TOOLS : GETTING INFO :

Access Europe: Advice for Disabled Travelers

Europe won't win any medals for accessibility—when the ancient Romans, medieval masons, and great Renaissance architects were designing their buildings, they weren’t exactly thinking of wheelchair ramps, or sturdy handrails, or easy risers on those tight spiral stone staircases inside belltowers. But don’t let any disability stop you from traveling.

ALL THE big cities have made an effort to accommodate people with disabilities over the past few years, at the very least putting in ramps where possible at museum and church entrances. And hotels have come a long way in the past five years. The vast majority of hotels three-stars and above now have at least a few handicap-friendly rooms easily accessible on the first floor.

Even Venice, a seemingly impossible warren of narrow alleys interrupted every few blocks by one of hundreds upon hundreds of little footbridges that arch up steeply and over the myriad canals that divide the city up into 118 tiny islands, has made life easier for the mobility impaired. The city has installed wheelchair lifts on a key set of those little bridges that allow access to all the major sights and, indeed nearly half the entire city (the city’s tourism map shows which streets, and bridges, are accessible via this network).

And don’t think you’ll miss out on the attractions of Europe for lack of a sense. The sight-impaired can tour the historical musical instruments section of the Residenz Museum in Vienna where, when you get near each display case, your wireless headphones pick up a signal and starts playing a selection of music from that instrument. Madrid even has a tactile museum designed for the blind.

And while ASL is understood by even fewer people over there than in the US, mutes might want to pick up a nifty set of laminated “phrase sheets” with tiny cartoons of everything related to travel—from chickens to banks to train stations—so you can just point to a pictogram to get your message across.

There is also no end of organizations to help you plan and execute your trip, providing specific advice before you go, opportunities to travel. Just click on the Outside Links button below.

If you are looking for tour companies which specialize in travel for the disabled, click here.