TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Food

Turning the Tables: Tokyo Restaurant Simulates the Disabled Experience for Nondisabled Diners

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Wheelchair users sitting around a table in a restaurant with very low ceilings.

A Japanese restaurant has embarked on a social experiment – by attempting to reverse the positions of wheelchair users and nondisabled people. The restaurant, named “Barrierful” in Japanese, offers nondisabled people the opportunity to experience barriers as part of a minority, which will hopefully provoke discussions about disabilities and inclusion.

Among the barriers faced by nondisabled patrons are low ceilings (just five and a half feet tall), no seating areas and a buffet station set low to the floor for wheelchair access. In this experiment, the majority of customers and staff in the restaurant were wheelchair users, indicating to nondisabled guests that design is biased toward the majority.

OUR TAKE: This restaurant experiment can help to create awareness about how designing for the majority causes problems for minority groups. Perhaps experiences such as this could encourage the adoption of universal design principles, which creates access for all.

To read more about the Barrierful restaurant, click here.

Indian Café Reopens Following an “Accessibility Makeover”

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Coffee beans, ground coffee and a completed drink.

The Downtown Café, a popular dining establishment in Patna, Bihar, India, is set to reopen following an “accessibility makeover.” Café owner Astik Kumar was encouraged to make the improvements after he witnessed a physically disabled family member struggle to get inside.

Among the accessibility features installed were an accessible toilet, a ramp to enter the building and wheelchairs available to customers who need them. Braille menu cards have also been printed for visually impaired customers, and there are plans to invest further in making the space more accessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

On speaking about his goals, Asik said that “my aim is to make The Downtown Cafe inclusive in every sense of the word.” He said he would like to see smaller cities like Patna adopt greater sensitivity to the needs of disabled people, like that exhibited in larger cities such as Delhi and Mumbai

To read more about the café’s incredible transformation, click here.

Denver Brew Pub Taps Into Opportunity by Hiring People with Disabilities

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bar chalkboard with different craft beer taps Not sure that hiring people with disabilities will be a good fit? That’s quickly changing in restaurants and pubs across the country. Take Brewability Lab, the first brewery in the U.S. staffed by adults with developmental disabilities. The Denver, Colorado operation will be called Brewability on Broadway, according to a recent announcement. Founder Tiffany Fixter describes the new Denver location as “far more accessible and conducive to business” than its original space. Vinepair recently wrote about the new place. See a video of the staff on-site, here.

Our Take: More restaurants and bars are finding that hiring disabled workers makes good business sense and positions their brand as forward-thinking trailblazers in their communities. 

 

Will the Supreme Court Hear Accessible Website Case Over a $3 Coupon at Domino’s Pizza?   

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Domino's pizza box (closed) with a drink and sanitary wipe“Last fall, Jason McKee was bouncing around business ideas with two friends when they realized something: all three had a family member or friend with a disability, that made it difficult to access the internet,” according to a report in marketplace.org. The story goes on to say: “They soon discovered something else: people with disabilities, specifically those who are blind or visually impaired, were filing Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits against businesses over website accessibility issues. And many of them were winning. “

“We all got together and realized the size of this marketplace,” McKee said. “Basically, the entire internet has to be retrofit,” the story explains. “The Supreme Court is currently considering whether to take a web accessibility case brought by a man who is blind against the pizza chain Domino’s, for not making its website and mobile app accessible to him.”  

OUR TAKE: In most markets, you need both people focused on the little details and the people above, who can understand the bigger picture. This holds true for web accessibility. But in 2017, when the current administration abandoned its effort to evaluate whether new accessibility rules were “necessary and appropriate” it left both people with disabilities and the businesses being sued by them in a sort of no man’s land. The most positive outcome has been more companies cropping up to help businesses stay on top of their website and understand what needs to be done to help make the web accessible for all, no matter how slowly that process may go. Several of these experts will be speaking at TravelAbility Summit 2019 in November.

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More Please! A Restaurant with Great Food and an Even Better Back-story  

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Locals rave about it, and people travel from far and wide to enjoy Universo Santi Cardiz, which is located in a resort city on the Southern Coast of Spain, according to a recent piece (originally in The Guardian.) We’re recommending it for both its business savvy in staffing (every employee at the restaurant has some kind of disability) and their haute cuisine (word on the street is that they are being looked at by Michelin and may earn a star sometime soon.)

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OUR TAKE: We need more restaurant owners state-side who think like Antonio Vila, who was a major force in opening up Universo Santi. He is also the president of a nonprofit that focuses on helping people with disabilities find rewarding jobs. At last count, the restaurant had 20 employees all of whom identify as having a disability. This story begs the question Why aren’t more restaurants doing this? At TravelAbility, we’re working to learn what the biggest hurdles to providing are, and then moving them aside with the help of you—both the travel and the disability community.