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Toll motorway accessibility for wheelchair users: a survey

Physiological Ward Technological Innovation-Clinical Investigation Centre and Federative Research Institute on Disability, Raymond Poincaré Hospital, Versailles University, Garches

Nicolas Roche

Physiological Ward Technological Innovation-Clinical Investigation Centre and Federative Research Institute on Disability, Raymond Poincaré Hospital, Versailles University, Garches

Bruno Guillon

Garches Foundation and Federative Research, Raymond Poincaré Hospital, Garches

Anne Hurand

Cofiroute, Sevres

Bernadette Moreau

Cofiroute, Sevres

Jean Pierre Dufresne

Association Point Carré Handicap, Garches

Jean-François Ravaud

Inserm, Cermes and Federative Research Institute on Disability, Villejuif

Frédéric Lofaso

Physiological Ward, Institute on Disability Technological Innovation-Clinical Investigation Centre and Garches Foundation and Federative Research Institute on Disability, Raymond Poincaré Hospital, Garches, France, f.lofaso{at}rpc.ap-hop-paris.fr

Objective: To identify difficulties encountered by wheelchair users who travel on toll motorways, with the goal of defining areas for improvement.

Design: Survey. After observing a wheelchair user travelling on a toll motorway and using the associated services, we designed a self-questionnaire on perceptions by wheelchair users of toll motorway accessibility.

Setting: Toll motorway and rehabilitation hospital in France.

Subjects: We recruited 167 wheelchair users by advertisement and, to assess selection bias, 19 consecutive outpatients who visited our hospital's wheelchair showroom.

Intervention: None.

Results: Of the 186 included subjects, 91 (49%) were used to driving independently on toll motorways. Among them, only 16% used automatic toll booths and 32% reported difficulties at toll booths. Furthermore, 53% routinely asked for help at filling stations, and only 27% were aware of the availability of a free-of-charge assistance service for disabled people at some filling stations. Among the 186 toll motorway users, only 84 (45%) reported never encountering difficulties in lay-bys; 162 (87%) felt that toilet accessibility was the most important feature of lay-bys and 143 (77%) preferred the locked toilets reserved for disabled people.

Conclusion: Wheelchair users reported difficulties on toll motorways that could be corrected fairly easily.

Clinical Rehabilitation, Vol. 22, No. 9, 812-815 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0269215508091454


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