Making Outdoor Recreation Accessible
It’s summer in Colorado. For many Coloradoans, this means taking to the great outdoors to enjoy our beautiful state. While limited number of trails are wheelchair accessible, the vast majority are inaccessible to people with limited mobility.
Enter the Staunton State Park Track-Chair Program. Staunton State Park lies about 40 miles southwest of Denver in the little town of Pine, Colorado. This lovely 1700-acre parcel of land has scenic views, historic buildings, access to fishing, and twelve trails, three of which can be accessed using the park’s Track-Chair Program.
The Track-Chairs are impressive pieces of equipment that look part track-hoe, part transformer, and all awesome. Like the Caterpillars we see at construction sites, Track-Chairs can tackle some serious obstacles—boulders, mud, snow, downed trees, and more.
With these chairs, people who use wheelchairs or other adaptive equipment can access trails that would be impossible without this specialized equipment. With these chairs, even moderate-to-difficult trails can be enjoyed by people with disabilities and their friends and families.
What’s particularly exciting is that this program, implemented in 2017 through a private donation, is now being replicated. Colorado was the first state to offer Track-Chairs for loan. Since then, Michigan, Georgia, Minnesota, and Tennessee have all followed suit and implemented Track-Chair programs in select state parks.
At this point, the percentage of parks accessible with loaned Track-Chairs is infinitesimal. But it’s a start, and it demonstrates that with the right equipment and adaptations, people with disabilities can participate in the same activities that others enjoy.
Locally, Adaptive Sports Association makes outdoor recreation more accessible for people with disabilities in Southwest Colorado. Over the past few years, Community Connections and Adaptive Sports Association have partnered to grow a lending library for people with disabilities to explore and borrow adaptive equipment for all kinds of outdoor adventures, from biking to skiing and rafting.
While states and nonprofit organizations are addressing access on a wide scale, access is something to which we can all contribute.
Next time you are participating in your favorite outdoor activities, take a quick assessment. What are the potential barriers to participation? Are there physical barriers? Financial barriers? Sensory barriers? What would it take to overcome those barriers?
Physical barriers can be those like the Track-Chair or an adaptive bicycle overcome. Financial barriers can come in the form of access to the activity itself (lift tickets-yikes!) or to the specialized equipment needed. Sensory barriers are often reduced in outdoor activities (another benefit of Colorado recreation), but still exist in many of our summer activities. A person with sensory support needs may love watching the fireworks on the Fourth but need ear protection to eliminate the noise.
We all know the many benefits of outdoor recreation; it’s why many of us live here. Accessible solutions like the Staunton State Park Track-Chair Program help our friends and families with disabilities participate in those benefits. It’s worth all the investments we can make to expand and enrich that participation.