$200,000 Grants Pave the Way for Accessibility at the Oregon Coast

May 15, 2023

ByMolly AllenJune 7, 2023

Image: benhammad/shutterstock.com

A Trip to the Oregon Coast offers rugged landscapes, lush forests, and the crashing water of the Pacific—but only for those who can access them. In most tourist hot spots, people with accessibility limitations can't actually experience the magic of the coast.

Big waves in community accessibility programs are changing that. "We hear the emotional stories from people who have not been on the beach for 20-plus years," says Jeanne Sprague, parks and recreation director for Lincoln City, where beach wheelchairs are available in large lockers, rentable on a day-of checkout basis through Movatic. "They're used every single day."

Seaside, Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Pacific City, and Lincoln City all have similar beach programs, which provide wheelchairs equipped with supersize durable rubber wheels that glide over sand, shells, and rocks. "There's a tendency to think about accessibility in terms of mobility, but we’re also thinking about vision, hearing loss, sensory needs, and neurodiversity," says Karen Olson, industry communications coordinator for the Oregon Coast Visitors Association. Mobi-mats, for example, allow people who are vision or mobility impaired to get closer to the ocean in Lincoln City and nearby Beverly Beach State Park. The non-slip, salt water resistant mats are rolled out from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

"They’re great for people with limited mobility or with balance challenges. They provide extra help navigating that soft sand," says Olson.

Cannon Beach

Image: Courtesy Dancestrokes/shutterstock.com

Over $200,000 in grants awarded by Travel Oregon in January 2023 are allowing eight coastal communities to improve further. The groundswell began at the Travel Ability Summit, says Olson. "We learned that for travelers with disabilities, what they need most is information," Olson says. "Accessibility is so individual. One of the best things we can do is have really clear information on what a travel experience looks like."

The summit inspired each community's grant application, says Lisa Itel, director of global strategic partnerships for Travel Oregon, which gave preference to applicants from communities that already demonstrated accessibility efforts. Eight organizations were awarded at least $17,000, including the chambers of commerce for Astoria-Warrenton, Depoe Bay, Florence, Newport, Waldport, and Yachats, as well as the City of Lincoln City and Oregon's Adventure Coast, the tourism entity focused on Coos Bay, North Bend, and Charleston. The commonality in their applications? Partnerships with Wheel the World, an organization that conducts assessments for communities and businesses to help those with a wide range of accessibility needs book trips.

Lincoln City

Image: Courtesy Tada Images/Shutterstock.com

The organization is currently gathering hundreds of data points such as door widths and step counts, and drilling into details such as which side of the toilet is a grab bar located. Soon prospective travelers will visit Wheel the World to learn what a trip to the Oregon Coast might entail, and use their individual profiles to book experiences that match their needs. The organization also provides feedback to locations, with recommendations on which accessibility measures to implement. "The more collaborative we are, the better for our travelers," says Olson.