As I am getting older I am payingg more attention to people in motorized wheelchairs passing my traditional non-E bike. In our village all the stops of the Strassenbahn have been redone so you can enter/leave the tram without needing to step done or up. This took like two years and the tram cars and the stops had to be changed. Changing this for the complete tram network around Karlsruhe will probably take decades. Changing a working system in densely populated areas is not a trivial enterprise. Every little improvement only puts the spotlight on the remaining work to be done. But the mindset is changing. My daughter just bought an old house and already started thinking about refitting the house how to be usable once she gets old (she just turned 30!)
10 months ago
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Yeah - me as a disabled noticed that too when I was on Vacation in New York and San Francisco. Way more wheelchair friendly in a lot of places. For some reason that stopped at the curbstone. Those were often not lowered at all or in much bigger distances. But besides that the ( The two Cities I have seen😂) are a lot more wheelchair friendly
10 months ago (edited)
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There is a bridge where I live that somewhat recently got a new ramp which was celebrated as wheelchair accessible because it's not a steep elevation with flat parts every few metres allowing wheelchair-bound people to take breaks if necessary. Only problem is you'll die trying to get down the other end in a wheelchair. You can get on the bridge, traverse the river and then there is no safe way down to street level.
10 months ago | 11
Not quite a diababilty, but new mums with prams have to learn to navigate disabled friendly trams, trains with low floor access, specialist appointments in old buildings with tiny or no lift, trains with 2 sided entrances, where one door is broken and the pram is too wide to walk down the aisle, therefore waiting for a stop that opens on the working door side. That was my experience in Zurich.
10 months ago (edited)
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I used to have a pub that had access via two very steep sets of stairs. When the UK legislation about access came into force we were asked to make "reasonable adjustments" to facilitate easy access. Because of the site of the pub, roadside by a busy roundabout, any adjustments like ramps would have been about 70m long at either side of the pub so we were exempt as that would have been unreasonable.
10 months ago | 0
I worked in France, the UK and Spain before my accident, frequently traveling and sensing the different mentalities. Being quadriplegic since about 20 years I have had some funny and/or absurd situations in Europe. Often it depends on the mindset: looking for solutions (as a PRM) instead of problems. But I must admit that I‘m not always able to overcome barriers in my mind due to the physical barriers y may encounter in life. Feel free to contact me, I love your channels 👍
10 months ago
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As a German who lived in surprise surprise Germany, but also in the US, UK and currently in Poland, I see the accessibility in Poland even for just old people, weaker people or parents a big challenge. There are often many stairs down and up and the trains itself have stairs as well you need to get up (with luggage, children, whatever its brutal). But also if you reach your destination and there was when I struggle, you have to open the doors yourself with some mechanic handle. I had and actually still have no idea how to do it. If I take the train, I check to go to a door with other people already waiting to get out :D might be just me because of my Asperger but the situation always stresses me out. So even (neurodiverse) fit adults might struggle with the accessibility in Poland :D
10 months ago
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For traveling with trains there is a Mobilitätshilfe to change trains you can book at DB also at airports. Those are for disabled or sick travelers. Usually it is much easier to to chane trains or bord a flight because the help has knowledge of the train station and keys to short cuts
10 months ago
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I don't know if you just want to cover Germany or go into other European countries as well, but if you do want to talk about other countries, I can tell you that living in Portugal I've been just horrified about the absolute lack of any kind of wheelchair accessibility anywhere. It really amazes me. I lived in Ireland before moving to Portugal, and there it was better. Not fantastic, but definitely better than in Portugal. I don't use a wheelchair by the way. I moved here with a baby and pushing him around on a stroller is what made me realize this. I feel really terrible for anyone with a physical disability trying to get around here. I always thought this sort of thing would be really well done in a place like Germany (except of course for the historic areas and buildings which are hard to adapt). Looking forward to watching your video to learn more about how it is over there.
10 months ago
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In the Netherlands I notice that not always sidewalks leave enough width for wheelchairs. An increasing plague is that some (probably heavily subsidized by the government considering how few people use it) companies put their electric rental bikes/scooters on the sidewalks and often they also don't put those straight where it is wider but as much in the way as possible to force people to pretty much walk into it (my interpretation is that it is agressive advertising/spamming). But also some sidewalks still are pretty small.
10 months ago
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Idk if you'd be interested. I am not German but I design installations (not buildings themselves) and have some knowledge of EU rules (and Dutch rules) regarding accessibility. Because if they need a lift, or a button to open the door and stuff like toilets with alarms is what we are involved in the design. So if you'd need information about guidelines and rules I might be able to help out.
10 months ago
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The reason is that the ADA was enacted already in 1990. The European Accessibility Act came into force only in 2019. Thus we have a delay of about 30 years during which accessibility was dealt with by national, regional or local governments without much emphasis and coordination. You find in the EU very accessible countries, like Finland, and very patchwork approaches, like in Germany - and everything inbetween. I remember well that the ADA was seen as a very good example during the 1990s and 2000s.
10 months ago (edited) | 14
I’m interested in this video! As an urbanist in the US, moving to Europe is idealized. However, accessibility is a big factor for me.
10 months ago
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Something that often gets overlooked even more are the needs of people with multiple disabilities. A very dear friend was wheelchair bound as well as blind and not only was mobility pretty much impossible for her without help, but even in places where it should have been possible it didn't work. I visited a dance performance with her once that was arranged by the local disability group. Everyone pre-booked, so they knew who was coming and what disabilities they had. Still they managed to forget the fact that the area for the blind and visually impaired, where one could connect to the audio description, was only accessible via steep stairs. The wheelchair accessible area was on the opposite side where one had no audio connection.. and no-one realised that this might be a problem or that she might need a different solution until she was there and everyone stood there with surprised Pikachu faces..
10 months ago
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On a related topic. Maybe try and reach out to the organizations which service those that are blind. A couple of decades ago I did a little IT work in the field and back then there was big differences in what was being done from nation to nation as well as from state to state. No real facts on how things have progressed since, but I do notice fx. zebra crossings here in Denmark having noise makers meant to help people navigate them, with quick beeps meaning 'go' and slow beeps meaning 'stay' (and that they are clever enough to adjust their volume according to the noise levels in the surroundings).
10 months ago
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Netherlands here but you are right, there are no laws in place to make life of the handicapt better or easier. I once told my hairdresser he didn't had a handicap accecible bathroom. It had an entry door and another door to get into the restroom and it was super small. He told me he just didn't think about it and felt kind of stupid as he has a lot of elderly people. Next time I was there he removed the second door in the restroom making it much better to get around. Another problem is the earopean handicap card. You can use it in the whole of Europe but the rules are different in each city (at least in The Netherlands). Sometimes you can park everywhere and you don't have to pay for parking but in other cities you need to pay everywhere and in again other cities you have free parking on a handicap parking spot but you need to pay and sometimes you only can park on a handicap spot with your card and not on other spots. There was a time some polititions wanted to improve this mess but the majority voted against it. We thought the US is much better for when you have a handicap.
10 months ago
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In case you don't know about her, there is a Canadian YouTuber called Molly Burke who for years has been travelling the world as a spokeswoman for greater accessibility for disabled people. She is herself blind, but she speaks to other kinds of disabilities as well. On one of her videos I learned that Spain has outdone most countries in making public spaces more accessible to the blind. I think Molly Burke might be able to provide you with information and tips to other sources.
10 months ago
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Type Ashton
I need your help on an upcoming video!
I'm working on a video discussing the pretty significant difference in Universal Design standards between the USA/Canada and European countries (i.e. accessibility laws and standards and how that impacts the urban environment/architecture).
Something I noticed right away when I moved to Germany was how much less inclusive design was for those with disabilities. Outside historical buildings (which of course, have their own challenges in adapting to modern design regulations), even more modern structures (i.e. the Hauptbahnhof) were extraordinarily difficult to navigate.
Of course, I can talk about this topic as someone in the design industry - but I would love to talk to others who have a lived experience with a disability and navigating life in Europe. If you are comfortable being on camera and live in the Freiburg area (100km radius) and/or can jump on a video call which I can record and share in a video - please reach out to me at:
typeashton[at]gmail.com
10 months ago | [YT] | 200