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To The Top - designing disabled-friendly challenge courses

Parks & Recreation, March, 2000 by Don Rogers

FUTURE CHALLENGE COURSES OFFER ACCESS FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

The challenge course industry has experienced tremendous growth over the past decade. There appears to be widespread acceptance of the methodology while ever increasing numbers of public and private agencies are committing the resources to this powerful tool and its accompanying programs. With this proliferation of challenge courses an inevitable question as emerged: How do we include people with disabilities in these programs? No simple answer has been found to this controversial question. This article suggests that an approach called Universal Challenge Course Design will accomplish a meaningful inclusion that extends beyond the confines of mandated accessibility.

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Challenge courses have become increasingly popular across a wide range of settings in the United States and many other countries. Estimates of the number of challenge course in the U.S. range between 8,000 and 10,000, with about 250 built each year.

According to the Association for Challenge Course Technology (ACCT), a challenge course is "any program that utilizes belayed, spotted or non-spotted elements/activities which have been designed or installed as part of an experiential learning curriculum" (1998, p. 23).

Other terms used to describe a challenge course include Ropes Course, Teams Course and Initiatives Course. An adventure/challenge program might also include a climbing tower or climbing wall which usually provides multiple options for a range of climbing experiences.

A challenge course has numerous applications depending on the setting and populations being served. The types of program are identified according to four major categories based on purpose. These categories are recreation, individual/group growth, developmental and treatment (Priest, 1995). Organizations that have on-site challenge courses include camps, YMCAs, universities, schools, commercial adventure recreation programs, military bases and a range of public park and recreation programs. In addition, there was significant growth during the 1990s of the use of adventure-based methods in education settings, corporate training programs and treatment settings.

Part of the appeal of challenge courses is the capacity they have to meet a wide variety of unique program and participant needs. A challenge course has been referred to as the Swiss Army knife of the adventure field. It presents a range of challenge levels within each element that can also address a multitude of program and participant goals. Add to this the many different elements and configurations available and you have a very comprehensive tool.

Yet, just as there are many different kinds of Swiss Army knives for a variety of applications, it is important to design a course and program that will most effectively meet agency and participant needs. It will then be necessary to provide program staff (managers and facilitators) with the education and training to use that tool safely and effectively according to program and participant goals. This approach suggests that a challenge course is more frequently a means to an end than an end in itself.

Another area of growth for the challenge course industry during the 1990s was the expansion of opportunities for individuals with disabilities. While more programs discovered the potential benefits of challenge courses, the need to create options for participants with disabilities became apparent. The needs of people with disabilities gained unprecedented attention within a broad range of public and private services and programs. As a result of this growing consumer demand for inclusive options, the challenge course industry has been compelled to respond with new designs and training programs for the purpose of including people with disabilities.

In the past decade, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) impacted how the needs of individuals with disabilities are addressed in the areas of recreation, education and employment. Where the ADA does not provide direction through specifically stated guidelines, it more generally mandates access to programs and services based on reasonable accommodation without resorting to segregated options. Challenge courses are no exception. Though the ADA does not provide guidelines for the design of an "accessible" challenge course, the law requires that they are usable by individuals with disabilities within the context of the programs being offered.

Residential and day camp programs that primarily serve kids and adults with disabilities have been responsible in large part for the early innovations in accessible challenge course design. Wanting an adventure component for their campers modeled after the traditional challenge course experience, camp staff and challenge course vendors experimented with many creative designs that have found their way into a variety of settings, including physical rehabilitation programs.

Professional Standards

There are two professional organizations in the adventure field that have developed standards addressing the issue of program access by individuals with disabilities. The accreditation standards for adventure programs established by the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) include a section titled Universal Access Considerations (section 4). Standard 4.A.01 states "The program is itself available to all individuals, regardless of their physical abilities" (AEE, 1995, p. 9). Within this standard, an interpretation of the ADA indicates that it is not necessary to make all program areas accessible or that changes have to be made that would alter the fundamental nature of the service being offered. It does say, however, that the ADA requires programs to make "readily achievable" accommodations that do not create an "undue burden". The standard goes on to say that "... participation in the normal activities of a program and associated group work should be fostered and barriers should be removed or accommodations provided to permit full participation whenever possible" (p. 9).

To The Top - designing disabled-friendly challenge courses

Parks & Recreation, March, 2000 by Don Rogers

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