Seems like forever since I’ve posted to the blog, then again I was touring Croatia recently on a well-deserved 3 week vacation!
I’m forever biased to accessibility now that I work in the field. Everywhere I go I can’t help thinking how something relates to it. Could be a menu at a restaurant, the ever popular ramps for wheelchairs or, something as simple as a streetlight.
Let me just start and say Croatia is a stunningly beautiful country, full of life, beautiful beaches, amazing food and great people. Also bear in mind I am not visually-impaired, nor did I spend my entire vacation trolling around the country for ADA lawsuits:)
Overall, I was actually very impressed. It is a very old country, and as such has numerous well documented challenges on getting around as someone using assistive technology and/or aids. The roads/sidewalks are remarkably accessible; at times I almost thought I was in Canada or the US as I listened to the crossings beep at me repeatedly. Seems everyone has their own beep, here in Canada it is more like a sharp whistle, while in Croatia it was more like synthetic beeps.
ATM’s and banks are fully accessible, many even have ramps and electronic doors to assist those in wheelchairs, or the mother pushing a stroller.
A number of beaches were actually accessible. I was surprised to find a few folks in wheelchairs getting around just fine, and in my broken Croatian, was able to determine that is in fact the case. I did not meet any locals who required accessibility, most were tourists from Germany.
The physiology of the visually-impaired is quite different in Croatia. I met one local blind gentleman who was more than happy to speak with me (after buying a shot of local Rakija of course). He agreed with me that in many ways, Croatia is well ahead of the curve in dealing with typical challenges. The major cities are great, and almost all forms of public transportation offer any number of ways to interact. The smaller towns and especially the older cities are however, much more challenging.
This is a problem that seldom exists in North America. How many thousand year old castles do we have here? How many thousand year old cities do we still live in? I’m not sure what to expect from the local government, and can’t see anyone willing to address accessibility which would require basically destroying old Roman towns, roads etc.
The one area he did call out was electronic accessibility. The government there is just now undertaking all things electronic, and he repeated to me a number of times the inaccessibility of government services online. We also spoke in detail about financial services. I got the impression that while a number of their websites are accessible, their statements are not. I explained what Xenos Group does for PDF accessibility of high-volume transactional output (good luck translating that!), and he seemed to think that is a great approach. Financial independence is what he kept repeating which seems to be a very common thread across the people I generally deal with.
Would be an interesting question for the community and/or an ADA lawyer – how far can you take physical accessibility without destroying culture and history of a nation? I for one think there is a happy medium, one that can help those who need it but, still protect the beauty and history of a country.
