). However, the management is on the lookout to have all people accommodated without a preference for anyone. For instance, the toilets available at the premises allow people with disabilities to use them comfortably without asking for assistance. In addition, the whale and bird watching services allow people with disabilities to have a place where they can comfortably view the animals as they please. The sitting arrangements are for all people.

Recommendations for Improving Accessibility at Royal National Park

One of the recommendations for improving accessibility at Royal National Park includes the construction of paths that allow people with disabilities move around with ease, have a secluded place where people with needs can park their vehicles as well as nursing mothers, have enough lighting at the bush walk to ensure that visitors are at ease when walking along the path on the trail (Woinarski et al., 2011). The national park boasts of standing in an area that covers more than one hundred and fifty square kilometers. This means that there is enough space for the construction of special structures that can accommodate the diverse needs of the visitors. For instance, the park should have smooth paths that allow people with different needs to move around and experience the fun that other persons' access. The company can also provide discounts for people living with disabilities and provide them with a guide that moves them to the different places in the park as they navigate and experience the fun.

Another recommendation for the management of Royal National Park ensures that the parking space has a designated place for people living with disabilities and the nursing mothers to park (Royal National Park, 2018). Treating the marginalized group in a special way increases the trust that clients have in the Royal National Park. For instance, the management can also ensure that one of the parking spaces is for school-going-children, where their bus drivers can leave the bus instead of leaving it at the public parking slot (Woinarski et al., 2011). This would ensure that students enter and leave the premises with ease. The separation of the different customers who frequent the premises will ensure that each group's special needs are given attention by the management and the service providers.

Another consideration that Royal National Park should have is installing more lighting system on the bush walk path (Driml, 2010). Due to the long-grass and shades from the trees on the nature walk trail, the area is sometimes dark, making it scary for the visitors who love to engage with the environment. The management can make use of solar powered lighting to reduce the costs to the firm, as well as engage in greening levels by making use of renewable energy.

Part III: Evaluation Plan

The purpose of the accessibility report is the identification of the limitations and shortcomings that exist at the Royal National Park and come up with suggestions of improving the premises, for the benefit of the users who rely on it as one of the areas to spend their holidays and have fun. The desired outcomes will be an improvement in the facilities. This report hopes to convince the management team at Royal National Park that it has done an excellent job in the management of the premises, but it also needs to make a few changes in different places. Accessibility is important as it attracts the customers but retaining them requires a careful examination of the services provided, and reducing any form of discrimination that puts off some groups (Royal National Park, 2018). This may be classified as a marginalization of the specific groups.

Data Sources

The main source of data for the report was the online reviews that clients who had previously visited the Royal National Park left their thoughts and perceptions about the park, as well as the company website. Both sources of information provide quality information about the accessibility details (Driml, 2010). For instance, the company website specifies the number of parking slots that are available for the clients who frequent the park and give the customers a chance to view the traffic information on the roads leading to the Royal National Park. This ensures that clients are rarely stuck in traffic and that they can arrive early at the premises and spend more time at the park. The reviews on TripAdvisor and Tripsavvy contain both negative and positive information. The positive reviews commend the management of Royal National Park on the quality of services provided at the firm while the negative comments are a reflection of the dissatisfaction the said customers received at the premise (Woinarski et al., 2011). A justification for choosing the reviews and the company website as the main source of data is that they both contain true and unbiased information about the Royal National Park.

The report will make use of images taken on the reviews as the main method of data analysis, as they contain the raw information from the cust...