Accessing the Great Outdoors
Anitra, a white woman with blonde hair, takes a selfie with her daughter who is also white and blonde. They sit on a boat and both wear colorful life jackets and sunglasses.
By Anitra Rowe Schulte
Long holiday weekends and warm temps are just right for outdoor adventures of every kind. But fully entering into and enjoying all that the outdoors has to offer can be difficult when access isn’t universal.
My daughter has encountered many roadblocks in pursuit of outdoor fun. She is a wheelchair user, and due to access barriers, many nature experiences have been entirely inaccessible to her. Our family has visited dozens of caves, forests, mountains, playgrounds, and beaches, only to find impassable surfaces covered in water, mud, rocks, mulch, and sand. Without access points, we often find ourselves doing donuts in the parking lot, or looping a short stretch of accessible trail.
Why do such barriers to access still exist 32 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act? It’s due to ableism and the pervasiveness of the Medical Model of Disability, a mindset that attributes access limitations to a person’s impairments, not to barriers in the environment.
What’s clear is this: The rich outdoor experience that many others enjoy is not broadly available to us. At least not safely.
Even places near and dear to us often require dangerous maneuvers. The path to our family boat dock is paved with a mountain of stairs. In order for my daughter to get down to the water, we can either carry her down three flights of stairs, or roll her stroller down a 30-degree ramp intended for boats.
Once we arrive on the lower lever, barriers persist. Each step down to the dock requires a bumpy bounce, with deep waters flanking us on each side. And that’s just the trip down. Taking that path in reverse, after a long day in the sun, feels even more perilous.
My parents have begun conversations with their fellow dock slip owners about improving access, in part for their granddaughter, but also for themselves and other residents. All lake lovers - mobility aid users, seniors, expectant parents, caregivers of young children - benefit from universal design and safe access to the water.
At The Nora Project, we focus on inclusive education and equitable spaces in the classroom, but these places should exist outside of the classroom, too, where new friendships and relationships can bloom. Nature is the ultimate classroom, after all!
As each of us advocates for universal access, here are tools and resources for making the natural world more accessible:
Beaches
Sand can make for a slippery, unstable surface for wheelchairs and mobility aids. Accessible beaches provide ramps or synthetic mats that bring you closer to the water, and offer beach wheelchairs for rent.
Beach wheelchairs have big plastic wheels that glide over the sand. Most of them are manual but some are motorized, a great option for wheelchair users who operate power chairs.
Here’s a list of nine accessible beaches in the U.S. - from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to Seaside, Ore. (Smart Traveler) and a roundup of ten accessible beach options (SpinalCord.com)
Forests and Parks
The vast beauty of forests and parks are treasures for all to enjoy, but sometimes rocky terrain and steep trails can create barriers. Parks have been improving since the passage of the ADA, and some accessible trails, campgrounds and exhibits are available.
There are several ways to see the U.S. National Parks at no cost, as well. U.S. citizens and permanent residents with disabilities can get a free Access Pass, and the Every Kid Outdoors program provides all fourth graders and their families free access, too.
Where to start? Disabled Hikers, a website written by disabled hikers for disabled hikers, provides information on getting to trails, amenities, trail conditions, elevation, segments and trailheads and difficulty (based on a Spoon Rating). Each guide was written after personally visiting the trail at least once.
Here are a few additional round ups for park planning: 5 of the coolest accessible National Parks trails (Men’s Journal) and 25 accessible trails in America. (Outside magazine)
Playgrounds
For decades, playgrounds have been designed for kids to access at all stages and ages. But the layouts and features haven’t broadly included children with disabilities. At last, this is changing. Many new playgrounds have synthetic turf, ramps, ground-level play, wheelchair accessible swings and boats, sensory activities, communication boards and more.
Let Kids Play offers resources on how to develop an accessible playground, as well as an online accessible playground directory for families heading out on vacation, who want to make sure that they have an accessible place to play.
Publisher The Able Fables Book Co. supports inclusive playgrounds through book and T-shirt sales. The Able Fables Book Co. donates 20 percent of profits from its series, which includes the title Louie’s Together Playground, as well as $5 for every featured shirt purchased, to help build inclusive playgrounds. The effort has raised more than $30,000 for 10 playgrounds.
Learn more:
Meeting up with friends outdoors? Check out TNP’s Inclusive Playdates Planning Guide to ensure that your event is an inclusive one.
Watch this video to see how one community is improving access to outdoor recreation: The Universal Access Campaign at Huguenot Flatwater (video).
Meet:
Syren Nagakyrie, Founder of Disabled Hikers, in this interview (video)
Enock Glidden, who works with Maine Trail Finder to assess the accessibility of trails across the state of Maine (blog) and climbed El Capitan in Yosemite National Park (video)
Nick Delange of Wehr Nature Center’s all-terrain wheelchair launch initiative (video)
TNP Instagram Live:
Join us over at Instagram Live on Sept. 1 at 11 AM CT / Noon ET as we talk more about accessing the great outdoors. Adventurer and accessibility ambassador Enock Glidden will join TNP parent programming coordinator Anitra Rowe Schulte to chat about Enock’s exciting experiences and his tips for venturing into outdoor spaces and places.
ASL interpretation will be provided.
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