ORANGE COUNTY, N.C. — The 2023 Chapel Hill/Orange County, N.C. Accessibility Guide is now out. The 48-page guide provides information on disability-friendly restaurants and hotels in that area. 

What You Need To Know

  • Visits were made to businesses between May and December of 2022 to collect data for this guide

  • The information can help residents and visitors with disabilities better understand the access at local businesses 

  • The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau dedicated this guide to Orange County community members, Cresha and George Cianciolo

The guide is dedicated to Cresha and George Cianciolo, who encouraged the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau to make a new accessibility guide to help those with disabilities better understand the access provided at local businesses. 

Cresha was diagnosed with progressive multiple sclerosis about six years ago. This created mobility issues for her, and now she uses a powered wheelchair. 

“Because of my limitations, it’s very difficult to get out and about, although I would love to. Right now, I depend on my husband to take me where I need to go. I’m not able to drive, and so, it’s a matter of depending on somebody else,” Cianciolo said. 

Using the wheelchair has opened Cianciolo’s eyes to new obstacles and the amount of planning that needs to happen if she wants to go somewhere. 

“We have found previously that we wanted to try a restaurant and we have gone there only to find that one has stairs, which I can’t do, it has a heavy door, the seating is so compact that you can’t manipulate in your wheelchair through very well, they may not have a handicapped bathroom,” Cianciolo said. 

Now, with this updated accessibility guide, it’s given her more information on what to expect at businesses and how to navigated the area using her wheelchair.

“It's alphabetical, and what they do is they tell you where place is located and they will give you different hints about whether you can eat inside or outside, whether there’s a ramp, whether or not the doors are heavy, which is really an important thing to me,” Cianciolo said. 

Cianciolo said this guide to businesses in Chapel Hill and Orange County is a game changer, and it’s a tool other areas should get on board with. 

“Certainly, I hope that this helps other counties to consider doing this. Once they see this published and are more aware of it, they might also take into consideration that there are limits and to let people know what those limits are,” Cianciolo said. 

This is the second guide the Visitors Bureau has made. The original access guide came out in 2015. 

There are a limited number of printed copies of the new accessibility guide that have been printed for select facilities in Orange County, but the guide is digitized and can be found on the Visitors Bureau website.