Maps and apps to find wheelchair accessible places in Switzerland

Are you planning a trip, a day out, or a date? Accessibility is key – especially for wheelchair users. For several years now, accessibility maps and apps have been available to help. While Paramap and the Pro Infirmis map will soon be discontinued, there are still great alternatives. This article focuses on Ginto, Google Maps, and Wheelmap – three tools that continue to make travel in Switzerland more inclusive by providing information on accessible routes, inclusive hotels, and facilities.

What are accessibility maps?

Accessibility maps are interactive digital tools that enable wheelchair users to easily find accessible services when travelling, without relying on chance or local knowledge. The maps provide detailed information on accessible locations such as shops, restaurants, toilets, parking spaces, and hotel rooms.

Accessibility maps allow wheelchair users to find accessible locations when travelling.

In Switzerland, these maps play an important role in promoting accessibility. The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) of 2002 set the goal that, by 2024, all infrastructure, buildings, and public transport should be barrier-free and fully accessible to people with disabilities. Unfortunately, the reality has yet to fully meet these expectations.

“Over 500 railway stations and even two thirds of all bus and tram stops are not accessible by the end of the deadline. The responsible parties have largely missed the deadline – trust in the responsible institutions has been shattered.”

Media release of the Swiss disability rights organisation Inclusion Handicap of 30 November 2023 (in German)

While Switzerland still has a long way to go in improving the accessibility of its beautiful destinations, there are several excellent accessibility maps available to help wheelchair users find existing accessible places.

Ginto app

The free Ginto app provides information on the accessibility of many public places in Switzerland, including hotels, restaurants, cultural sites, public institutions, and various service locations. You can not only search for accessible places, but also add and edit entries if you notice that a location’s wheelchair accessibility information is missing or incorrect.

By selecting a destination in the app, you can get detailed information about its accessibility – from the width of doorways to the height of toilet bowls to the number of disabled parking spaces. This level of detail goes far beyond that of Google Maps and is important for many wheelchair users to understand if a place is accessible for them. Each entry also indicates whether the information has been verified by an external authority, such as Pro Infirmis.

A special feature of the Ginto app is that you can create a personal profile and define all your accessibility needs in detail. You can tell the app whether you use a manual or electric wheelchair, and what spatial conditions are problematic for you, such as the maximum height of a step you can manage. The app will then use a traffic light system to show suitable places for you and provide the accessibility information relevant to your needs.

The Ginto app is designed not only for wheelchair users but also for the elderly and people with strollers. It is available for both Apple and Android devices.

The Ginto app can be personalized to show you the accessibility information that is relevant to you. (Source: https://apps.apple.com)

The Ginto app, the OK:GO initiative, and Swiss Youth Hostels are working together to improve accessibility in Swiss tourism. The OK:GO initiative supports Swiss tourism providers in sharing accessibility information about their services on the Ginto app. Swiss Youth Hostels is using the app to provide transparency about accessible rooms and facilities. Many Swiss youth hostels are leaders in providing accessible facilities.

For example, are you planning a visit to the beautiful Locarno in Ticino to enjoy some sunshine? On the Swiss Youth Hostels website, you can search for barrier-free rooms in Locarno. By selecting “Barrier-free access” and clicking on “More information at ginto.guide”, you can select the type of wheelchair you use and check the accessibility of the Locarno youth hostel on Ginto at a detailed level.

Accessibility maps like the Ginto app help wheelchair users to quickly assess the accessibility of a location, for example using a traffic light system. Green means a place is fully accessible, yellow means it is partially accessible, and red means it is not accessible at all.

Google Maps

Google Maps was built to help people discover the world by car, on foot or by public transportation. Well, exploring and travelling on a wheelchair is not left aside by the giant Google. This Google Maps Help page for Android or for iPhone gives detailed instructions on how you can use the app to:

• Find accessible places and routes
• Update a business's accessibility attributes
• Submit accessibility info through reviews

The following video explains how to find accessibility information for any location on Google Maps. Just open the Google Maps app, tap your profile picture or initial, select “Settings”, tap “Accessibility settings”, and then turn on “Accessible places”. Now when you search for a place, you will see a wheelchair icon if it has an accessible entrance. Tap the place and scroll down for more information, like if there is accessible seating, restrooms, or parking.

Google Maps is the only map in this article that also helps you find wheelchair-accessible routes – both “walking” and by public transport. To enable it, type your desired route into Google Maps. Depending on how you want to get around, select the symbol for pedestrians or for public transport. Then tap on the three dots at the top right, then on “Options” and activate the “Wheelchair accessible” option under “Routes”. This ensures that Google Maps will only suggest public transport routes that are accessible for wheelchair users. In Switzerland, this is not always possible, but it is in the big cities.

Wheelmap

Wheelmap is a project of the German-based association “Social heroes” funded by the well-known German inclusion activist Raúl Krauthausen. It is available both as a web-based platform (wheelmap.org) and as a mobile application for iPhone and Android devices.

This accessibility map provides information in 33 languages. It allows users to identify the accessibility of points of interest, which are classified into twelve categories: transport, food & drink, leisure, banking/post, education, shopping, sport, tourism, accommodation, miscellaneous, authorities & embassies, and health.

Wheelmap currently features more than 3.2 million publicly accessible places, with the information gathered through user contributions. Users can contribute by rating the wheelchair accessibility of locations, uploading photos of entrances and toilets, as well as adding new places. They can also rate the accessibility of toilets, independently from the accessibility of the place where the toilet is located.

The criteria for tagging public places as fully accessible, partially accessible, or not accessible on wheelmap.org. (Source: https://news.wheelmap.org/en/faq/)

The old town of Lucerne on wheelmap.org, with locations shown in the colour of their accessibility category.

Unfortunately, when we tested the web-based version of wheelmap.org on a desktop computer, it took a long time to load the page when zooming out, and we got error messages when we tried to enter a location in the search box. We reported the issues to Wheelmap, hopefully they will be resolved soon.

Which maps and apps do you use to plan your trips? Are they useful? Let us know what you think. And don’t forget to get involved in building knowledge and making Switzerland more accessible for everyone!