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In Niort (Deux-Sèvres), a user with reduced mobility testifies to his difficulties. Non-accessible sidewalk, garbage cans blocking the way and shops that are difficult to access… So many problems that these people in wheelchairs encounter. A team from France Télévisions followed him for a typical route.
These are everyday gestures such as climbing a sidewalk. And yet, in Niort (Deux-Sèvres), a person with reduced mobility finds himself blocked. Impossible for her to get on the sidewalk. “I have wheels that don’t touch the ground”comments a user, trying to climb somehow, “there I was on the verge of falling”. In the streets, between the garbage cans that take up space or the poles, it is difficult to move. After multiple efforts, he prefers to get on the road. And if after a few risks, he finally arrives at the shop, nothing is over.
Three times longer than a pedestrian
Shop doors are heavy. “We don’t ask for more effort than that, that we can go home, that someone be there, always vigilant to help us”, he explains. The shopkeeper replies:We have a doorbell, we have everything you need! But maybe it’s not enough“. This lack of accessibility has often deterred users from going to the city centre. “A young person with a disability is not going to think about all that and is not going to anticipate. He is going to run into walls every time”, he confides. For the same journey, it will have taken three times longer than a pedestrian.
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