Set up step-free routes

Step-free wayfinding adds a toggle to directions that routes a visitor around anything they can't take a wheelchair or pram up — stairs, steps, escalators. It works by letting you mark those barriers in your artwork so the router can avoid them. This guide covers marking barriers, turning the option on, and testing it properly.

How step-free routing decides what to avoid

Mapvera doesn't guess where the stairs are — you tell it, using a break colour. Any part of the path network you draw in that colour, or any separate line in that colour crossing or overlapping a path, is treated as a step barrier: usable on a normal route, avoided when step-free mode is on. If you never set a break colour, nothing is avoided and the step-free route is identical to the normal one.

Mark your step barriers

1. Choose a break colour

   Pick a distinct colour that appears nowhere else in your route lines. You'll set this same colour in the editor so Mapvera knows what to look for.

2. Mark the stairs in your artwork

   Either draw the stair segment of the path itself in the break colour, or draw a separate short line in the break colour across the path where the steps are. Both are recognised as barriers.

3. Provide a step-free alternative

   Avoiding stairs only helps if there's another way through. Make sure a lift, ramp or level route reaches the same places — including a lift portal for any floor change (see "Route across multiple levels").

Turn step-free on and colour it

1. Open the Wayfinding tab

   In the editor, go to Wayfinding (wayfinding itself must be enabled first).

2. Tick step-free

   Tick Enable step-free (accessibility). This adds the wheelchair / step-free toggle to the directions panel.

3. Set the break colour

   In Non-accessible (break) colour, set the exact colour you marked your stairs with. Leave it unset only if your map genuinely has no step barriers.

4. Set an accessible line colour

   Set Accessible wayfinding line colour to something obviously different from your normal route line, so visitors can see at a glance they're on the step-free route. If you leave it blank it defaults to light purple.

5. Set an accessible walking speed

   Under Walk time & distance, set Accessible speed (metres per second) — the slower pace used for the estimated time when step-free mode is on. Around 0.8 m/s is typical, versus the ~1.3 m/s default for the normal route.

When a place can't be reached step-free

Sometimes a destination really is only reachable via stairs. When that happens, Mapvera doesn't just say "no route" — it tells the visitor the destination can only be reached using stairs and suggests turning step-free off. That's your cue that the place needs a genuine step-free path or lift added. If a destination is unreachable both ways, they simply see that no route was found.

Test both modes

1. Route with step-free off

   Confirm the normal route happily uses the stairs you marked.

2. Route with step-free on

   Confirm the same journey now detours around the stairs via your ramp or lift — and that the line switches to the accessible colour.

3. Check a hard case

   Try a destination that's upstairs. Step-free routing should take the lift; if it fails, you're missing a step-free path or a lift portal.