{"id":300,"date":"2017-01-15T12:42:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-15T17:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/?p=300"},"modified":"2018-07-14T13:47:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-14T17:47:42","slug":"florida-accessible-beach-wheelchairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spintheglobe.net\/dir\/2017\/01\/15\/florida-accessible-beach-wheelchairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Explore Florida’s Accessible Beaches with Special Wheelchairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most amazing inventions for wheelchair users is surprisingly one of the most low-tech. It’s the beach wheelchair, and it’s allowing people with a wide variety of physical disabilities and limitations to enjoy the sand and ocean in a way they never could before. I’m incredibly grateful that my home state of Florida has really taken the lead in providing these chairs to the public, allowing you to explore more than 30 wheelchair accessible beaches across Florida<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Some of Florida’s state parks offer free beach wheelchairs for use during your visit. Several beaches also provide free access to beach wheelchairs, including the Gulf Islands National Seashore Beach, Briggs Nature Center Beach, Honeymoon Island Beach, Sunny Isle Beach, Sandy Key Park Beach, Oxbow Eco-Center Beach, Jetty Park Beach and beaches managed by the Osceola Ranger District, Hernando County Government Center, Okaloosa County, Broward County, Charlotte County, City of Miami, the Conservancy of Naples and the Naples Parks and Recreation Department. Here is a list of accessible beaches on the Emerald Coast<\/a> in the Florida panhandle.<\/p>\n

After my last amazing experience on Siesta Key Beach<\/a> back in December, I couldn’t wait to come back–specifically to spend the day out on the sand with one of the publicly available beach wheelchairs provided for free! The last time my friend Azure and I came here, we arrived \"beachtoo late to check out one of the chairs. However, we planned better this time!<\/p>\n

After we arrived and parked, I transferred to my manual chair since I wasn’t sure what I would need to do with it after I transferred into the beach wheelchair. We went to the vendor booth, where they had four of the special big-wheel chairs secured. They didn’t cost anything to check out; we just had to return it to the booth by 4:00pm.<\/p>\n

Transferring from my manual chair to the beach chair was a little tricky. The foot rest is fixed, the chair has no wheel brakes, and the whole seat is reclined about 15 degrees. Between Azure holding me and her friend Elliott holding the chair steady, I was able to safely transfer over. The chairs are a little awkward and unwieldy on pavement, but (according to Azure), pushing me across the Gulf Coast white “sugar sand” was a piece of cake.<\/p>\n