Barrierless Beaches
As part of our advocacy, #OneAccessibility, we will share information about differently able and profile one location with accessible trails. Look out every week for this enlightening post.
Rececently, a Local Guide wanted to know how open spaces especially a beach can be accessible for wheelchair users. So, we thought to give some insight into this topic.
Beaches are know for their white sands and wavy water. It’s fun witnessing the ocean, land and sky come together at a particular location. More intriguing is the breeze and sunlight hitting your face.
For people with disabilities, especially wheelchair users, navigating the sands can be a huge problem. Most beach facilities do not have accessible trails right from the entry. Although a few may have dedicated parking but access to the water front or across the sught is uncommon.
This is one huge challenge facing persons with special needs as it prevents them from effectively enjoying tourism destinations across the world.
Beach managers can solve accessibility issues by making wide walk paths with carpets, solid sand, baked stones, or wooden materials. This enables wheelchairs to move smoothly without being clogged in sands.
Also, management may need to provide special purpose vehicles like all terrain wheelchairs that enables PwD move through the sandy beaches and into the water without any problem.
Beach Wheelchairs have big and strong wheels which move across the sand without sinking. Some are manual while others are motorized. Manual beach wheelchairs require a personto push it while the automated can be controlled by the user.
These requires extra cost and commitment but at the long run, can improve return on investment , as more able and differently able will patronize the beach thereby increasingly revenue.
Don’t forget standard accessibility signs are important because they give firsthand information to users.
If you have a question, suggestion or contribution, feel free to comment below. Read last week’s roundup here.
