An accessible user friendly building or a nightmare? A piece of advice: be warned and check in with plenty of time to spare before your flight!.

Madrid-Barajas Airport NAT (New Airport Terminal), also known as T-4, is located three kilometres north of the old Barajas terminals TI, T2 and T3 (this "old" terminals, still in use, are 12 km from Madrid). So, first thing one must know is where to check in: airlines operating in T-4 won't operate in the "old terminals" and vice-versa. Your ticket indicates which terminal you should go to and a list is available at www.aena.es (airports-madrid Barajas airport-practical information-departures)

Departures. 

Now that you have arrived to T4, keep calmed and don't let yourself be too much impressed by the size of the building. The car park and the terminal are separated by forecourts: there are a couple of roads and every 10 to 15 metres there are curb cuts. Buses stop by the sliding doors at the departures hall . The first area of this building (T4) houses the 174 check-in counters, companies' information/client's desks, tickets sales offices, Aena information desk (the company responsible for Spanish airports and air navigation systems). featuring them all counters that are no less than 150 cms high. If you have requested assistance (a wheelchair, for instance, or a companion for a visually impaired or an U.M), when you made your booking, the airline ground staff will assist you to the boarding gate once you have checked in. In this case, there's no need for you to read any more of this: T4 workers surely know their way by now.
Most airlines usually allow passengers using manual wheelchairs to remain in their chairs until they reach the door of the aircraft (electric wheelchairs must fly in the cargo compartment).

Boarding gates are usually printed on boarding cards but many times you'll find a general info such as R,S,U or M (meaning the satellite building, also known as T4-S) or the gate letter (H), but not the number. Don't panic. Go through the security controls and checks: V.A.T refund service is temporary on your left and can be accessed either before or after the controls. There are several square grey bulks pointed by not really large (in fact, most people would say they are too small) hanging signals with blue icons: toilets (wherever there are toilets available one of them is an adapted toilet). Usually public telephones are placed on the side walls of these grey blocks, but not always you'll find an accessible phone (as it happens in the M gates area) and there are no signs hanging from the ceiling to indicate where the phones are. Neither text phones, nor induction loops are available.

Once you have gone through the controls, always check the screens, even if your barding pass shows a boarding gate number. Changes of doors are not announced through the P.A. system. Screens are some sort of 28" tv vertical sets, printed flight numbers/boarding gates/times in tiny letters and figures are difficult to trace, even for the not short-sighted, so it might take a little time. There's an Aena info desk (this one does have two different heights ) before you must make your decision, and as the fame of the new terminal has quickly spread there are green Aena umbrellas around (these days, who knows in the future) where you can look for somebody wearing a green jacket: they're there to direct you. **
Boarding gates H, J and K are downstairs. Now you must go to the right and go down to floor number 1. There are wheelchair adapted glass elevators featuring accessible buttons/Braille system (no floor announcement available, just a beep for opening/closing doors) and escalators.
Take a deep breathe: this building is 1300 mts long and you are just in the middle (we'll talk about the satellite later), you'd better be sure whether you must go left or right. It can take 20 minutes, from this point, to reach a certain gate. Again, signals indicating doors/gates seem to be too small. Doors with a specific letter are on both sides (the pattern is odd numbers on one side, pairs on the other).

Now you can start walking: movable ramps are straight ahead, only on one of the aisles, just opposite to you. Shops are all along the central area, pass through. If you are heading towards K gates, the movable ramps are on the aisle on your left, and if you're going to H zone, they are on the right aisle. Mind that whenever an area of shops or cafes comes in sight, you have to walk: the movable ramp ends before. Very covenient if you want to do some shopping, but not a bit if you are dying to reach the boarding gate. This is really tiring for most seniors, people with walking sticks or crutches, mothers/fathers pulling children or pushing baby prams and nearly anyone carrying hand-luggage (baggage trolleys must be left behind before going through the controls and don't seem to be at reach of hand on level 1). There is nothing like electric vehicles/scooters for people with reduced mobility. Despite the colourful vertical beams and the magnificent, undulating, wing-like bamboo roofs, what is seen on eye level is mostly industrial grey, resulting in a confusing and difficult environment. There are no other rest areas than those provided by the rows of industrial grey chairs by the gates (in addition to cafes and restaurants.)

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