#HTE

How to Make a Sandy Beach Wheelchair-Accessible

Baie de Beauport is the beach that Quebec City’s residents flock to during the summer. But some residents, Baie de Beauport operations manager Christophe Roy observed, could only go so far. Seeing “people with reduced mobility who would come to Baie de Beauport…hit a wall as soon as they got to the sand,” Roy told CBC News, “was an incredible injustice.”

As a solution, Baie de Beauport secured funding from both the City of Quebec and the Port of Quebec to install an 82-meter (269-foot) plastic mat stretching from the boardwalk to the water. Wheelchair users can now traverse the beach under their own steam, without needing to be carried by friends, as was beachgoer Maxime Boily’s previous routine. With the new mat in place, “I can push my wheelchair alone — I don’t need help,” Boily says.

Hamburg Town Park Beach in upstate New York has also installed a mat, which appears to be from the same manufacturer:

There’s no word on what type of plastic the mats are made from, but I imagine it’s something UV resistant. They’re also quite pricey: Baie de Beauport’s ran CAD $17,000 (USD $13,600).