Making the outdoors wheelchair accessible

By Ann Johnson

Making the outdoors wheelchair accessible can help so many more people.

At Forest of Hearts we know that people very rarely visit spaces or join in activities on their own, so becoming wheelchair accessible enhances not just the lives of those using a wheelchair but also those that plan to join them on the day, whether family, friends, colleagues or those who provide support.  

But this might not be the only wider benefit: imagine a daughter/son unable to return back to a full-time job due to care support needs for their parent, offering outdoor engagement for a day might relieve the need to be with their family member, allowing them to work without worry.

I am a wheelchair user and as part of the bank holiday weekend I enjoyed a three-mile woodland trek with my daughter, a woodland walk made accessible through a cinder pathway, it had some tough terrain along the way but nothing we could not overcome.  If the walk had not been wheelchair accessible then neither of us would have taken the walk, but instead it was time to amble, chat and get that much needed exercise.

Government sources Office of National Statistics (ONS) along with other disability groups predict 1-5 people have a disability with 75% of the 1in5 being effected by mobility; this would include wheelchair users but also those with visual impairments; those with physical amputations, pain and other impairments that impact on movement; such as people aging (frailty); conditions effecting balance and/or impacting on stamina.  

Age UK state along with the ONS that there are nearly 12 million people aged 65 and above in the UK of which: 5.4 million people are aged 75+, 1.6 million are aged 85+, and over 500,000 people are 90+, all of these figures are growing year on year. 

As we live longer our likelihood of getting a mobility impairment increases so making more activities and places of interest accessible is of moral importance to Forest of Hearts.

So, add the family, friend, colleagues or support and its possible that accessible sites can reach out to numbers in excess of 24 million in the UK, what a great achievement that would be.