Avoca and Toowoon Bay beaches feature on a new beach access directory, launched this week by Accessible Beaches Australia.
The new site, developed in partnership with Deloitte, is the first of its kind in Australia, with detailed listings giving Australians with disabilities better information on accessibility.
“The more information we can provide about accessibility to Australian beaches for people with disabilities, the better equipped those people will be to know if that beach is appropriate for them or not,” founder and chair of Accessible Beaches Australia, Shane Hryhorec, said.
“The new beach access directory has lots of resources for people with disabilities.
“There are a lot of considerations for people with disabilities when going to the beach. You don’t just have to think of towels and sunscreen and the best beach with the best surf, but also whether it will be possible to access that beach and what equipment and tools might be needed.
“If it becomes too hard, then inclusivity at the beach just won’t happen.”
Hryhorec said Deloitte had a passion for improving the experience of those with disabilities going to the beach.
“They recognised this digital platform was essential to ensuring people with disabilities could access their local beaches,” he said.
“It was created for people with a disability to be made widely available at no cost to any person with a smartphone or computer and has the benefit of being an interactive information tool that is kept updated through audits and user feedback.”
To find accessible local beaches, log onto https://accessiblebeaches.com/ and search a suburb.
Source:
Media release, May 16
Accessible Beaches Australia
