Mobility impairment friendly places to visit in the US

[sqbr]

My partner and I are pondering a visit to the US for a holiday. I have chronic fatigue syndrome and fairly significant mobility issues: I can't walk very far, up more than a couple of stairs, or up steep hills, and will plausibly be hiring a mobility scooter.

Do people have recs (or anti-recs) for cities or sites that are likely to be interesting to two Australian geeks and are particularly amenable to these kinds of constraints?

Any good sf cons that are accessibility friendly and held in interesting cities? (My partner is alas not convinced that he would find Wiscon very interesting)

Our plans are very tentative at this stage, so any and all suggestions or ideas are welcome. Currently pondered locations include San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, New York, Las Vegas, Chicago and Boston.

Comments

[rhivolution]

I can't really speak to Chicago on a personal level regarding mobility accessibility, but there's a state-funded accessible travel guide, which is at least a good sign. (As we all know too well, it may be not quite as accessible as it seems.)

While public transit is reliable, the city itself is pretty spread out, even in the downtown area. If you go, I would plan to spend a bit extra for a centrally-located hotel, at the very least. However, there are loads of interesting things to see and do there, geekily speaking and non-geekily speaking, particularly the museum-y places (Art Institute, Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium...).

While I've never been, Think Galacticon is in Chicago in July, and I've heard some good things about it. They focus on radical/leftist politics and speculative fiction and have accessibility policies, as their concept and ideals are based off WisCon. There are other more general SF cons in Chicago, but I haven't heard anything about them, I fear.

[sqbr]

Thanks! I went to Chicago very briefly many years ago with a cold and remember it being both lots of fun and a bit of a pain to walk around with no energy.