Not for all: Barriers to universal accessibility in nature-based tourism and recreation spaces across British Columbia, Canada

The health and well-being benefits of nature contact are inequitably distributed. Among other communities, persons with a disability have fewer opportunities to engage in nature contact in a self-determining way due to the presence of interlocking physical, informational, service, policy, and attitudinal barriers. The purpose of this project was to utilize accepted accessibility standards to document the state of accessibility in nature based tourism and recreation spaces across British Columbia. Following community-based research practices, a team of academic researchers and experts working in accessibility practice collected over 6,700 unique measurements documenting potential barriers across 124 outdoor tourism and recreation sites. Of the 974 infrastructure elements and features assessed, fewer than five percent met all required standards. This paper shares evidence about the categories of infrastructure that are most problematic from an access and inclusion perspective, as well as those that are comparable brightspots. Results demonstrate a considerable gap between Canada's policy goal to become barrier free by 2040 and the present state of accessibility in outdoor spaces across the nature continuum.

Management Implications

Organizations managing outdoor tourism and recreation spaces across the nature continuum in British Columbia, Canada are not meeting interrelated moral, legislative, and social demands for equitable access to nature. Management agencies should invest in data collection completed in partnership with the disability community to reveal the full suite of barriers that prevent access across the province. New capital investment programs are required to upgrade legacy infrastructure and realize new features and amenities that provide meaningful opportunities to all. To ensure accessibility does not diminish over time, changes in management practices like incorporating accessibility requirements into operational contracting, hiring for lived experience, and building accessibility monitoring into maintenance planning and operations are needed.