James Casserly is 16 years old. Suffering from cerebral palsy since he was born, he decided to take a complete tour of his country, Ireland, so that people with reduced mobility would finally know what to expect and not have to not to discover the difficulties on the spot. In practice, he only takes public transport, trains, buses and trams, and campaigns for them to be accessible to all. Because too often people in wheelchairs have only two options: take a car, or, for lack of means, give up moving.
So he tests, he notes… Dublin, Belfast, Galway: are there access ramps, do they work? Are there elevators, adapted toilets? Is it easy to get on and off curbs? And what about bars and restaurants? James Casserly wants to document everything, clarify everything, precisely because he himself, wanting to travel last year with his mother, had not found anything to organize his trips. No information, no review by another wheelchair user. “The aim of the gamehe told the BBC, it’s really to avoid unpleasant surprises, and that all people with reduced mobility can go where they want, the goal is equality.
In a month he has visited five out of 32 counties, and his best commentary so far comes from Galway in the west and Belfast in the northeast. From “accessible adventures“, as he calls them, which fascinate social networks, Twitter and Instagram. Each of his criticisms, often in videos, is shared hundreds of times. James receives messages of thanks, encouragement, clarifications also from others Internet users in wheelchairs, but not only Local officials, public transport managers also follow him.
Blake’s pub and restaurant is really accessible and the have a good wheelchair accessible toilet and really nice and affordable food pic.twitter.com/He9ZFj2ZyZ
— Jimbos Accessible Adventures (@James22034777) April 23, 2022
And this is its other objective, to challenge, to highlight the subject of accessibility so that in the long term, one day, it no longer arises, so that the faults, the lacks, the barriers are obvious to all. as obvious. And James does not intend to stop in Ireland. Once the 32 counties of the island have been visited, he wants to go to Europe, and further afield, wherever possible.