Rolling Traveler

Yesterday, I made the claim that North America was overall more wheelchair friendly than Europe. The countries of Europe have made huge strides in improving accessibility for disabled people in general, but there are still many things to be done before they will equal North America’s level of accessibility. Today I would like to give four pieces of advice to Europe regarding relatively simple things it could do to improve accessibility for wheelchair users.

• Install wheelchair accessible ATMs.

Right across Europe, you’ll be hard pressed to find a proper wheelchair friendly ATM, i.e. one that is set lower in the wall so that a wheelchair user doesn’t have to pull themselves up to reach the card reader, see the screen and/or touch the key pad. It’s not as if you can ask some random passer by for help with entering your pin. It doesn’t take a lot to make an ATM wheelchair accessible, but while almost every branch of every bank I used in the US and Canada had at least one accessible ATM, it doesn’t seem to occur to most banks here. I have yet to find a wheelchair friendly ATM in Dusseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt or Amsterdam: I’m not saying there are none, but they’re very well hidden if they exist. In Poland, some banks had them, others didn’t, but there were usually only a couple per city, not one per branch. They are more common in the UK, but you can still search for a while before finding one, even in central London.

As an aside, I have also noticed that far fewer European ATMs have braille instructions and earphone jack ports, which is again commonplace in the US and Canada.

This lack of accessibility is particularly a problem as you need cash more often in Europe: plastic is not in as common use in some countries here as in the US and Canada. In Germany, for example, most stores and restaurants won’t accept credit cards, and debit cards are only honored if they are from German banks. In the UK, credit cards are almost as widely accepted as in the US, but there are still many smaller stores and restaurants that don’t take plastic, or don’t take the full range of cards.

• Don’t lay decorative cobblestones or gravel where people have to walk or roll

I know I repeat myself on this one, but it really is an issue in some cities. I understand historic cobblestoned streets and squares that are being preserved, but I don’t get why modern designers still put cobblestones into new projects for thoroughfares. There is no need for decorative cobblestoned paths in farmer’s markets, school grounds or railway station forecourts: they are often rather unattractive due to the amount of litter that gets caught in the cracks, and they cause problems for able-bodied people too if the cobbles are irregularly laid. No matter what your wheelchair type, cobblestones are a pain in the shoulders and back.

Decorative gravel is even worse. It may conjure up images of grand stately homes, but wheelchairs get bogged down in it, and there really is no reason to have it in areas where people have to go, like the main pathway through a university campus or park.

• Build ramps with the right gradient or have an alternative
  

The installation of ramps at the entrances of public buildings and businesses has been going on for years in North America and Europe, but Europe still lags far behind, especially in the business sector. It also seems that the guidelines for what constitutes an accessible ramp are different in Europe, or that there is less inspection, because some of the ramps that I’ve seen are too steep to use. Even with help, going down a steep ramp can be a real trial, and as I mentioned last week, going down a steep slope on your own in a wheelchair can be dangerous.

A proper wheelchair ramp should not be at the same angle as the steps into the building, and it should not be two parallel tracks. A proper wheelchair ramp should be a single slope with a low gradient, preferably with railings that can be held onto if need be, and with a flat ‘resting point’ if it is particularly long. Of course I understand that a proper ramp cannot be installed if the building fronts onto a narrow sidewalk, or if there is some other physical obstacle. However, there are alternatives. For example, there are portable ramps that can be folded or disassembled easily and kept in storage until needed; this is common practice in the US, but only very rarely applied outside of railway stations in Europe.

• Adapt restroom stalls for wheelchair access or convert restrooms for use by both disabled and able-bodied people

In the US, almost every public restroom has one wheelchair accessible stall, and most restaurants will either have this arrangement or a single-room restroom that is usable by both disabled and able-bodied people. Admittedly, the stalls are sometimes too small for motorized wheelchairs, and for those used to separate restrooms reserved for the disabled, having to wait in a line with able-bodied people may be frustrating. However, it is better than not being able to go at all, which can be the situation in Europe.

In Europe, the disabled access restroom is generally a separate room with the wheelchair symbol on the door. In malls, railway stations, airports, and truck stops, there are always such restrooms, but in the city centers, it is hit and miss. Restaurants and cafes might have an accessible restroom, or they might not. Sometimes the restroom will be in the cellar or upstairs, so even if it’s a single-room restroom, you can’t get to it. Of the 24 restaurants I’ve gone to in the past 2 months, only 6 had accessible restrooms. Furthermore, in the 8 cities I’ve visited in that time, it took an average of 20 minutes to find an accessible restroom in the city center, and in Cologne, I had to go all the way back to the railway station to use the restroom there.

Europe is making huge improvements in wheelchair accessibility, and you can see the changes on a yearly basis, especially in the former Eastern Bloc countries that have recently joined the European Union and in the major tourist destinations. However, sometimes there are major changes being made while minor ones are overlooked. These are just a few examples; there are many more. None of the four ideas I’ve given is particularly difficult to achieve, but the improvement in freedom of movement for wheelchair users would be enormous.

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