AAA Clears a Path for Disabled Travelers

A new series of AAA books is aimed at travelers with disabilities. The “AAA Barrier-Free Travel” series gives detailed specifications on facilities at hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions and also ranks them on their accessibility. It includes information for wheelchair users and visually and hearing-impaired travelers.

Details it notes include heights of bed frames, sinks, desks and coin slots for public phones; distance between bed and wall; and whether Braille menus and TDD phone kits are available.

So far the guides are offered for California, Hawaii, Las Vegas, central Florida (including the Orlando area), New York and Washington, D.C. They retail for $12.95 at bookstores and are also available at AAA offices and online at www.aaa .com. (AAA members may pay less, depending on the local club, an AAA spokeswoman said.)