Wheelchair-friendly restaurant tips

[Cudzoziemiec]

A friend is coming over from the other side of the country and wants to go out for a meal. I guess he's had my cooking once too often! His wife is in a wheelchair (temporarily – hopefully) so he wants to go somewhere "with parking" ie easy to push from car to restaurant. And presumably somewhere that's wheelchair-friendly inside too. Ideas? Not individual recommendations obviously, just generic ideas and tips. Perhaps a useful thread for others too!

[mrcharly-YHT]

The Press Kitchen in York is good.

Oh, you didn't want recommendations?

Ring first and ask if they have wheelchair access. Then I'd suggest actually taking a shufti to check if there is space to sit somewhere nice (check you won't be stuck near the door in a draught). Are the toilets actually usable?

[rafletcher]

Perhaps have a gander here, then call / check?

http://www.accessiblecountryside.org.uk/gloucestershire-pubs

[Cudzoziemiec]

Perhaps have a gander here, then call / check?

http://www.accessiblecountryside.org.uk/gloucestershire-pubs

That's coming up with a "403 forbidden" even when I google the accessible countryside site, which is a bit weird.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Oh, you didn't want recommendations?

Recommendations are good, I just didn't think there was any point in something which sounded like "tell me some names!"

But the other tips are good. 

[hellymedic]

Most of the chains are wheelchair accessible, as are many larger restaurants anywhere, at least in theory.

Wheelchairs can be bulky and cumbersome animals so avoid poky niches.

Find a place you LIKE, then phone to check how they'd accommodate a wheelchair.

Cutesy Olde Worlde locations don't all need to rebuild to make facilities though many have.

Wheelchairs often place the user's head further back than a normal chair, which can make hearing companions difficult. If possible, go for a quiet place. The hard floors and furnishings made conversation with fellow diners at Wagamama a real strain, though their facilities were otherwise fine.

Make sure your venue knows you'll have a wheelchair user in your party when you book so they can clear all the stored junk from the accessible toilet and its access route. Almost every wheelchair accessible loo is used as a store room for obstructive junk, making it useless/embarrassing for its primary purpose.

ETA You may find this useful https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=100161.0

[Kim]

The wheelchair that penny-pinching architects (and similar) design accessible facilities around is often the wheelchair equivalent of the child's mountain bike that Train Operating Companies design bike spaces for.

If your friend's wife's wheelchair use is temporary, then she's probably in a hospital-issue wheelchair-shaped-object that's pretty close to that, but if it's a power chair, scooter or she has difficulty transferring, you can't rely on accessible facilities actually being accessible.

Gravel is not your friend.

Muggles are really skilled at overlooking that one half-height step on the way to the loos.

If her impairment can reasonably be expected to last less than 12 months, then she isn't disabled for the purposes of the Equality Act.  Service providers do have an anticipatory duty to provide reasonable access for common disabilities, but a non-disabled person in a wheelchair wouldn't have a legal right to expect them to make specific accommodations.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's not a power chair, cos half the reason for "a car park" is to make it easier for him to push her!

[hellymedic]

The Kim is SO right about gravel!

Dining tables...

Foot rests/plates raise the feet/knees several inches and under table clearance becomes a MAJOR issue. I do NOT like having my knees pushed into the sharp ledge often found on the underside of wooden tables!

It can help to sit astride a table leg or best, avoid these altogether. Get a sneak peek under tablecloths to avoid a clash of legs.

If your friend can transfer onto a normal dining chair, this can optimise her feeding, but is a PITA should she need a rapid toilet break.

[Kim]

The Kim is SO right about gravel!

Many years of Type 2 fun transporting my grandmother (who wasn't especially heavy, but had no useful control of her body mass) in her small-wheeled gaspipe NHS-issue chair from car to my parents' front door and back across the worst kind of railway-ballast gravel driveway.  Forwards was not an option.  I think we experimented with laying down some carpet offcuts at one point.  In the end we established a careful car parking procedure to minimise wheeling distance, with the required multi-point turn helping to compact the gravel.

[ian]

Try speeding down an incline at some speed. Fun!

Until you hit the gravel at the bottom.

[hellymedic]

I've just returned from a large family dinner at my brother's house.

They had thought out everything until they parked me at the trestle table whose legs abutted my feet. My place setting was totally out of my reach.

They removed everything from the table, rotated it though 90 degrees and reset it for all those affected.

My brother is good, very good.

Check table legs!