Being able to access the beach and the ocean is something that every child and adult should be able to do, regardless of age or ability.
Price Tags has already written about the accessible mats that are being provided by the Vancouver Park Board to allow wheelers to get access to English Bay beaches. That article also described how Australia’s plans to make their beaches on the famed Gold Coast wheelchair accessible have been so successful that other municipal areas are following suit.
As reported by the CBC, this includes the rural community of Inverness, located one hour south of Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia.
The Inverness Development Association (IDA) and the Inverness County Accessibility Committee purchased accessible beach matting, two beach wheelchairs and two floating chairs so that anyone could go into the water. That community is also creating ramps down to the water, accessible parking spaces and accessible washrooms, making it the most accessible beach in Atlantic Canada. Their main users are seniors, many from a local seniors’ residence.
Said Rose Mary MacDonald, vice-president of the IDA:
There’s a healing within coming to a beach and I think everyone across Canada can relate to it. …Doesn’t matter if you have mobility issues, if you have problems with your feet and can’t walk, problems with your grip, we looked at everything that we could do on this site to make it fully accessible.
Other counties in the maritimes are looking at Inverness Beach as the model to follow, with “mobi-mats” made of recycled plastic bottles, and easy-to-use equipment.
A board member of the Canadian Paraplegic Association was involved in the design, and the cost for the new equipment and refit was a reasonable $60,000.
The benefit of universal accessibility to a Nova Scotia beach? Priceless.
Photo: Dave Laughlin/CBC
