ADA Compliance, Disabled-Friendly, and Fishing

Recently, I was trying to find my dad a fishing spot.  For those who don’t know it, my dad is fighting a successful battle against stage four small cell lung cancer.  The cancer was doing great by our last count and all the tumors were shrinking rapidly. However, chemotherapy has taken its toll on Dad, and he is using a wheelchair given to him by my fantastic cousins.  I didn’t think this was going to be a very hard mission. I was most definitely wrong.

How hard can it be to make a fishing pier disabled friendly?  I went to the Texas Wildlife and Parks website and got a list of “ADA Compliant” fishing sites near Lake Livingston, Lake Conroe, and Galveston.  I couldn’t get in touch with anyone at Galveston, and I wasn’t sure if Dad could make that trip right now anyway.  So, I focused on Lake Livingston and Lake Conroe.  Every place I called gave me variations of the same story.  They were all ADA compliant.  They had disabled stalls in their restrooms and disabled parking.  The piers themselves were not accessible.  Either there was “just one step”, or “we aren’t sure the pier will hold the weight of the wheelchair”.  Some have an accessible pier, but you would have to get a wheelchair through the muddy shore to get there.  I drove to one place on Lake Conroe that could have possibly been disabled friendly…except that they piled firewood for sale on their only ramp.  The ramp also looked like it was about to collapse.

Just as I was about to give up, I drove out to Lake Livingston state park.  Not only were they ADA compliant, but they were also disabled friendly.  The distinction is important.  Not only did this place have the ADA compliant disabled parking and disabled stalls, but in the creation of the fishing area showed that they took care to meet all possible needs of their clientele.  It was obvious that they cared to make the experience all inclusive for everyone.  There was a wide sidewalk leading straight to the piers that had switchbacks to make the incline as small as possible.  The restrooms were located almost directly on the shore for a shorter trip.  Not only did the restrooms have the ADA compliant slightly wider stall, but they had one that you could wheel the largest wheelchair directly into.  The piers were wide and sturdy.  Some of them had railings, but the ones without railings had lips around the sides of the pier so no one would accidently roll off the pier.  There was enough room for many people to go fishing. 

The first phone calls I made were certainly in compliance with ADA laws, but they were not what I would term “disabled friendly.”  If you want to be completely inclusive of the disabled community, the ADA should be your starting point, not your finishing point. The ADA tells businesses the bare minimum that they must include for disabled people.  A disabled friendly business is going to try to consider all the needs of the community.  And why wouldn’t you?  Approximately 25% of the population has some sort of disability. That’s a large part of the population that you ignore.  The money you put into these accommodations would soon be repaid in profits. Of course, you aren’t going to be able to account for every accommodation out there, as the disabled community is incredibly diverse.  Learn something from every disabled client you can, adjust as you can, and your efforts will be remembered.

I also believe that some of the confusion comes from misconceptions about the disabled community and our abilities.  Why should you make fishing piers and other “sporting”? activities friendly for “disabled” people?  Doesn’t the very word imply inability to do these activities? While sometimes our activities are limited, with accommodations we can take part in just about every activity that an able-bodied person can take part in.   We aren’t confined to our homes, and we will remember the businesses that are considerate enough to accommodate us.

I have more mobility than Dad does.  Between me and mom, we can get a wagon with chairs, a cooler, a tacklebox, and umbrellas for the sun out there.  Dad can use my chair and carry the fishing rods in the back of it in my pouch if we can’t put them in the wagon.

Now when this flippin’ heat lets up Dad, we are going fishing!