Washington, D.C.

By Don Barrie

During the first two weeks of summer 1994, my family and I took a vacation to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. We enjoyed our time in those cities, taking in many historical sites. However, I want to inform interested travellers about going to Washington, because it is the most wheelchair-friendly city I have seen in the United States. Most places I went to were fully accessible.

The museums at the Smithsonian Institute have elevators with buttons that are at an appropriate height for people using wheelchairs. Each museum has audioÄcassette tours for people with visual disabilities. All films, including the 20-minute introductory film about the Smithsonian, are closed-captioned.

The White House has two ramps that lead into the main entrance. The entire tour is held on the main level and lasts only about 10 minutes because most of the rooms are closed to the public.

The tour of the Capitol Building is a must-see for travellers with disabilities. If you arrive in the morning between 9:00 and 11:00, you will get a personal tour of the building. On this tour, you will be able to see certain rooms and areas of the building from which most visitors are restricted -- including the mysterious secrets behind President Madison’s office!

Even though some buildings remain largely inaccessible, some small but significant efforts have been made to make them more accessible. One example is the Ford Theatre (where President Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865). When I went there, I was disappointed to learn that the upstairs level was inaccessible to people using wheelchairs. However, I managed to get down to the basement floor to see the Lincoln Museum by using a stair lift. (Anyone wishing to purchase a stair lift for their homes should expect to pay over $100,000!)

The easiest way to travel in the city is on the MetroBus and the subway system. Unlike the transportation systems of many other North American cities, access to transportation in Washington is seen as a right rather than a privilege. Every subway and bus is wheelchair-accessible. And the Metro subway system is the only one in North America to provide outdoor elevators that lead into the subway stations! For their convenience, people using the elevators can insert their subway passes through a slot for processing as a means of paying their fare. I used the Metro subway twice during my week in Washington.

These are just a few examples of the places I managed to see during my visit to Washington. As the capital of the United States, Washington is a significantly barrier-free model city which other cities through North America and the world should take notice of.

For more information about accessible tourism in Washington, there are two guidebooks that I strongly recommend. The following titles provided an invaluable resource for myself and my family while in Washington:

- Access Washington: Guide to Metropolitan Washington for Persons with Physical Disabilities (1989, Ipachi). Write to: Information, Protection and Advocacy Centre for People with Disabilities, 4455 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite B100, Washington, DC, 20008, or phone: (202) 966-8081.
- Fodor’s Great American Vacations for Travellers with Disabilities (1994, Fodor’s Travel Publications, Inc.). Available at most bookstores for approximately CDN $24.99.

(Don Barrie is an undergraduate student at Carleton University in Ottawa, ON.)