Wheelchair caching event = WheelCaching

[+K13]

Are there any wheelchair-bound geocachers out there?

 

What are your struggles, interests, and desires in Geocaching? 

 

Would you be interested in an event that caters to people in wheelchairs?  We have the idea of placing caches (temporary) of varying difficulties and types for folks in wheelchairs to find, in a "friendly game" type of thing. (Think MOGA & Texas Challenge)

 

What would you want to see in this event?

 

Please add ideas, thoughts, and suggestions for anything you think would be fun for our target audience.

[+K13]

5 days and no suggestions or thoughts?  Feel free to message me, if you don't want to post here.  We want others' input in this idea.

[+Max and 99]

My number one suggestion would to be to place geocaches at this event that geocachers in a wheelchair can not only get to but see and retrieve themselves. 

[+GeoElmo6000]

On 6/24/2023 at 5:20 PM, K13 said:

We have the idea of placing caches (temporary) of varying difficulties and types for folks in wheelchairs to find, in a "friendly game" type of thing. (Think MOGA & Texas Challenge)

 

Why not create permanent (non-temporary) caches that are wheelchair accessible?  

[+K13]

8 hours ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

 

Why not create permanent (non-temporary) caches that are wheelchair accessible?  

The park we are using has no usable spots for permanent caches.

[+Goldenwattle]

14 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

My number one suggestion would to be to place geocaches at this event that geocachers in a wheelchair can not only get to but see and retrieve themselves. 

I would not consider any cache as wheelchair accessible (1T) if the person in a wheelchair couldn't retrieve and return themselves. Recently I reported such a cache to a reviewer with photos, after being ignored by the CO. There was a nice path to the cache, but a person in a wheelchair could not have reached the cache. The cache was changed to 1.5T. I have seen a number of caches marked 1T because of a good, flat path to the cache, but then impossible for a person in a wheelchair to reach the cache. One cache was under the wheelchair accessible boardwalk. The person needed to get out of their chair, off the boardwalk and on their knees to reach under to get the cache. Give the person some dignity and let them retrieve it themselves. Another cache was up in the high rafters above. I suspect the CO expected the wheelchair person to have a companion who could fetch it for them, after the person in the wheelchair pointed it out. Presumptuous thought! That one I didn't return the cache to the high rafters but left it low to  match the given T rating, where a person in a wheelchair could reach it. The next finder agreed with what I did. That was the past. I will now report any 1T caches that aren't reachable by a person in a wheelchair, if the CO doesn't correct the rating.

Have these people marking these 1T ever actually pushed someone around who needs a wheelchair? I have! My elderly mother needed a wheelchair and used to comment how unfair it was where many caches were. Fine if the cache had a T rating to match, but wrong when it was a 1T and not reachable. I took her on outings several times while I was caching. I got to know where and where not a wheelchair could go, and where someone in a wheelchair could reach. Basically not too low or high and no stretching too far.

K13, great and considerate idea to make an event for wheelchair uses, but any event could be wheelchair friendly, if the meetup spot is chosen carefully. Flat, good path and good handicapped parking close by.

[+Jayeffel]

maybe place what you describe, and give seekers same info as regulator caches but did not use geocaching.com. Since they are to be temporary and only for one event . Unless you seek regular cache stats.

[yrcko]

I recommend handicaching.com for wheelchair caches. On that site you can give more information for the cache and the seekers can select a cache according to their abilities.

[+Jayeffel]

I dId not know there was a webpage such as handicaching.com, but glads there is at least that one. In my few years of caching I cannot think of many caches that 100% findable by those in wheelchairs who cannot move around and find the cache on their own. Maybe some LPCs but then at the mercy of those parking close. 

 

It would make a wonderful challenge for a cache owner to place such caches, not only hidden but accessible. Virtual caches would be good but something tangible to see and touch and write on a log would be wonderful.

[+Max and 99]

4 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I suspect the CO expected the wheelchair person to have a companion who could fetch it for them, after the person in the wheelchair pointed it out.

Exactly.

[+Goldenwattle]

3 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

Exactly.

The 1T one in the rafters I mentioned though was too high for many able bodied people to return it as well. I couldn't. I got it down with a long stick...but then what? So a ridiculous rating! No CO should presume a wheelchair person will have a companion. More respect than that should be given. They mightn't want to always ask for help. Allow them some dignity to fetch and return the cache themselves.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Goldenwattle

[+Jayeffel]

I think that is one of those situations that unless you require a wheelchair or a constant companion to one who does, you just do not fully comprehend what can and cannot be done. I know there are wheelchair users that do have some mobility but reaching is a bit much.

[+Vicious Cycle]

I stumbled upon this article on the Geocaching blog recently on this topic...

 

https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2022/10/wheelchair-accessibility-while-geocaching-an-interview-with-reviewer-poltrona-polaris/

[+Max and 99]

1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:

No CO should presume a wheelchair person will have a companion. More respect than that should be given

I agree!

I see too many T1 caches which require getting past a curb with no ramp. I have my guesses as to what they are thinking. 

[+cerberus1]

Guess I have a slightly different take than others ...

I have a relative that's in a wheelchair and caches sometimes with me, or solo with his kids.  

If he can get to GZ, more than a single track and few rocks n roots, he'll access any cache the same as me.

He's done a couple handicaching hides, and found he'd probably rate them lower than others. 

We've found some COs may assume that the wheelchair means you're weak, and for some odd reason, all can't - leave - that - chair.

This guy will hand climb up a tree I use rope for, and drag himself across boulders/ground that isn't sharp.

Most of his friends we've introduced to the hobby are similar, only need that chair to get there.   

I don't recall him or others we know participating in "wheelchair events" like my Veteran pals do in chair/custom bike races.

Maybe the feeling of being "overprotected" over something they live with every day isn't fun to them...

[+niraD]

1 hour ago, cerberus1 said:

This guy will hand climb up a tree I use rope for, and drag himself across boulders/ground that isn't sharp.

That sounds like a dormmate I had in college. He was a paraplegic who used a manual wheelchair, but if a location wasn't wheelchair accessible, then he'd park the wheelchair and use forearm crutches instead. He had crazy upper body strength, even reaching the finals of an intramural armwrestling competition one year.

 

Another dormmate was a quadriplegic who used an electric wheelchair and couldn't move himself into or out of that wheelchair without assistance.

 

Yes, they both used wheelchairs, but their capabilities were vastly different. And FWIW, I would expect that most wheelchair users who actually take up geocaching (or any other outdoor activity) are probably closer to the former than to the latter.

[+Harry Dolphin]

To be evil, as part of (my now defunct) Geoart, one of the caches was 5D/1T.  Less than .2 mile on a paved parthway, ramp access from the parking.  Cache was an MKH that anyone in a wheelchair could reach.  To solve the puzzle, you needed to find the genus and species of the Dolphins in the River.  Convert the first letter of the species to a number.  Not sure if anyone in a wheelchair ever found it.  But it was wheelchair accessable.