wheelchair accessible?

[+rubinscube]

I am about to post my first geocache after being a member for a year. my question is that the cache location would be wheelchair accessible to my friends who are in wheelchairs, however my friends take their wheelchairs on flat, dirt, trails. how do I constitute the "norm" of an accessibility to a cache? thanks.

[+dfx]

if it's accessible to people in wheelchairs, then it's wheelchair accessible. it doesn't need to be comfortable, it just needs to be possible.

 

if any further details are important to know, put them in the cache description.

Edited April 26, 2010 by dfx

[+thedeadpirate]

I've got a couple of wheelchair accessible caches that I do specify that though I placed them from a chair, that it may depend on the individual's abilities.

 

For instance, one requires about 30' over grass which is no problem for me. But I mention it because for some, that can be a problem, especially if it's wet outside.

 

I have another one that has easy wheelchair access from one side but the distance to the cache is almost doubled from the access on the other side. But on the shorter side you must clear a 6" curb.

 

I specifically mention this in the description because for me, the 6" curb, while a pain, is not a problem. But the cache is perfectly accessible. I just think the more information you can provide up front will help someone planning their approach.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Use the rating system at http://www.handicaching.com/

 

It's far from perfect but the best we have.

[+buttaskotch]

try http://www.handicaching.com/ they can help rate the cache for you.

[+Chokecherry]

I think it also depends on what kind of wheel chairs you're testing out your cache with as well. There are people in just the no frills wheel chairs that will have a lot less access to off road sorts of caches.

 

When I see a 1 or 1.5 star rating (in terrain) I assume my mom can get to the cache without much trouble. She's not in a wheel chair but does have some physical limitations. Although I was just at a 1.5 star which was quite a walk into the woods on a bad trail and then through the brush, over logs and up a steep hill where you teetered on the edge to get to the cache... I argued the rating was too low on that.

 

Anyhow, I would ask can a person reasonably access the cache via whatever wheel chair they have or do they need special wheel chairs etc to access the cache.

[+rubinscube]

thanks everyone for the detailed information, this will help me post a great cache not limited to abilities

[+hairball45]

My wife uses a power chair occasionally. She has placed a couple of caches from her chair. One is on a paved trail, the other is on a trail that is less than paved. She assumes that if she can get there, so can most chair users. The same applies to reach. Actually one of them seems to be easier for female cachers, the wives and girlfriends seem to be the eyes on that one. Why, who the heck knows?

[+roziecakes]

thanks everyone for the detailed information, this will help me post a great cache not limited to abilities

 

Everyone's already given you good advice, but I wanted to tell you that I think it's very cool that you're placing caches with the differently abled in mind. When I first started caching I could barely walk, and I tell you I really appreciated the easy terrain ones back then.

 

In fact, a good friend of mine just had back surgery and was interested in caching, but didn't start because he thought it would be too difficult for him. I said, "No! Try to find ones rated at a 1 terrain, you can definitely cache even if you can't walk far!" Well, he joined and he's been finding caches... thanks to nice folks like you

[+J the Goat]

thanks everyone for the detailed information, this will help me post a great cache not limited to abilities

 

Everyone's already given you good advice, but I wanted to tell you that I think it's very cool that you're placing caches with the differently abled in mind. When I first started caching I could barely walk, and I tell you I really appreciated the easy terrain ones back then.

 

In fact, a good friend of mine just had back surgery and was interested in caching, but didn't start because he thought it would be too difficult for him. I said, "No! Try to find ones rated at a 1 terrain, you can definitely cache even if you can't walk far!" Well, he joined and he's been finding caches... thanks to nice folks like you

 

Nymph beat me to it. I have no problem with higher difficulty terrains, however I'm regularly out with my 5 year old, 3 year old, and now carry my 8 month old on my back. They prefer 1-2 terrain caches, so they're important for lots of different folks.

[+Team Cotati]

If a person is truly wheelchair bound, then that means that unless they have some sort of retrieval device that is hand operated, any geocache that requires that a person so limited that they can't raise their rear end from the seat of the chair, must be able to grab the cache while being so limited.

 

I do suppose that there is nothing wrong with the limited person getting to the cache location and having their assistant, if there is one, do the actual cache grab. This is what I think that I'd do in scuh a situation.

 

Of course it would be really nice to know about the need for an assistant in advance.

 

And of course, I would not go about blabbing to everyone about it.

 

I often think that it really is quite simple. Just imagine yourself in such a situation and if trying to hide a cache so that such individuals could realistically grab it. That ought to work in most, if not all cases, I'd think.

Edited April 26, 2010 by Team Cotati

[+Chokecherry]

I would probably also consider that some wheel chair bound people might have other issues with their ability to manipulate objects like small lids or tight lids when doing the cache.

 

The few here that admit to being wheelchair accessible also clearly state you will need a helper to retrieve the actual cache from the location.

 

I wish more people would hide accessible caches around here. I know a local group that used to do this as a team building thing but had to stop because there weren't enough accessible caches. And I know my mom would love to do more but can't.

[+swizzle]

We have a trail around here that is accessible to people with limited mobilities. They are however required to get a special permit which allows them to use a 4 wheeler on the trails. I'm planning on placing a few caches on this trail which would most likely require a 4 or 5 foot stick to retrieve. If anyone else has any of these types of caches can you help me out and give me some general ideas and pics on how you've set up your caches? I'm also considering a puzzle cache where you use things that you see at waypoints to get the coords for the final. Sort of a multi with only one container to deal with. Any other ideas would be great. The one thing I don't want to do is set up 500 more LPC's. I want to set these up in nice locations, on nice trails that do have access. Swiz