Barcelona accessibility is being put to the test by a powerful new voice on social media.

Montse Font, a content creator with over 176,000 TikTok followers, uses her electric wheelchair to document the daily reality of navigating the city.

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Her videos, which have amassed 25 million views, transform personal experience into a compelling tool for public awareness and urban improvement.

Barcelona Accessibility Under The Microscope

Font moved to Barcelona four years ago to be near her rehabilitation hospital. Subsequently, she began sharing spontaneous clips of her daily routine. The breakthrough came with a video showing how she boards a bus. “Suddenly, 25 million views,” she recalls, still amazed. Her content is brief, authentic, and captures everything from using beach accessibility supports to encountering broken lifts at stations.

Her message is clear: using a wheelchair does not mean life must be confined indoors. “The world is adapting, and there is always a way to make things possible,” Font explained in an interview with El Periódico. She believes the key to her success is naturalness, showing her normal life without heroic or pitiful narratives.

Furthermore, her work has prompted tangible changes. After she highlighted that wheelchair users had to buy tickets in person at the Palau de la Música, the venue swiftly added an online purchasing option. Font now focuses on inspiring others, noting that followers have gained the confidence to travel, camp, or visit the beach after seeing her do it.

Progress And Persistent Barriers

Font acknowledges that Barcelona remains a reference point for Barcelona accessibility, especially compared to other cities. She praises the public transport ramps, beach support services, and the fact that 99% of pedestrian crossings have ramps. However, she insists everything can be improved.

Key priorities include adapting all metro stations, guaranteeing access to public and private buildings, ensuring lifts function reliably, and providing properly adapted bathrooms. She also points out common street obstacles like lampposts, planters, bins, and parked motorcycles that complicate passage for anyone in a wheelchair. This issue of functional public infrastructure is a recurring theme in the city, as seen with recent efforts to restore historic features at the Liceu metro station.

Consequently, Font has a direct suggestion for policymakers. “Public officials should sit in a wheelchair for a day,” she states firmly. “Only then would they understand the problems and could try to solve them properly.” Her advocacy aligns with a broader shift in Spain, where new national legislation frames transport as a fundamental citizen’s right.

Parallel to her influencer work, Font is a business graduate and, as of May 2025, the president of ASEM Catalunya, an association for people with neuromuscular diseases. She plans to expand her content, testing urban accessibility in other Spanish locations through her work travels.

Ultimately, Font reflects that disability is no longer a taboo. “Twenty years ago, people with reduced mobility were shut away at home; now we are out on the street.” Her dream, however, is for her videos to become obsolete. True success for Barcelona accessibility would mean a world so universally accessible that it no longer seems remarkable.

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