On a recent trip to Barcelona I decided to do a short video log of the trip called “Lap Packing”. I’ve now edited the first part and here it is. It’s not the best quality in the world, but then I’m not a film director!

After my blog post yesterday about the launch of accessible.travel Cape Town I am even slightly surprised myself to be able to announce the launch of accessible.travel Melbourne today!

We still have some work to do on both destination pages such as add maps and bathroom sketches but the basic information regarding a few hotels is there. Thanks to our collaborator Bill Forrester, Director of Travability and our web designer, Quim Mañas Marsiñach, of cmpst, for all their hard work.

Below: Melbourne, provided by Bill Forrester through the accessible.travel Community.

With the amazing help of Monica Guy here on the accessible.travel Community and the owner of Accessible Cape Town, we have been able to launch the accessible.travel Cape Town destination page. There’s still a lot of work for us to do in South Africa and a lot of information to collect, but now we have four hotels for you to choose from with varying levels of facilities for people with disabilities.

Below: accessible.travel Community member Scott Rains on Safari in South Africa earlier this month.

Brussels will also be launched as a destination accessible.travel early next week with another 5 hotels to choose from. Another member of the accessible.travel Community, Bill Forrester, has been collecting hotel data and information with us in Melbourne and all of this has just been sent to the accessible.travel designer to be published.

Ian Chill has also been sending us some great information about accessible hotels in Cairns as well as posting information in the accessible.travel Community Cairns Group. I’ll announce when Cairns is available with instant hotel booking here on the blog as soon as it’s ready. Another collaborator with the accessible.travel project is Hartmut Smikac and will be helping us collect information in Germany, Austria and Hungary. Again in Europe, Luis Varela from Accessible Portugal has agreed to work with us, this time in Portuguese capital, Lisbon. Luis is the latest person to agree to work with us and I’m really looking forward to working with him further.

Hartmut has also translated our audit forms into German and Loretta Jaumandreu has translated them into Spanish making it easier for us to work with local people with disabilities at destinations that speak these languages.

If you would like to get more involved with the accessible.travel project and help us collect information about hotels, attractions, museums, bars, restaurants, nightclubs and transport where you live and earn commissions for the work you do, please contact me through my profile.

Craig

The radio interview on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Here on Earth show with Scott Rains and myself is now available:

Interview and Links

Podcast

Welcome to the March 2009 issue of the Global Access News Travel E-Zine. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to write us and share your travel tips and experiences.

1. ACCESSIBLE TRAVEL

Craig Grimes, who operates the excellent www.accessiblebarcelona.com is now offering a new site, Accessible Travel, http://www.accessible.travel/ It features access information on hotels in San Francisco, as well as Paris, London, Prague and additional European cities. Grimes intends to eventually expand his site to include a host of other destinations, which will surely prove a boon to disabled travelers.

Also mentioned in Global Access News this month is our other web page AccessibleNicaragua:

4. ACCESSIBLE NICARAGUA

Craig Grimes, of Accessible Barcelona and Accessible Travel, takes on access in Nicaragua. It is always so encouraging to see new regions like Nicaragua open up to disabled travelers. At last, we can put Central America on our itineraries. Visit www.accessiblenicaragua.com

Source: GLOBAL ACCESS NEWS TRAVEL E-ZINE, VOLUME X, NUMBER 3, March 2009

Disability NOW (Greece) have posted about accessible.travel in their forum in Greek!

The European Network for Accessible Toursim (ENAT) talk about accessible.travel in a blog post today. ENAT have been very supportive of accessible.travel and have shared access data for various destinations.

Without ENAT accessible.travel wouldn’t have got to this point so quickly and I look forward to working with them more in the future. I’ll keep you all posted through the blog about developments with ENAT, of which, I am hoping that there will be many in the not too distant future.

Another example of how information may be displayed on the accessible.travel booking engine, this time with a general description/introduction to the hotel. Unfortunately, at the time of publication we do not have access to photos of the adaptations at this hotel, we are working to correct this as soon as possible.

Scandic Byporten, Oslo
Jernbanetorget 6
0154, Oslo

Welcome to Scandic Byporten

Enjoy fjord views from the Scandic Byporten hotel, set in Oslo’s Central Station.

Great shopping and Oslo attractions are on the doorstep. Inside, find high-speed internet access in all rooms, as well as a business corner. Convene in one of two on site meeting rooms or keep fit in the gym, just 1 block away.

Oslo shopping is on your doorstep at the Scandic Byporten hotel – the hotel is in the same building as the Byporten Shopping Centre. Explore nearby Oslo attractions like Akershus Fortress or bustling Karl Johan Street. Sporty types will love Bogstad Golf Club, 13 miles away.

Information for People with Disabilities

Entrance for People with Disabilities:

Ramped or level access to main entrance: Yes

Door Width: 100cm

Type of door: Sliding automatic door

Lift:

Lift door width: 90cm

Lift depth: 136cm

Lift width: 156cm

Is there an audible signal for lift stops at each floor: Yes

Is there a hand-rail in the lift: Yes

Guest Rooms with Facilities for People with Disabilities:

Door width: 87cm

Type of beds available: Double.

Height of bed: 58cm

Clear space under bed: 30cm

Light switch next to bed: Yes

The furniture in the bedroom cannot be rearranged

En-suite Bathroom:

Door type: Door opens inwards

Door width: 88cm

Bathing Facilities:

Roll in shower: Yes

Shower door width: 73cm

Dimensions of shower: 98cm x 179cm

Wall mounted shower seat provided: No (a free standing seat is available)

Shower handrails height: 100cm

Shower handrail length: 30cm

WC:

WC height: 48cm

Facing toilet, clear space on left side is: 35 cm.

Facing toilet, clear space on right side is: 125 cm.

Clear space in front of WC: 200cm

WC handrail length (drop down): 70cm

WC handrail height: 65cm

Sink:

Sink height: 85cm

Clear space under sink: 71cm

Clear width under sink: 178cm

Sink depth to back wall: 50cm

Other Details:

Public alarm system with: visual alarm signal, vibrating pad and auditory signal (bell / siren)

You can reserve this hotel through accessible.travel

Since AccessibleBarcelona started growing I have often received emails from people with disabilities asking if we only operate in Barcelona. People that have stayed in Barcelona through using the services of AccessibleBarcelona also frequently get back in touch for advice regarding other cities and asking if we can help them arrange trips to other destinations.

I’ve often thought about trying to expand my work through replicating the ideals and standards of AccessibleBarcelona in other European cities. I love city breaks, just 3 months after becoming paraplegic I discharged myself from Pinderfields Spinal Injuries Unit and went travelling to the Netherlands with a friend. Whilst there we covered a lot of the country, but I especially loved Rotterdam and Amsterdam, 2 great cities.

Whilst working for the Spinal Injuries Association (SIA) in the UK I had to visit London, Cardiff and Belfast for work, but I also visited various cities in Germany and Prague the Czech Capital just for fun. After saying farewell to the SIA and moving to Barcelona I fell in love with the place, it’s just an amazing Mediterranean city, the hustle and bustle, culture, history, beach and the Pyrenees are very close too for a quick skiing trip in the winter. While living in Barcelona I didn’t travel all that much, but when I did I hit more European cities including Madrid, Edinburgh, Paris, Munich, Nuremberg and of course one of my all time favourites; Berlin.

The biggest problem with staying in a city a person with a disability seems to finding decent accessible accommodation, I’ve just been to London in Oct 2008 and trying to find a hotel was a real hassle. When I went to Paris I also had problems as well as when I was in Berlin. Just trying to find reliable information about accommodation facilities for people with disabilities is hard, although a hotel reservation engine may state that a hotel is “wheelchair friendly” or has “facilities for disabled” they don’t give us any details of what that actually means. Frequently, the people that have said that somewhere is suitable for people with disabilities don’t actually have a clue about what we need. Neither do they give us enough information or photos about the facilities so that we can make a decision for ourselves, they just assume that they know best and they are usually wrong.

Accessible.travel is an attempt to even the playing field a little and give other people with disabilities information regarding accessible city breaks. The site will post hotel information and your comments about hotels and accommodation. This isn’t going to happen overnight, but with time, Accessible.travel aims to be a useful resource to people with disabilities that, like me, love travelling to different cities around the world.