Accessibility and accommodations in France

This is a page to give you some general information on the state of accessibility in France and some resources that can help you as you prepare for your travel there.

General Information:

Tourisme et Handicap : « Destination pour tous » is an organization dedicated to providing accessible tourism across France. They offer rankings of the most accessible cities in France and offer a lot of opportunities for you to explore where to go and what to do. You can find places to go by accessibility needs, region, city, or category of place.

COFACE provides us with statistics to an accessibility survey given to nearly 12,000 French people and shows that Grenoble, Rennes, Nantes, and Strasbourg are the top cities where people find the least trouble getting around in day-to-day life. The survey results do show us that France still has a lot to work on making the country more accessible for its residents, but not everyone is completely dissatisfied. About half of people in a wheelchair or using crutches experience difficulty finding access to specialized medical practice, and about half of people with disability find difficulty with access to bars and restaurants.

An interesting, hopeful article from the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles on the status of international mobility for students with disability and the steps being taken to improve moving forward

Simply Emma is a wheelchair user that blogs on accessible travel and might offer you some helpful tips for your adventures abroad. Her post about France's accessibility might be helpful; otherwise, she has plenty of other posts about Paris and other major European cities.

*look for FACIL'iti on a French website for better, personalized accessibility as you browse*

Paris travel and accessibility:

Whether you choose to study in Paris or not, I highly recommend you visit during your time in France. Paris' website offers its specific info for accessibility within the city.

• Visit the Hôtel de Ville for DHOH help through acceo

• For more information, consult Paris' accessible travel guide with information on restaurants, entertainment, transportation, and things to do

Lonely Planet's guide for accessible travel (specifically for those with wheelchairs or with mobility disabilities) has a list of resources and websites to help you find travel in Paris and throughout the country with the SNCF.

Wheelchair accessible travel in Paris with information on buses, the metro, tramways, the Montmartre funicular, the RER trains, and international railway travel

Metro-specific information through the RATP on elevators, escalators, restrooms, wifi, etc.

Other Major Cities:

Here is a list of links to the tourism pages for many major cities in France where you might study or just plan to visit.

• Aix-en-Provence

• Bordeaux

• Grenoble

• Lyon

• Marseille

• Nantes

• Toulouse

Finally, here are some other guides to wheelchair-accessible travel.

• Lille

• Southern France

• Strasbourg

Education Specific information:

• Campus France is a great resource hub that will take you to all of the following and more. (French version)

• HANDI-U is an interactive map by region that gives specific contact information, accommodations and accessibility, housing, transportation, and more for each university. All the necessary information will come up by region, city, and school. If your program has a partnership with a local university, this will be a great resource to see how accommodations will work for you there. Program providers don't always know what accommodations will be available at their partner universities, so this will help you a lot in your decision-making.

• If your disability prevents you from physically traveling, this is a helpful resource: Centre National d’Enseignement à Distance (CNED - National Centre for Education by Correspondence). Your home university might also offer a remote teaching opportunity.

• FÉDÉEH (Fédération Etudiante pour une Dynamique Etudes et Emploi avec un Handicap) is the French Student Federation for Working and Studying with a Disability. Below is a video detailing what the FEDEEH does.