Boston, like all other U.S. cities, has taken the required steps to provide access for people with disabilities. Hotels must provide accessible rooms, and museums and street curbs have ramps for wheelchairs. Some smaller accommodations, including most B&Bs, have not been retrofitted. In older neighborhoods (notably Beacon Hill and the North End), you'll find many narrow streets, cobbled thoroughfares, and brick sidewalks that can make getting around difficult. In the construction areas that dot the entire metropolitan area, especially in downtown Boston, you may have to negotiate uneven road surfaces and pedestrian detours.
Newer stations on the Red, Blue, and Orange lines of the subway are wheelchair accessible; the transit authority is converting the Green Line (which uses trolleys). Contact the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (tel. 800/392-6100 or 617/222-3200; www.mbta.com) to see if the stations you need are accessible. All MBTA buses have lifts or kneelers; call tel. 800/LIFT-BUS for more information. Some bus routes are wheelchair accessible at all times, but others may require a reservation as much as a day in advance. To learn more, contact the Office for Transportation Access, Back Bay Station, 145 Dartmouth St., Boston, MA 02116 (tel. 800/543-8287 or 617/222-5976, or TTY 617/222-5854).
One taxi company with wheelchair-accessible vehicles is Boston Cab (tel. 617/536-5010); advance notice is recommended. In addition, an Airport Accessible Van (tel. 617/561-1769) operates within Logan Airport.
An excellent resource is VSA Arts Massachusetts, 2 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116 (tel. 617/350-7713, TTY 617/350-6836; www.vsamass.org). The organization's Access Expressed network maintains a website with a searchable directory of cultural venues (www.accessexpressed.net; click "Directory).
The America the Beautiful -- National Park and Federal Recreational Lands Pass -- Access Pass, administered by a cooperative agreement between several federal agencies, including the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, gives visually impaired or permanently disabled persons (regardless of age) free lifetime entrance to federal recreation sites. Pass holders can visit national parks, monuments, historic sites, recreation areas, and national wildlife refuges without paying entrance fees.
The America the Beautiful Access Pass can only be obtained in person at any federally administered recreational facility that charges an entrance fee. You need to show proof of a medically determined disability. Besides free entry, the pass also offers a 50% discount on some federal-use fees charged for such facilities as camping, swimming, parking, boat launching, and tours. The United States Geological Survey (tel. 888/275-8747; http://store.usgs.gov/pass/general.html) offers more information about the interagency pass program.
