La nostra metodologia

Define the attribute set

Every place is recorded against the same fixed list of attributes: entrance type, step count and riser height, clear door widths, lift car dimensions, turning space, toilet layout, gradient bands, surface material, hearing provision and the distance to the nearest step-free station. The list does not change from venue to venue, which is what makes two museums in two countries comparable. A field we cannot fill is left empty and shown as unknown, never filled with an average.

Compile from published sources

The first pass is desk work. We read the venue’s own accessibility statement, its access guide where one exists, the transport operator’s step-free data and any published floor plans, then transcribe the figures they state into our fields. Each figure keeps its source link and the date we retrieved it. This is how most of the dataset stands today, and the profile says so plainly: compiled, and not yet confirmed on the ground.

Measure on site

A verified profile requires a visit. A trained verifier walks the route a traveller would take, from the nearest step-free station through to the accessible toilet, and measures rather than estimates: a laser distance meter for widths and turning space, a digital inclinometer for gradients, a tape for riser heights and grab-bar positions. Photographs are taken at the entrance, the lift, the toilet and any obstruction. Only then does the status change from compiled to verified.

Date it, then revisit it

Nothing is published without a date. Every profile carries the date its sources were retrieved or its measurements taken, and the score is recalculated whenever an attribute changes. Buildings are refurbished, lifts are replaced, accessible toilets get used as storage. We treat a figure older than about eighteen months as due for review, and a reader-reported correction moves a profile to the front of that queue instead of waiting for the cycle.

Verified and compiled: the difference

Every profile on this site carries one of two provenance states, and the label appears before the data rather than in a footnote. The distinction tells you how much weight a figure can bear. A compiled figure is a claim made by someone else that we have transcribed accurately and dated. A verified figure is one we measured ourselves with an instrument and photographed. At present, almost the entire dataset is compiled, and we would rather say that than imply otherwise.

Verified on-siteA trained verifier attended in person, followed the protocol above, and recorded each dimension with an instrument. Photographs support the entrance, the lift, the accessible toilet and anything unusual. The profile shows who measured, on what date, and which values were taken rather than inferred. This is the standard the whole project is built towards, and it is the only state in which we describe a figure as measured.

Compiled from sourcesThe profile is assembled from the venue’s own accessibility statement, operator step-free data, official access guides and other public documents, each listed with a retrieval date. It has not been confirmed on the ground. Published statements are often accurate and are the best available starting point, but they can be optimistic, outdated or silent on the detail that decides a visit. Treat a compiled profile as a strong lead to check, not as a guarantee.

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The measurement protocol

These are the thresholds we record against. They draw on the dimensions used in national building standards across Europe and Japan, which converge closely on the same numbers. We publish them so anyone can check our arithmetic, repeat a measurement and disagree with us on the record. Where a venue sits just under a threshold, we say so rather than rounding it up.

Entrances and thresholds

Measured with a laser distance meter and a tape at the door the general public uses. We record the number of steps, the height of the highest riser in centimetres, and whether a permanent ramp, platform lift or level route exists. An entrance counts as step-free when the route from the pavement carries no step above 15 mm and no lip that a small front castor can catch. A portable ramp fetched by staff on request is recorded as assisted access, not as step-free.

Doors, lifts and turning space

Clear opening width is measured with the door held at ninety degrees, not taken from the frame. We look for 90 cm at the main entrance and 80 cm on internal doors, and we note when a heavy manual door needs real force. Lift cars are measured inside the cabin: 110 × 140 cm is the working minimum for a manual chair, while roughly 150 × 200 cm is what a powerchair with a companion actually needs. Turning space is the largest unobstructed circle, with 150 cm as the pass mark.

Slope and surface

Gradients are taken with a digital inclinometer along the steepest metre of the route, not averaged across its length. Up to 5% is comfortable for most manual wheelchair users. Between 5% and 8% is noticeably tiring and often needs a companion or a powered chair. Above 8% we flag the route as requiring assistance, and above 10% as unsafe to descend without braking help. Surface is classed as smooth, mixed, cobbles or loose, because granite setts and gravel defeat small castors whatever the gradient.

Accessible toilets

We measure the internal dimensions, the clear transfer space beside the pan and which side it is on, the grab-bar arrangement, and the height of the pan and basin. A cubicle passes when it offers a 150 cm turning circle, at least 80 cm of transfer space to one side, both a fixed horizontal rail and a drop-down rail, and a pan seat at roughly 45-48 cm. We also record whether the door opens outwards, whether the cubicle is locked, and where the key is held.

Sensory and communication

Recorded because a step-free building can still be unusable. We note induction loops at ticket desks and in auditoria, whether staff have deaf awareness or autism awareness training, sign-language provision, captioned and audio-described content, large-print and braille material, tactile paving and handrails at level changes, published sensory maps, scheduled quiet hours and any low-stimulus room. Lighting and sustained noise are described qualitatively rather than given a decibel figure, since a single reading would misrepresent how a room actually feels.

Transport connections

Access ends at the front door only if you arrive by car. We record the nearest station or stop that is step-free from street to platform, its distance in metres, whether boarding is level or leaves a gap, and the gradient and surface of the walk between the two. Anything beyond about 800 m is flagged as a long approach. Accessible parking bays, their distance from the entrance, and the presence of a rank with wheelchair-accessible taxis are recorded separately.

How the 0-100 score is calculated

The score is arithmetic, not editorial judgement. It is derived only from the attributes recorded in the profile below it, using the same weights for every place in every city. Nobody reviews the number afterwards to make a venue look better or worse, and no partner can influence it. Because it comes from the recorded attributes alone, a profile with many unknown fields cannot score highly, which is the correct outcome.

Hard barriers carry the most weight A stepped entrance with no ramp, the absence of an accessible toilet, and no step-free transit within reach are the three findings that most often end a journey before it starts. Each of these costs far more points than any convenience attribute can return. A venue cannot compensate for a stepped front door by offering an induction loop.

Secondary attributes adjust within a band Lift dimensions, turning space, door widths, gradient, surface, seating, sensory provision and staff training move the score inside the band that the hard barriers set. They are what separates a building you can enter from a building you can use comfortably for three hours.

Unknown is not treated as good A field we have not been able to establish earns no credit. We do not infer a value from similar venues, and we do not quietly drop the attribute from the denominator. A thin profile therefore scores lower than a complete one, and the honest way to raise the score is to supply the missing measurement.

What the bands mean 85-100: step-free throughout with generous circulation and a compliant accessible toilet. 65-84: step-free with caveats worth reading. 40-64: partial access, usually one significant barrier or a major gap in the record. Below 40: limited access, or too little established to plan around.

What we hold to

Measured, compiled and unknown stay separateYou always see which of the three you are reading. A figure we measured, a figure a venue published, and a figure nobody has established are different kinds of information, and collapsing them into one confident sentence is the failure this site exists to correct.

A date on every figureNo measurement is published without the date it was taken, and no compiled figure without the date its source was retrieved. Accessibility data decays quietly, so a value without a date is not evidence — it is a rumour with good posture.

No absolute promisesA lift can be out of service on the morning you arrive, a ramp can be blocked by a delivery, and a trained member of staff can be on leave. We tell you what was recorded and when, and we say plainly what you should confirm before you set out.

Independence before revenueScores and profiles are never for sale, and a commercial relationship never changes a recorded value. When the better option for a traveller earns us nothing, it still comes first. We would rather publish an uncomfortable score than a purchased one.

No invented social proofThere are no star ratings, no user accounts and no community reviews on this site. We are not going to manufacture the appearance of a crowd. What we publish is attributes, sources and dates, which is either useful on its own or not worth publishing.

Why vague labels fail

The phrase “wheelchair accessible” carries almost no information. It is used for a building with level entry, wide lifts and a compliant accessible toilet, and it is used for a building with two steps at the door and a member of staff willing to lift. Both statements can be made in good faith. Only one of them describes a place a powerchair user can visit alone, and the label cannot tell you which you are looking at.

The same collapse happens with the tick-box lists on booking sites. A single icon stands in for a dozen separate questions: how wide is the bathroom door, is there transfer space beside the toilet, does the lift take a chair plus a companion, is the accessible room on the ground floor or behind a fire door with a heavy closer. Travellers learn to distrust the icon and telephone the venue instead, which is a research task nobody should have to repeat for every trip.

Numbers behave differently. A door is 78 cm or it is not. A ramp runs at 7% or it does not. Published as figures with a date and a source, those values can be compared between cities, argued with, corrected and audited. That is the entire reason this site records dimensions rather than adjectives, and why a profile that reads as dry is doing its job.

What we deliberately do not do

We do not publish a single score in place of the profile. A wheelchair user, a traveller with low vision and a family with an autistic child are not looking for the same building, and one number cannot rank a venue for all three. The score exists to sort and compare at a glance; the attribute list underneath it is the actual answer, and we always show it.

We do not promise that a place will be accessible. We report what was measured or published, and the date. Operations change on the day: lifts fail, ramps get blocked, quiet hours get cancelled for a school visit. Any site that guarantees your experience is guaranteeing something it does not control.

We do not sell position, ranking or score. There is no paid placement, no sponsored profile presented as editorial, and no arrangement in which a venue pays to have a figure softened. An audit client buys a measurement and a report, not an outcome, and a poor result stays published. We also run no user accounts, no newsletter and no review system, so there is no engagement metric quietly shaping what you are shown.

How coverage grows

Coverage expands city by city rather than everywhere at once, and it starts where it helps the most people: the destinations disabled travellers ask about most, and the venues within them that carry the highest visitor numbers. Within a city we work outward from the step-free transport network, because a beautifully accessible museum with no step-free station within a kilometre is a harder trip than its own building suggests.

Each city begins as a compiled layer. We assemble what the venues and operators already publish, record the gaps as unknown, and put the whole thing under a visible provenance label. That layer is genuinely useful on its own — it collects scattered documents into one comparable format — and it also shows us exactly which measurements are worth a visit.

On-site verification then follows the same order, prioritising the places where published claims are thin, contradictory or clearly out of date. Verified profiles will appear alongside compiled ones with the difference marked, and the proportion verified is something we intend to state openly rather than blur. Growth here means more measured figures, not more pages.

Come misuriamo l'accessibilità: domande frequenti

How does AccessVerified measure wheelchair accessibility?

Against a fixed protocol applied identically everywhere: step count and riser height at the entrance, clear door widths at ninety degrees, internal lift dimensions, the largest unobstructed turning circle, gradient along the steepest metre, surface type, accessible toilet layout, sensory provision, and the distance to the nearest step-free station. Widths come from a laser distance meter and slopes from a digital inclinometer.

What is the difference between a verified and a compiled profile?

A verified profile was measured on site by a trained verifier with photographic evidence and a date. A compiled profile is assembled from the venue’s own published accessibility statements and other public sources, each listed with a retrieval date, and has not yet been confirmed on the ground. Almost all profiles are currently compiled, and each one says so.

How is the accessibility score out of 100 calculated?

Entirely from the attributes recorded in the profile, using the same weights everywhere. Hard barriers — a stepped entrance, no accessible toilet, no step-free transit nearby — cost the most points, while lift size, turning space, gradient and sensory provision adjust the result within that band. Fields we have not established earn no credit, so an incomplete profile scores lower.

How accurate is accessibility information from a venue’s own website?

Often good, sometimes optimistic, and rarely detailed enough to plan with. Published statements tend to confirm that access exists without giving the dimension that decides it, and they are frequently not updated after building work. That is why we transcribe them with a source and a date, label the profile compiled, and treat on-site measurement as the standard that settles the question.

How do I report incorrect accessibility information?

Use the report link on any profile, or email corrections@access-verified.org, naming the place, the attribute and what you actually found. A photograph helps. We reply within three working days, and where the error affects whether someone can enter at all, we correct or withdraw the figure within five working days and leave the change visible on the profile.