Accessible Melbourne – My Solo Trip Experience...

April 3, 2019, the most important day in my life when I presented my research paper at the '12^th

 International Conference for Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance' at RMIT University Melbourne, Australia. A remarkable achievement in my professional career with Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC, Mumbai) under the mentor ship of my superior at C-DAC, Sr. Director Dr. Padmaja Joshi. Our research paper titled ‘Evaluation of Accessibility and Accessibility Audit Methods for E-governance Portals’ was published in the reputed international conference under the track, ’Digital Inclusion’. This is a result of our thorough research, testing and analysis of six months particularly on Indian Government e-Governance portals. This research paper publication and my success with international accessibility certification gave a dream start to me at the City of Melbourne where I toured from 2^nd to 12^th April 2019. In this blog I will be sharing my experience at the marvelous Melbourne city wherein I was all alone for twelve days and managed everything from travel to accommodation despite my visual disability.

Air travel Mumbai – Hong Kong - Melbourne 

I traveled by Cathay Pacific airline, last year to Seoul, South Korea. I had superb experience with them. So once again I booked same airline for this trip. Right from the airport gate they provided assistance for all the formalities like bag check-in, immigration and customs. Air crew was also helpful; they helped me in setting up my seat and arranging tray while having food. One of the ladies tried enabling the voice guidance menu in the touch screen panel installed in front of me but couldn’t do it, maybe it was not accessible. Ground staff was ready for me at the Hong Kong airport to help me in my transit flight. At Melbourne they even assisted me in collecting bags from the conveyor belt, clearing immigration and getting cab towards my hotel. Overall experience in flying with Cathay Pacific was really pleasant and hassle free. I truly appreciate their standard process for passengers with disabilities, kudos to their team. One small tip to my blind and low vision friends is that, guys please have one snap of your luggage in your smart phone. This helps your assistant to quickly locate your bags at the conveyor belt.

Hotel Mercure Melbourne Inclusive Policy  

As I reached the hotel reception, gentleman at the counter helped me in all my check-in formalities and even came with me to provide orientation of the floor and my room. He made me aware about the Braille labels installed on buttons of elevator and guided me to operate the panel on my own. I was really overwhelmed by this nice gesture. Next morning when I went down to looking for the restaurant, receptionist helped me in finding the way. She told me that whenever needed just ask for help, all the hotel staff is briefed by the management. I felt so amazed. What an inclusive policy they have for their guests! Then at the restaurant one of the ladies helped me in getting my food from the buffet and made me seat comfortably. The same lady came to show the way to my room and arranged an additional power adapter for me. She also guided to operate the AC, TV remote and electronic locker. Fortunately all these devices had raised dots on certain keys for easy operability. Guys, key card provided by hotel administration is useful at many places like elevator and doors. Please have some small sticker on one of the side of this card which will help you to identify correct side while using it.

Roads and Public Transport

In terms of accessibility Melbourne streets are just outstanding. Footpaths are very well designed and most of the intersections have tactile installed which is very useful for visually impaired cane users. Signals are equipped with buzzers which help commuters to cross the road easily.

I had read a lot of interesting stories about Melbourne trams hence I was very excited to use this mode of public transport. Fortunately there was a tram station near by my hotel. Melbourne has it’s dedicated mobile app for tracking the trams location. Since my friend had this app I did not try that on my phone .All trams have facility of audio announcements with visual indicators for passengers which is very useful for commuters. I even heard an announcement as “Please note, next station is the last accessible station on this route”. After inquiring I learned that few old stations have no facility for ramps hence they inform the passengers in advance. There were two types of trams running on the tracks, one is old British vehicle and another one is a modern tram with modern facilities. Old tram was not suitable for wheel chair users as it was having steps instead of ramp.

Apart from trams I traveled by Uber cabs. Since I am a regular user of Uber in India I configured my credit card to the same account for international usage. Along with standard cabs Melbourne also have‘Assist’ option in Uber. It is nothing but a regular car with driver having some additional training to assist person with disabilities. Most importantly this option is available in regular rates and no additional charge is levied. I used these “Assist” cabs many times while traveling. I also observed that most of the drivers were very well aware of the sighted guide technique which is worldwide standard for helping people with blindness. Wheel chair users please note that these ‘Uber Assist’ cars are not wheel chair friendly.

Sightseeing 

During my city tour I visited Immigration Museum, Queen Victoria market, Shrine of Remembrance, St. Kilda beach. At museum I was provided an I-Pod based audio guide. I was also offered a staff member to escort me in section called “Love Museum”. The Shrine of Remembrance is a war memorial where I visited an interesting section called ‘Pleasure Garden’. This garden has auditory sensory experience which means that as soon as we walk through the garden we can hear different pleasing sounds coming from different corners. Being visually impaired It was quite enjoyable.

On my one day tour to Yarra valley at one of the winery all the tourists were given a chance to play one game. I too expressed my interest and tour guide happily accepted to assist me. It was basically lawn ball game in which participant has to throw the ball on a specific line. They decided to keep someone at the line who will make some noise and I will have to throw the ball in that direction. To my surprise I won the game, this earned me a swanky bottle of red wine locally produced in that winery. I remember all the tourists and staff working there in the winery felt so amazed, they all came and gave me a hug. Wow! What an experience it was.

Every mile is a memory!

This was a tour where I experienced an accessible infrastructure, disabled friendly services, kind and co-operative people, pleasant weather and last but not the least the delicious food. Though this was my solo trip I could manage everything very well. Now I know why Melbourne is one of the top rated livable cities in the world. This trip gave me many euphoric moments to cherish them forever in my life.