What is Greenfield Village?
Greenfield village or Henry Ford is a historical place founded by an industrialist named Henry Ford. It is located in Dearborn, Michigan, United States of America. It was established in 1933. It consists of around 100 momentous buildings on 80 hectares of land. Greenfield village turns out to be one of the most visited tourist attractions in the United States of America today. Let’s know ‘Does Greenfield Village have Wheelchairs?’
The village includes the birthplace, residence, and many other memorial places of some of the famous personalities like Wilbur and Orville Wright, William Holmes, Thomas Alva Edison, Abraham Lincoln, and many more. The famous laboratories of Thomas Alva Edison and the courtroom of Abraham Lincoln are all restructured here.
An ideal place to visit is a site where everyone should be able to visit regardless of what background they come from, whether It be a normal or a physically disabled person. Henry Ford provides facilities for all disabled people according to their requirements. One of them is providing wheelchairs. Wheelchairs and motorized scooters are available for rent.
Wheelchairs in Greenfield Village
Wheelchairs are very limited when it comes to their availability and prior reservations cannot be made. It can be rented at a considerable price that is, $4.00 per day. It is not necessary to rent when you have a personal motorized wheelchair or any ordinary wheelchair. Guests with any mobility impairments are allowed to bring segways other than the wheelchair. But segways will not be rented. They are also allowed to bring electric scooters. Bringing bicycles, tricycles, and roller skates is not allowed.
Are all the sites in Greenfield Village accessible to Wheelchair users?
Most of the places in greenfield village are wheelchair accessible. It is structured based on the convenience of all the people around the world. Access to some of the historic places is done by vehicle. So people using a wheelchair has to be transferred to the vehicle before going to such areas. All the places of necessity, (for example, restrooms) and all the public entrances are accessible.
Buses in greenfield village can accommodate a considerable amount of wheelchairs and electric scooters as possible. Wheelchairs are even accessible to historic buildings to some extent but the number of wheelchairs cannot go above the required level since the building was constructed long before and it has several limitations.
When it comes to places where we have to use stairs, wheelchairs are supported by elevators. For example, people when going to a giant screen experience have to climb stairs for entrance and exits but to make it accessible to all the people, complementary elevators are available. Even the motorized doors in the north and south end of Lovett hall allow accessibility to wheelchairs and others.
Are Wheelchair users benefited from visiting Greenfield Village?
Even though this place is constructed and modulated by physically disabled and mobility impaired populations of the society, there are certain disadvantages faced by them.
Firstly, the overall expenditure on visiting and exploring Henry ford is quite expensive for these people. Renting a wheelchair and having a staff of Henry ford guiding and helping throughout the journey is not affordable to most of the physically impaired.
Secondly, access to all places is not allowed. Despite most of the sites which provide accessibility to wheelchair users, some places restrict the entry of wheelchairs.
And lastly, since there are limited numbers of wheelchairs at hand, they are not always available for rent. Especially during any weekends or during holidays like Halloween, wheelchairs get rented the most. Because any prior reservations of wheelchairs and electric scooters are prohibited, only the first few visiting the henry ford will have access to wheelchairs. This thereby restricts the entry of many people who wish to come.
Therefore, people using wheelchairs or electric scooters and any physically impaired person finds this a wastage of time and money since they get to go to limited places with high rates.
Why prefer Greenfield Village out of all the places?
Greenfield village is one of the rarest and most unique establishments in the united states of America. We get to see a lot of historic places and monuments of many famous personalities and some of the important places that took a great name in the history of the united states of America. The place where the invention of the first airplane by Wilbur and Oliver wright is one big example. Research centers and libraries like Benson ford research center help the visitors to get more idea about the history and the current state of their country.
In addition to that, the service of the staff of greenfield village to the visitors is something to be appreciated. The presence of staff throughout the visit helping the disabled and guiding the visitors is a great step taken by henry ford.
