I’ve just returned from a six-day break in Barcelona. Two things struck me in particular about a wheelchair-using disabled person spending time in this wonderful city.
Firstly, the ability to get to so many places is like a breath of fresh air for a wheelchair user – particularly one like me, coming from London. Both cities were built hundreds of years ago and consequently pose challenges to wheelchairs. And both places, having been chosen as Olympic cities, have had to find ways around those challenges.
Barcelona is a delight. There are drop-curbs everywhere, wide and even pavements, every public building is totally accessible, many private ones are too, nearly all the buses have ramps, and many of the metro stations have lifts down from street level as well as ramped platforms up to trains.
The second thing that strikes me about being in Barcelona (and which I think is probably the reason for so many adaptations) is the refreshingly different attitude of the Spanish people towards people with disabilities.
Rather than being treated with the “kid gloves” that I frequently come across in the UK and in other parts of the world, I found myself being treated as “just another guy” who is part of the normal fabric of life.
My recollection is that the Spanish Civil War produced many people with significant permanent physical injuries – and as a result, more visibly disabled people played full parts in daily society. This probably explains why I felt particularly included in Barcelona rather than excluded. And why the “does he take sugar?” attitude is comparatively rare.
