A photographer's field list for wheelchair accessible trips

What to take away

• Include something for scale in every access photograph. A wheel, a hand, a standard door.
• Shoot at seated height. Photographs taken standing misrepresent what a route looks like.
• The useful set is entrance, threshold, route, restroom, and the thing that surprised you.
• Never photograph another disabled traveler without asking, and never as an illustration of a problem.

Two kinds of photography happen on these trips. There is the view you came for, and there is the record that tells the next person whether the place works.

The second is the one nobody takes and everybody wants. Inside a hotel room that record has its own six frames, starting with the bathroom.

Shoot at seated height

The single most common failure. A photograph of an entrance taken from standing height flattens the ramp, hides the threshold and makes the curb disappear.

Hold the camera at your own eye level in the chair, or at about 120 centimeters if you are walking. The frame then shows what an approaching wheelchair user actually sees.

The access set

Five frames per place, two minutes:

1. The entrance from the pavement, showing the approach and any level change.
2. The threshold, close, with something for scale. A shoe, a wheel, a coin.
3. The route inside, showing width and any obstruction.
4. The accessible restroom with the door open, showing the transfer space and which side the grab bar is on.
5. The surprise, whatever it was: the heavy door, the ramp with no landing, the lift with a step into it.

Add a sixth for transport: the gap and height difference at a platform, a vehicle ramp deployed, the securement area on a bus.

Scale, always

Access photographs without scale are decorative. Include a standard object in the frame, or place your hand flat against the surface.

Better still, note the measurement in the caption. A photograph plus "door 81cm clear" is worth more than either alone.

The view you came for

Accessible viewpoints exist and are worth seeking out, and parks tend to name them precisely.

Glacier's accessibility pages identify accessible viewpoints, trails and facilities, which is exactly the information a photographer needs to plan a morning rather than arrive hopeful.

Rocky Mountain does the same in its own pages, including which paved trails and overlooks are usable and where accessible parking sits relative to them.

Plan the light around those places, since you cannot simply walk to a better angle.

Photographing people

Ask, always, and be specific about what you will do with the image.

Do not photograph another disabled person as an illustration of a barrier. Photograph the barrier. The distinction matters and people notice it immediately.

Captions that do work

Place, date, what is shown, the measurement, and what you could not verify. A folder of unlabeled access photographs helps nobody, including you, six months later.

Sharing it

Post the access set alongside the pretty pictures. Venue reviews, forums and mapping projects all take them, and this is the material that shortens somebody else's research from an evening to ten minutes.

It works in the other direction too. The travelers and local groups who post that material are the fastest way to research a place you have never been.

The wider trip planning is in the practical planning steps, and the ideas worth trying suggest trip shapes that produce good photographs without exhausting the day.

Common questions

Do I need permission to photograph a restroom? Ask staff, briefly. Nobody objects when you explain it is for access information, and it avoids alarming anyone.

Is a phone enough? Entirely, for the access set. Wide, quick and always with you.

What about photographing staff? Ask. Most agree, and some workplaces require permission first.

Should I photograph a venue that failed? The barrier, yes, factually. Keep it about the building rather than the people working in it.