My Danish Adventure

Whenever I have travelled within Europe, it has always proven difficult as there have been a lot of access barriers (not just the language).

From my research, Europe can be split into two broad areas; Northern -Scandinavia, Germany etc or Southern – France, Spain etc.

The research I have done showed that Northern Europe was very ahead in their thinking around disability and access so there should be very few barriers. Imagine my shock when on a recent visit to Copenhagen, I found this to be completely untrue!

It was the case that attitude, information and communication barriers had been eradicated. However, the physical barriers were very prevalent and very visible. In my experience suitable accommodation was very difficult to source.

When I arrived, as I had never visited before, I wanted to look around the city. The two main options were a tour bus or a river boat cruise. Both were inaccessible. Therefore, a third and far less appealing option had to be thought of and this was to do a “walk around” tour myself. It was impossible to see the whole city in a day - after all I am not Superman - and so we were only able to go and see a few of the sights. This presented me with a number of physical barriers such as poorly maintained pavements, ramp up a pavement and steps down the other side, seldom dropped kerbs etc.

My Auntie, who lives in Denmark, has put me in touch with someone who I can write a letter to within the Danish Government, to explain these issues and why Copenhagen does not reflect the perceived image that Scandinavia has relating to accessibility.