On a warm August afternoon this past summer, more than 125 individuals with disabilities came together to enjoy a fun-filled day at Constitution Beach in East Boston.
The Beach: Ability Day at Constitution Beach program was created several years ago through a grant from Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s Better Beaches program with support by DCR’s Universal Access program. The yearly event hosted by Triangle, Inc. highlights programs that make Massachusetts public beaches, like the one in Eastie, accessible to the disability community.
Building on the success of this program the Metropolitan Beaches Commission (MBC) and Save the Harbor/Save the Bay held a hearing last Tuesday on improving beach access for those with disabilities.
“I want to thank the Save the Harbor/Save the Bay staff and board members who really do an amazing job of making our beaches the best public resources they could be and uplifting issues that are really important to all of us,” said MBC Co-chair Rep. Adrian Madaro at last week’s hearing. “We’ll be discussing improving access to our beaches for people with disabilities and 30 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we still have a long way to go to make certain that our systems, infrastructure and public accommodations are welcoming and accessible for people with disabilities or different abilities.”
Madaro said there is still a lot of work to do to ensure that public spaces, including public beaches within the greater Boston region, reflect that everyone deserves access.
“Just last week, the disability community achieved a major victory,” said Madaro. “The Federal Court decided that the City of Boston must upgrade curb ramps across this city for wheelchair users. So we have some significant momentum to build upon this victory by continuing to uplift the leadership of people with disabilities.”
As part of the annual Save the Harbor/Save the Bay Beach:Ability day at Eastie’s only beach, Save the Harbor donated beach wheelchairs and showcased the non-profit’s investments in ramps, mobility mats and beach and floating wheelchairs—all of which are critical to improving beach access for people with disabilities.
Boston’s Disabilities Commissioner Kristen McCosh, who leads the city’s overall effort to ensure accessibility and inclusion for persons with disabilities, told of her experience enjoying local beaches in Boston.
“So for those of you who don’t know me, I’d like to let you know that I use a power wheelchair due to a disability I acquired as a teenager so accessibility has a direct impact on my life,” said McCosh at the hearing. I’d like to give you some of my thoughts and accessibility to see how we can improve it and also give a shout out to all the work that Save the Harbor has already done to improve accessibility. One of the issues that’s important to me, and that is that most beaches have ramps or sloped walkways but when you get to the sand, there’s really no place to go. So that is basically inaccessible to someone like me who uses a power wheelchair. So I’d love to see more thought given to raised walkways of composite material. They used to have those at some of the beaches I visited and that was super accessible. Plus the hard surfaces are a lot better for a power wheelchair. When I go to the beach with friends we always end up sitting at the back of the beach close to the ramp because I can’t really go down to the sand. So if we had a walkway that not only extended onto the sand but also extended down to the water, that would be super helpful.”
Coleman Nee, CEO of Triangle Inc. who hosted the “Beach:Ability” series at Constitution Beach thanked the MBC and Save the Harbor for their leadership on this issue.
“I cannot stress enough the positive impact on mental health and spirits of those who attended Beach: Ability…our program participants love the beach and they love the ocean,” said Nee. “In truth, these beaches are public assets and they shouldn’t only be available to the disability community during an event once a year, they should be available all the time. We need additional investments, we need more walkways and ramps, we need proper equipment, we need mobi-mats, we need floating wheelchairs at every beach, and we need all bathrooms and snack stands to be ADA compliant.”
Chris Mancini, Executive Director of Save the Harbor, added that the legislative community and the community members of the MPC will use information from last week’s hearing to help better understand the challenges facing people with disabilities on the metropolitan beaches.
“We are looking forward to working together with DCR to develop strategies to improve access to these spectacular urban natural resources for everyone,” he said.