Wheelchair-Friendly Cities

Everyone deserves to be able to move around this country without mobility restrictions — this is not only a courtesy, it’s the law.

However, not all cities are as accessible as others. Some are less accessible due to their climate, others are less accessible due to a lack of services available, and others are considered less accessible due to their transit systems.

We did some research to learn what some of the most wheelchair-friendly cities in the US are. The first thing we discovered was this list put together by the Christoper Reeve Foundation of the top 20 most wheelchair-friendly cities in America.

The Christopher Reeve study provides a list of the cities in the Unites States considered to be the most wheelchair-friendly. While the study doesn’t state the specific reasons why each city is wheelchair-friendly, it does explain the criteria used to rank these cities.

The study looks at two things in particular:

• Transportation: How accessible the city’s public transportation is to individuals in wheelchairs.
• Housing: A set of standards called Universal Design exists with guidelines on how to make housing accessible for everyone. The study looks at how much of a city’s housing developers abide by Universal Design.

The study set out to find the most “livable” cities for those in wheelchairs, and this is what it concluded they are:

1. Seattle, Wash.
2. Albuquerque, N.M.
3. Reno, Nev.
4. Denver, Colo.
5. Portland, Ore.
6. Chicago, Ill.
7. Birmingham, Ala.
8. Winston-Salem, N.C.
9. Orlando, Fla.
10. Lubbock, Texas

For top 20 please see the full list.

Unfortunately, New Jersey did not rank anywhere on their top 20 list. We will continue to do our part to make NJ one of the most wheelchair-accessible cities one ramp and stairlift at a time!

Is that list written in stone? Absolutely not. There’s plenty of information out there about wheelchair-friendly cities, and after looking combing through a lot of it certain trends start to be noticed.

A Few of the Top Wheelchair-friendly Cities

One of the cities that comes up often in people’s lists is Seattle. Although listed first in the Christopher Reeve Study, Seattle is listed third in this brilliant infographic from Living Spinal about wheelchair-friendly cities. Seattle is credited with great transportation and innovative services for disabled individuals.

The two studies also agree on the wheelchair-friendliness of Portland, Oregon. Portland is credited with having hundreds of options for adaptive recreation facilities and programs.

In this report on the wheelchair-friendliness of some of the top cities in the world, Washington DC was the only US city mentioned. It was credited for having tremendous transportation options for disabled individuals.

“In Washington DC, in contrast, the whole network is wheelchair accessible. There are lifts at every station. A wheelchair-bound person in DC can travel around with the same level of ease as an able-bodied person.”

We just glossed over a few of the most wheelchair-friendly cities in this list. For more information check out some of the resources we presented in this article.

For more about how to make your home wheelchair-friendly, browse some of the products we have available for NJ residents.