The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 focused attention on accessibility standards in every corner of the nation, and for the first time forced the private sector to swing wide its doors, hallways, and bathrooms for everyone.
The new requirements included the directive that state parks, buildings, and beaches also be accessible.
Michigan had its own accessibility regulations before the passage of the ADA, and continues to be progressive in this area. A test program in the Great Lake state has proven quite successful. Using 6-feet by 10-feet sections of durable vinyl decking, two Michigan beaches became more accessible than ever before, and a third will soon join the program.
Marketed by an Indiana company under the brand name Brock Dock, the system uses vinyl sections fitted together to form long-lasting, portable, and cost-effective walkways. At Holland Beach State Park and Muskegon State Park in Michigan, the Brock Dock system has been used and the results have been undeniably positive, said Vicki Anthes, a planner and ADA coordinator with Michigan's Parks and Recreation Division of the Department of Natural Resources.
"People with disabilities have raved about it," Anthes said. "It gets them to the high water edge."
Port Crescent State Park will have the system installed this spring.
The system has several advantages, and not only for the disabled, Anthes said. The vinyl stays cool, getting only a few degrees warmer than the outside air, even under the glaring summer sun. Because it is smooth, it is more friendly for wheelchairs, strollers, and canes. There are no nails to stick up and snag bare feet; and rather than exit onto thick, soft sand, the Michigan walkways extend to the waterline, making it easier for people with disabilities to enjoy the beach.
The decking is easily removed and in Michigan is taken down before the harsh winter sets in, reducing wear and tear. Ocean states could conceivably remove the walkovers before approaching hurricanes or tsunamis, saving expensive replacement or repair costs. A vinyl ramp costs more than a wooden one (about $20,000 for the vinyl), but should last longer.
The new Brock Dock structure at Muskegon State Park has already made a believer of one Michigan resident. Paul Novoselick, a columnist with the Muskegon Chronicle newspaper, has multiple sclerosis (MS), which has slowly taken away the use of his legs. A North Muskegon resident for 10 years, Novoselick and his wife often visited the beach in Paul's more ambulatory days; but since MS relegated him more often than not to a wheelchair, visiting the beach was not very feasible. Wheelchairs and soft beach sand do not mix well.
"Really, the only way to get down to the beach is to crawl and in the heat of summer it was really hard to do," Novoselick said recently. "When I rolled my wheelchair on the Brock Dock, and I didn't know what it was called at the time, it was thrilling. It was really neat. I felt like the beach is open to me, where it hadn't been. I really felt great."
The only problem Novoselick can see with the program is that not enough people know about it.
"A lot of non-profit groups around Muskegon don't know it," he said.
Novoselick's comments bolster Anthes' belief that Michigan is doing its best to answer the law's requirements.
"In spite of the fact that there are no standards for accessibility in the out-of-doors, we're trying to be very pro-active," she said.
The ADA requires that any facility or structure designed for use by a public entity be "designed and constructed in a manner that the facility or part of the facility is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, if the construction was commenced after January 2, 1992."
The law does not require every facility that existed prior to ADA to be accessible to someone with a disability. It does, however, require that overall, every state program - including beaches and parks - be made accessible. For example, not every beach walkway must be accessible, but some must.
As existing facilities are altered or repaired, governments must address accessibility, making this a situation to which all states must pay attention.
One walkway in Michigan was paid for through a trust fund of money from state oil and gas leases. Money for the Muskegon path came from the parks department's capital budget and the Port Crescent project will be paid for with park endowment funds.
Michigan has addressed public access issues with progressive ideas before. The state was one of the first to use Section 306 of the Coastal Zone Management Act, which deals with public access issues, for construction. At the time, 306 funds were limited to planning and design. Michigan was designated a "demonstration state" and used the money to build.
As a result, Congress amended the Coastal Zone Management Act and made Section 306A, which allowed federal grants to be spent to build public beach accesses.
In Michigan, a third of the 306A money goes to local communities through grants of up to $50,000.
"We usually fund between 60 and 70 Section 306 projects [annually]," said Catherine Cunningham, a land and management analyst with the Department of Environmental Quality. "The cap is $50,000, but a lot of communities will over-match that. A lot are half-million dollar projects in which we're helping them leverage other funding. Our contribution is small compared to the expenditures they have."
For information on accessibility in the Michigan state park system, contact Vicki Anthes at 517-335-7890.
For more information on Brock Dock, contact the Royal Crown Company at 219-658-9442.
For more information on Michigan's public access programs, contact Catherine Cunningham at 517-335-3456.
