Wellington's CQ Hotel now fully-equipped to help visually-impaired patrons

CQ Hotel in Wellington has become New Zealand’s first hotel to be awarded a ‘Be. Accessible’ rating for the way it caters for physically, visually and audibly-impaired people. Jai Breitnauer checked it out.

The building housing Wellington’s Comfort and Quality Hotel, or CQ Hotel, has a long history of lending a helping hand. A character-packed structure, in the heart of the capital’s vibrant Cuba Street, the site was originally owned by Major James Paul and his philanthropist daughter Annette, who worked tirelessly with the Salvation Army to house displaced women. They donated the site for the building to the Paulina Resque Home in 1894, which later became a Salvation Army ‘People’s Palace’, a safe and alcohol-free hostel for travellers.

In 1990, the building was acquired by Port Nic Properties, which gave it a full refurb, bringing it up to earthquake safety standards. Further work was then undertaken in 2005, when the company joined the Choice Hotels chain to turn it into the world class hotel and conference centre it is today. It’s "Be. Accessible" journey, however, began just a couple of years ago when forward-thinking general manager, Oliver Lacoua, felt CQ could take its mantra of quality and comfort one step further and build on the site’s philanthropic past.

The hotel is now completely fitted out for both able-bodied guests and those with physical, auditory and visual challenges to make their stay easier and more comfortable. As well as a lower check-in desk and accessible car park, there are nine rooms with extra space and accessible ensuites. The hotel also offers iBeacons, which enables mobile apps (both iOS and Android) to understand their user’s position on a micro-local scale and deliver contextual content to them based on exactly where they are. The iBeacons work with BlindSquare, a popular accessible GPS-app, now being promoted by Wellington City Council, that was specifically developed for the blind and visually impaired to describe their environment, announce points of interest and other things, such as shops and street intersections (see box).

The hotel’s menu is currently being adapted to braille and it’s working on introducing braille information cards. For audibly-impaired guests, key staff have also been trained in sign language. Staff have also had special training to help customers with additional needs in cases of an emergency, such as an earthquake. The lifts go right to the car parking level, the conference facilities are all on the ground floor and the public areas are all fully accessible.

Although Lacoua has now moved on to pastures new, the CQ is continuing its commitment to providing a good quality service to people with disabilities and are working on expanding the services they offer.

A comfortable, quiet and pleasant place to stay, in a great location with exceptionally helpful staff, who go that extra mile for people with disabilities, I couldn’t recommend it more.

BlindSquare is a new Wellington-based project that is aimed at customers and visitors who are blind or have low vision or a print disability. Using the BlindSquare Event iPhone navigation app and Kontakt.io beacons, the service helps visually-impaired people in Wellington explore the city with independence. As app-users pass by shops and businesses that are ‘BlindSquare enabled’, the app provides a spoken description of the business, including its name, what goods or services it provides and the shop layout. The app also provides users with other information such as the names of the roads they are walking along, or where the bus stops are. It does this by communicating with the various beacons installed around the city and at participating businesses.

For more information visit https://wellington.govt.nz/services/community-and-culture/accessibility-services/blindsquare-ibeacons