Cinque Terres Continued new question

You can see and visit 4 of the 5 villages by sea. Ferries are commercial transportation vessels on a fixed schedule (not unlike a bus or train), so of course the Captain must remain with his ship. And as was pointed out in your previous thread, those with impaired mobility can have difficulty boarding or disembarking from these vessels. Whether a privately chartered and crewed boat would provide any better accessibility is questionable. You might be able to hire a guide (paying his fee plus his ferry tickets) to accompany you if all you need is a hand for stability to get on and off the ferry. Otherwise, if you can't walk up and down the hills, you will be limited to the Harbour areas, so I'm not sure what a guide could do that a guidebook couldn't.

barbclip, please see the recommendations on your previous post regarding your need for touring with a wheelchair. The commercial ferries are not wheelchair accessible, and their captains are not responsible for assisting passengers during their time off the ships.

Your previous thread:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/cinque-terres

The CT is not an easy place for visitors with mobility issues to go. Given the terrain, there's only so much accessible tours can manage. I hope one of the previously linked tours might work for you!

The advice to look at photos of the port is a good one. We took the ferry from Vernazza to Riomaggiore. Vernazza was a fairly flat entry (though sloped), as I recall. But Riomaggiore is EXTREMELY steep, and includes many stairs to get to town from the boat. I actually remarked when we were there how it must be a very difficult place to live with any mobility issues.

Yep, I'd included one of those photos in the OPs previous thread. It includes the lineup of passengers on the steep stairway and narrow ramp necessary to get on and off the ferry.