Access Traps for Independent Disabled Travellers.
Following some unpleasent adventures, I would like to share with you the
experience and ask for comments from other experienced travellers.
Many guides to hotels, museums and other sites include the famous
symbol of the wheelchair
(
).
It means that the site has access and
facilities for physically disabled persons. In practice it means (in too
many cases) that the disabled person will need the escort of an abled
person, though he may drive a wheelchair on normal surfaces. It seems
to be a general assumption in Europe that disabled persons rarely move
independently!
The most apparent symptoms are:
- Many sites (museums, airports) have only push-chairs
(wheelchairs with small wheels). The user cannot drive them. The
push-chairs are somewhat cheaper and more compact, but...
For airports push-chairs may cause them some loss of money
because of mobility problem in shops, duty-free. The problem
in modern airports is the system of using sub-contractors for every
mission. The wheelchair pushing company in (e.g.) Heathrow (London UK) doesn't care
about the shops. My impression in 1998 was that the Heathrow company was overloaded,
which means (near) flight misses.
- In some sites movement is restricted by small steps that could
easily be replaced by ramps. In other sites ramps are too
steep. When sidewalks have no ramps/curb-cuts, the result is a
safety problem because wheelchair users avoid sidewalks and share the
road with cars.
- There are no reserved parking spaces near the enterance to
many museums and other important sites.
- In some hotels, rooms adapted for disabled persons are very far
from the enterance. Combined with deep carpets, it is very difficult
to drive a wheelchair to and from the room. It gives the bad feeling that hotel
owners wish that the disabled persons will not be visible too often and
will not spoil the atmosphere.
- Fire doors in many hotels are very heavy and are mostly closed.
In some buildings there are such doors every few meters.
- Small hotels are sometimes under-staffed. That may pose a problem
with the luggage when checking-in.
- Some famous USA Motel networks say ''kids stay free in parents'
room''. Practically, when one attempts to reserve an adapted room
for a family they say ''adapted room has only 1 double bed''. The result is
the need to pay for 2 rooms. They should say in the ads ''kids stay free...
except for families having a disabled member...'' or absorb most of the cost
of the extra room.
- Each travel agent has his own database and connections.
Many of them are not comprehensive, but the travel agents don't
disclose this fact. The result is a difficulty to find an
adapted and affordable hotel if you rely on a travel agent.
- There are no real standards for adapted rooms. In some of
them hand-rails are located strangely, but not where needed, there
is a step between room and bathroom,
soap dispenser unreachable from wheelchair etc. On the other
hand, one may find in bathrooms luxury items like TV speaker, phone
and more.
EXAMPLES.
- Mount Royal hotel, London, UK: Adapted room very-very far from
elevators. Carpets slow down the wheelchair. Same problem in
Metropolitan Capsis, Rhodes, Greece.
- New Park hotel, Kilkenny, Ireland: Adapted room access thru
steep ramps, narrow doors and small steps. Facilities hard to reach for
wheelchair user and room service very poor. Therefore no justification
for the high room price.
- Dublin national museum, Ireland: Only push-chairs available.
No lift to some exhibitions. No reserved parking. Metal ramp outside
very slipery when wet (from rain).
- Novotel Les-Halles, Paris: The bar has a few steps. The
waiter refused to serve us in the nearby lobby, so we could not get
even tea/coffee after a wet evening trip. The adapted room had some
problems reflecting the concept that a disabled traveler is ''always''
escorted.
The positive side.
To give full coverage of this vast subject will mean spending weeks of
typing. I would like to mention only the wonderfull series by
RADAR. They cover the
UK and many other tourist destinations around the world.
The British AA also published useful guides for the disabled traveller.
Disclaimer:
1. The author has no commercial interest
in any of the mentioned companies. Their name / links are given only as
illustration and service to potential customers.
2. The author takes no responsibility
for any mis-haps occuring while using the above-mentioned services.
Technical Note:
- The site has minimum graphics to enable fast load using any
browser and modem combination. It can be viewed also with the textual
Unix browser lynx.
- I am looking forward for additional info and examples. In your
message please let me know if you allow me to mention your e-mail /
address etc. in my site.
Address: 
.
Please visit my site on
car-rental for disabled drivers.
Last update: 6/2001.