Nature has no building codes

I was watching two televised events last night - actually, since I didn't have access to TV, I was watching two live streams on their respective sites - a Donald Trump event in Iowa and a Republican Presidential debate.  In both events, healthcare was discussed, our veterans' rights to healthcare was discussed, and there was mention of accessibility - and I took a little journey...

I got thinking about accessibility to nature, and recalled a video I'd seen a while back - "Nature is the Best Medicine".   (Actually this is not something only to parody - Richard Louv, for instance, has coined a term "nature-deficit disorder" that is afflicting many children.)  This then led to recalling a quote I'd once heard - "Nature does not have building codes."  I thought about the work I'd done trying to develop accessibility solutions for mobile phones, and people I have met on my travels - handicapped people dealing with and many times thriving with challenges; the amazing perseverance and fortitude many of these people have in their journeys to enjoy life, live productive lives and share their stories with others. I remembered a sign I saw in an airport in India - "People with other abilities board first".  I thought of something I had once read in a book by Edward Said, about otherness and the way society creates a disenfranchised group of others who do not conform to the social norms, institutions or the ways certain activities are brought into the realm of mass inclusion, and exclusion.

I wondered: "Is it wrong that nature does not make it easy, or at times even possible for those with handicaps to enjoy its spaces?"  "No," I thought, "it can't be wrong - but it can be addressed."

And yes, it is being addressed.  There are many groups that are taking it upon themselves to open up nature to people with disabilities. For instance, in Canada, Power to Be is a group that is seeking to "inspire youth and families in need of support to discover their limitless abilities through nature-based programs".

As I explored their site, I found another site, issuu, which offers free to read publications.  One collection is of various annual reports relating to children and nature.  But within this site, within many other technologies, activities, studies and institutions is a way to locate things - around where you are, in places you are interested in, in places you might be thinking to travel to.

This is what I want to explore with waketrail.org - a way to locate things that relate to caring for and celebrating nature.  Where can a person who is wheelchair-bound find trails to traverse, or maybe even groups of people who are organized to help such traverses?  Where can a person who is blind find the best experiences in nature as defined by other people who have the exact same challenge?  Where can a person who is interested in working on "something" find people in their area who have a simialr interest and are trying to find others to talk through possibilities?