Paving The Way

Outdoor access

The push for access that gave America wheelchair ramps and curb cuts, handicapped parking and bathroom grab bars, is now turning its focus to the outdoors.

“Universal Access to Outdoor Recreation: A Design Guide” was released recently by the U.S. Forest Service and private groups working to improve access to the outdoors.

The guide details how facilities ranging from toilets to bridges to fishing piers to picnic tables can be made more accessible.

“Why install one more picnic table … one more restroom that’s not a universal design?” said Joe Meade, the Forest Service’s accessibility program leader.

Cost, of course, is one consideration.

Accessible outhouses can cost three or four times as much as one that follows old-style dimensions.

The goal of making the outdoors more accessible is worthy. But that doesn’t mean the public should have to pay to build the proverbial brick (out)house everywhere a sanitation station is needed.

The Forest Service operates 191 million acres of public land with 200,000 miles of trails.

“Much will not be changed, nor should it be,” said Meade. “People who enter primitive areas do so expecting a degree of challenge.”

But standards of accessibility for outdoor recreation areas are being developed and will be issued in two years or so. The goal is good, but the public needs to monitor its progress to make sure taxpayers don’t pay to pave the outdoors.

Copies of “Universal Access to Outdoor Recreation: A Design Guide” can be purchased for $44.95 from MIG Communications, 1802 Fifth St., Berkeley, CA 94710.