Traveling for people with disabilities is getting easier as cities adopt accessibility requirements. It’s now possible to find restaurants with ground level restrooms. Captionfish helps you find cinemas with audio descriptions and captions. Public transportation is becoming more wheelchair friendly as cities replace outdated buses and trains with new, more accessible models. There’s even a new television show for disabled travelers on Oprah’s television network.
This is great news for people exploring the world, but how do you actually find an accessible restaurant when you are on the street? They don’t normally have big neon signs to advertise their presence. Fortunately, there is a new generation of mobile phone applications and web sites that allow people to find the best restaurants, stores, cinemas, and public transportation.
Accessible Travel Applications
Open Doors, a group in Chicago, has been a pioneer in this category with their Easy Access Chicago web site that lets you track accessible public transportation, investigate hotel accommodations, and research other aspects before visiting the city. While Open Doors provides detailed, highly reliable information, it’s not a scalable process as it involves a small team of investigators that inspect each location.
Nuit de l’Accessiblité
Anik, Philippe, et ClaireJaccede is a new project in Paris to provide information about accessible resources in the city . They’re aim is to provide detailed information, such as Easy Access Chicago, but are using crowd sourcing to help collect the data.
Over 300 people, including dozens of individuals with various disabilities, gathered in an old warehouse turned cafe/workspace in the Belleville neighborhood on May 26 to canvas the city. It’s perhaps symbolic that the neighborhood was also an important location for the Paris Commune revolution in 1871.
Groups of 3 to 5 people were handed a map, survey forms, fliers, and possibly a wheelchair for accessibility testing. I joined 4 people in this adventure. Phillipe and Jean-Marc from Bien Consommer, an accessible products supplier, provided much needed support as the night progressed. Anik, a bon vivant, led the charge with her power wheelchair and Claire became the steward of the group, collecting data and representing the team. I handled documentation and kept an eye out for the non-wheelchair based disabilities.
Our spirits were high as we approached the bus stop to the Bastille. The first bus arrived and quickly loaded two other teams and their power wheelchairs. The next bus arrived and refused to take Anik, claiming her chair was too large (Bus #8347, 22:30 26/5/2011). The third bus arrived and was happy to help us, but unfortunately it was not able to lower itself completely and left a small step that was not accessible for Anik. Fortunately Philippe and Jean-Marc were trailing us with their supply van and promptly retrieved a temporary ramp to save the day.
A Nice Surprise: Accessible Restaurants!
We were pleasantly surprised to find several restaurants near the Bastille that were not only accessible, but had made significant efforts to be very accessible. Unfortunately, we found many that were wheelchair accessible for the restaurant, yet lacked accessible restrooms. It’s common in older buildings to place the restrooms in the basement instead of the ground floor.
Next door to the Bastille Opera is Les Grande Marches, an elegant bistro that caters to the Opera crowd. The maitre d’ was proud to show us the restaurant’s accessibility features. Entrance is easy with just a tiny step; only 2cm high. The restaurant has adequate open space for easy navigation, the lighting is bright and the ambient sound was quiet. The restaurant features an elevator to the fully accessible restrooms on the second floor. I asked if a braille menu was available. They do not have one at this time, but thought it was an excellent idea and will begin working on one for the future.
We left Les Grandes Marches with high hopes… which didn’t last long. The next bistro, Cafe Rey-Bastille, shared the standard problems of a restaurant in an older city. Entering the restaurant was easy. The restroms, however, were located in the basement. It would be a good location to have a coffee at the bar, but would not be adequate for a full dinner.
Our next stop was even worse. We visited Cinéma La Bastille, which failed all of the accessibility tests. It had an inaccessible entrance, the restrooms were in the basement, and they lacked support for audio descriptions and captioning.
Just as we began to lose hope, we came across Sanz Sans and Corcoran Irish Pub. Each of them had accessible entrances and bathrooms. Their space was also open enough for a wheelchair to easily move through the dining rooms.
Our final stop was Barrio Latino, a salsa dance club owned by the Buddha Bar restaurant chain. This popular club has a restaurant, bar, and dance floor on multiple levels. They provide an elevator and accessible restrooms on each floor.
It was a pleasant surprise to find several accessible restaurants within a short distance of each other. Granted, this is a popular tourist area and the results are surely better than the more residential areas of Paris.
Nuit de l'accessibilité le 26 Mai by jaccede
The Future of Jaccede in Paris
Jaccede will continue to document accessible restaurants, bars, cinemas, and other institutions. They’ve also built applications for iOS and Android. The project is well on its way towards creating a complete summary of Paris. They’ll be expanding the service in the future with a National Day of Accessibility in October, 2011.
Related articles
- Wheelchair access website planned (cbc.ca)
- Wheelchair-accessible hotspots in London? (ask.metafilter.com)
- Are You Becoming More Dependent on Your Wheelchair or Are You Becoming More Independent? (yaccessibilityblog.com)
- Wheelchair access website planned (cbc.ca)
- Wheelchair access website planned (cbc.ca)
Feature Image: An Evening Chez Camille, Paris by Angela’s Fine Art
Tags: accessibility, Open Doors, Paris, travel, wheelchair
