Wheelchair accessibility

We’ve designed Treasure Hunt Manchester to be step-free around the whole route.

We asked a wheelchair user to do an honest, independent accessibility review in return for a free game.

The test was carried out on 7th June 2025 and we have copied the unedited review verbatim below.

Here is my review of the Manchester treasure hunt for wheelchair accessibility.

As a bit of background I am 15 years old and I am a full-time active manual wheelchair user. For the treasure hunt, I used a powered front-wheel on my wheelchair similar to a Tri- ride.

First of all, I thought the treasure hunt was really well designed and the clues and instructions mostly easy to follow and I didn’t have any difficulty navigating with my powered wheel and wheelchair. However, the pavements and drop-kerbs around the route were variable. Some pavements were very rough and uneven and some drop-kerbs were higher than you would expect, for example at the junctions along Canal Street. This was no trouble with my powered front wheel on but if you were pushing you would likely catch your casters or need assistance on some of the kerbs.

The only area of real difficulty was after The Wharf pub. At that point you cross the river over a white bridge to another pub. We made a mistake here and turned left before the pub instead of after it and went over a steep humpback bridge (needed assistance) only to reach a set of steps. We retraced our route to try and find a different step-free route and got a bit lost for a while until we realised where we had gone wrong with the clue. However, as the whole route turned out to be step-free, perhaps this could be mentioned as a hint for accessibility (e.g. “If you reach steps, you have gone wrong. Retrace your route and try again.)

The route immediately after this pub on the other side of the white bridge and heading towards the Roman Fort was also challenging. The kerbs (even the dropped ones) were high, the pavements uneven, the road was cobbled and it was on an incline.

The (not very) dropped kerbs were not all in useful places and there were bins blocking one dropped kerb (they appear on google maps too so it looks like they are there most of the time) so it was necessary to go on the cobbled road at times.

Again, this was OK with my powered wheel on but I would not have managed this unaided just pushing. The crossing just before the fort was better as the cobbles were paved over to make it smooth.

At first we thought the answer to the clue at the fort was inaccessible up a steep flight of steps but if you look carefully there is another place to find the answer which is completely accessible.

The only clue that was inaccessible was the second last one (the Chopin clue). The answer is on a plaque under a statue on a raised bed. Because the writing is so small, and it’s not possible to get nearer to it, it involved leaning right over the raised bed to read the writing which I was not able to do, though my walking friends were able to. I tried taking a photo and zooming in but this did not work. Perhaps it would work for someone with a better camera!

All around the route, we came across a lot of homeless people in tents. At the last clue at Lincoln Square there was a whole camp of about thirty tents around the statue. This didn’t stop us finding the answer but it felt like we were intruding on their personal space while we were searching for it.

We didn’t end up visiting any of the suggested stops however we agree that the secluded picnic stop would be perfect on a nice day (we had a slightly wet one!) There were also plenty of opportunities aside from the suggested stops to get snacks, drinks and access to an accessible toilet – I used a toilet in a Starbucks at the end of the route but we also passed the Museum of Science and Industry which is free entry (or donations) and has a cafe and accessible toilets.

In conclusion, it’s a great treasure hunt and was a lot of fun although the second last clue maybe needs rethinking, the rest were great and as long as you are prepared with a powered wheel or someone who can assist you at certain points, the route works for a manual wheelchair user.

I will definitely be trying out another city after this one!