Overcoming the obstacles of hiking with disabilities

Peak Northwest

People using mobility devices, who are blind or who live with cognitive impairment all enjoy outdoor recreation, yet for hikers with disabilities there are still many obstacles in the way.

Overcoming those barriers is the goal of Access Recreation, a Portland organization dedicated to supporting hikers with disabilities through its own website, Access Trails, in addition to conducting trainings with land management agencies to help them provide those resources as well.

On today’s episode of the Peak Northwest podcast, Jamie spoke with Georgena Moran, founder of Access Recreation, who has spent the last two decades dedicated to this work while finding ways to access hiking trails herself.

With so many different kinds of disabilities and barriers that hikers may face, just disseminating basic information about trails can be vitally important, Moran said, from providing pictures of parking lots to offering descriptions of trail surfaces.

Here are some highlights from this week’s show:

• Hiking with disabilities reveals challenges that some able-bodied hikers may not be aware of.
• Access to information is one of the biggest barriers for hikers with disabilities.
• How Access Recreation works with land management agencies to get more information out there.
• A few of the best accessible hikes around the Portland area.

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