Everyone deserves the chance to experience the peace and beauty offered in our nation’s state parks. And while wheelchairs provide important mobility, they aren’t always able to navigate through snow, mud, water, sand and other treacherous land. But all-terrain track chairs are! And Georgia state parks, along with the Aimee Copeland Foundation, have just unveiled ATV chairs for 12 of their parks and historic sites (one chair at each site), as reported by CNN.
So what can these sturdier chairs do? They can help disabled people and people with mobility issues safely explore heartier trails, go fishing and participate in adaptive hunting, and, of course, inhale that deeply-satisfying woodland scent. Use of the chairs is free with advance reservation and a certification process (you should plan on approval taking seven days); a ‘buddy’ 18 years or older must go along as well. The Buddy must undergo a virtual training program, carry a fully-charged phone with them and be physically capable of seeking help, if needed, by returning quickly to the place where the chair was checked out. The chairs look awesomely kick-ass, with triangular tread wheels resembling those on a military tank which stabilize the trip.
All Terrain Georgia is the initiative that administers use of the chairs through the Aimee Copeland Foundation partnering with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Aimee Copeland, the woman behind the fund-raising foundation, is a social worker who was injured during a zip-lining accident. That accident led to her contracting flesh-eating bacteria which resulted in quadruple amputations. She told Time Out, 'All Terrain Georgia is a game changer and is now allowing people with disabilities to enjoy the world in ways they’ve never been able to— and at no cost to the user.'
Georgia’s not the only state that has invested in the ATV chairs. As reported by the Washington Post, Colorado offered the chairs starting in 2017 through its Staunton State Park Track-Chair Program, where three trails are accessible through the two track chairs. In Michigan, off-road track chairs are available in nearly a dozen parks, including one with three miles of lakeside shoreline: whereas sand can ground a regular wheelchair, the ATV chairs’ wide tracks permit effortless voyaging. And Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is the first national park to offer a track chair. Finally, South Dakota has two ATV chairs and is fundraising to buy 30 more, while Minnesota has been testing out five chairs in five of its parks.
That’s five states: what about the other 45? Let’s get on it!