Accessible Paris: Where to find information online

Paris Tourist Office’s Tourisme Durable et Adapté department gives tourism professionals and the public information on accessibility. It also assists businesses in applying laws and being properly outfitted.

Coordinator Hervé Guillon is an urbanist who has worked with Ed­ouard Pastor at Handigo. Asked how Paris compares with other cities regarding accessibility, he says: “We could do better, but we’re catching up with cities such as Barcelona and London. We’re not the best adapted as yet but we’re doing a good job at communicating what we have.”

Paris Tourist Office provides extensive information, including a list of accessible museums and monuments in and around the capital along with other information: en.parisinfo.com/practical-paris/visiting-paris-with- a-disability.

A downloadable brochure in English entitled Accessible Paris gives information on adapted hotels and restaurants and on companies specialised in transporting people with disabilities, along with information about artistic, cultural, and entertainment venues: tinyurl.com/AccessParis. A paper version is available in tourist offices.

Accessible.net lists accessible businesses and public buildings throughout France, and beyond.

Yanous.com is a French web magazine with news and information for travellers and residents with a disability.

Jaccede.com/en/ is an internet guide and app that provides information about accessible businesses throughout France.

I Wheel Share is an app through which users share their experience about navigating Paris and other cities in view of physical and sensorial deficiencies.

Paris en Fauteuil Roulant (Paris in a wheelchair) is a Facebook page concerned with culture and lifestyle in the capital.

Labels of accessibility

Edouard Pastor and Handigo have provided the know-how behind the creation of Label Accessibilité (LA), which indicates the accessibility and usage performances of non-residential buildings.

Coordinated by the French technical bureau CSTB, it has been available in France since the spring via CertivéA and will extend internationally via its subsidiary Cerway beginning in 2018.

Already well established, the label Tourisme & Handicap, France’s national Tourism and Disability label, was created in 2001 for the purpose of “providing reliable information… about accessibility to tourism sites and facilities in relation to the four categories of disability … and to develop a range of adapted tourism options.”

Label awards, along with a national label Destination pour tous (destination for all), are managed by the association Tourisme & Handicaps.

Annette Masson, president since the association’s inception, says: “We used to knock at doors to get tourism professionals interested in our work, now they come to us.

“There’s been an evolution of mentality. In Europe, France is now in the average regarding accessibility but we’ve made enormous progress.

“It’s difficult to make an old country accessible.”

In becoming involved in issues concerning accessibility, Ms Masson was not in a situation of disability herself, nor was anyone in her immediate family, but she had come to know people who were and saw the problems that confronted them.

“It’s not up to only those with disabilities or those close to them to defend their rights. It’s also a societal question. We must stop thinking that only those in a situation of disability need to care about accessibility. We all do. The lift may be essential for some but we’re all happy to see one as we get older or if we’re pushing a pram.”