The Traveling Wheelchair

287 Washington Street
Attleboro, MA 02703
Phone: 508-761-6620
http://www.rubytuesday.com/

Last week while traveling in North Attleboro, my mom offered to treat Amanda, Ric and I to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. I was pleased to find this Ruby Tuesday very wheelchair friendly and accessible except it doesn’t have wheelchair accessible seating in the lounge/bar.

There are three handicap parking spaces right up front and close to the entrance. The double set of entry doors are not automatic so Amanda kindly held both sets of doors open while Ric pushed my manual chair inside. Once inside we were warmly greeted by a nice host and manager of the restaurant. He showed us to a table that is easy to access and of a perfect wheelchair accessible height.

This Ruby Tuesday has many booths which are not wheelchair accessible for my chair cannot fit underneath and even if my chair could fit, it would stick out into the aisle blocking access for customers and servers. Many of the tables are very crowded together with little to no room to fit your chair; yet there are two large round tables in front of the windows located on either side of the restaurant which have easy wheelchair access.

We all chose the salad bar for our meal and I had no problem reaching the fresh food items which make a great salad. We all enjoyed our delicious salads. Our waitress was very kind, courteous and friendly. The manager was very kind, courteous and friendly as well!

The lounge/bar located in the center rear of the restaurant has 2 large flat screens TV’s hanging on the wall. These TV’s are easy to view from this area; yet there is NO wheelchair accessible seating in this area at all. The bar is too high for my chair; and all the tables are inaccessible booths.

Having NO accessible seating in a bar/lounge, I believe is a violation of the Section 17.4 of AAB/MA – Massachusetts Architectural Access Board @ http://www.mass.gov/Eeops/docs/dps/aab_regs/521017.txt.

The restrooms are spacious, wheelchair accessible and fully ADA compliant; except the pipes under the accessible sink are not covered as is a new ADA requirement. The soap and hand towel dispenser are easy for me to reach for they are set lower on the wall by the side of the sink.

I give Ruby Tuesday in North Attleboro THREE STARS for wheelchair accessibility. In order to earn the other Two Stars, they would need to install automatic entry doors so a customer in a wheelchair can enter and exit independently; and provide some wheelchair accessible seating in the bar/lounge either by lowering a section of the bar to an accessible height or permanently placing an accessible table in the lounge. All the employees deserve FIVE STARS for their kindness and sensitivity!