Travails of a Wheelchair-Traveller, or, Can We Come In?

IMG_4186Transcript from a real conversation: Me:  “Hi, my daughter uses an electric wheelchair, so I’m calling to find out if your building is wheelchair-accessible.” Proprietor: “Oh yes, we are definitely wheelchair-accessible.  No problem.” Me: “Great, see you tomorrow.” Next day, at the building: Me at the front door which has a full step up into a questionably-narrow doorway, “Hi, can you tell me where your accessible entry is?” Proprietor, “This is it!  See, there’s only one step up!!  Can I help you lift the wheelchair?” Speechless me, “Ummm…..” And it doesn’t get any better online or in travel books either.  For example, I recently bought Fodor’s Northern California 2014.  There was not one single entry about wheelchair accessibility.  A search in the index under “wheelchairs,” “disability,” or “accessibility” proved fruitless.  Many hotels neglect to put any information about wheelchair-accessible rooms, and I find that restaurant websites can be even more negligent. IMG_2936Hence, the birth of my blog and perhaps, of a new (to me) review site called Able Road.  I hope Yelp! buys it and incorporates the information.   Able Road allows you to rate all manner of challenges to accessibility, including path of travel (internal), counters/bars/registers, and evacuation information.  Yes, it’s good to know if there’s ADA parking and accessible bathrooms, but it makes for a truly pleasant dining or hotel experience if the internal path of travel is uncrowded and if you can access the hotel counter or register.   I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone trying to ascertain the layout of our potential destination, but with Able Road, everything I need to know is available at a glance. (By the way, I just joined Able Road as a member, and you can read a review that TravelByWheelchair wrote for Laurelhurst Market, in Portland OR.)

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