Accessibility Oregon Coast: More in Lincoln City, Gold Beach, Seaside, Rockaway Beach, Others

Published 6/11/24 at 3:55 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection

(Oregon Coast) – A major effort – especially in the last two years - by various Oregon coast towns to become more accessible to people with disabilities is paying off, with a good deal of credit going to the Oregon Coast Visitors Association and Travel Oregon with heaps of funding they've sent to various entities. Just in the last month alone – since early May – towns adding new accessibility features include Gold Beach, Rockaway Beach, Newport and Lincoln City, with Garibaldi about to make more moves in that direction. (Lincoln City, courtesy photo)

Gold Beach just added mobi-mats to their installation schedule. These will be going up on some beaches later in the summer. Mobility Mats are lengthy, plastic-like material that are rolled out onto a beach, allowing more accessibility to those with mobility issues. The town is the third on the Oregon coast to acquire these.

Lincoln City and Seaside added more mobi-mats, on top of what they already had last year. Lincoln City is also soon implementing a color blindness accessibility program.

Rockaway Beach recently installed some 4,400 feet of all-weather walkway, some of which goes over a creek near the main beach access downtown. It not only beautifies the area but enables wheelchairs to move more easily over a larger area. Coming soon will be a beach wheelchair that allows greater accessibility to these sands; its home near the access was recently built.

Rockaway Beach / Oregon Coast Beach Connection

Garibaldi will soon be installing ADA sidewalks in the area, and the depot at the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad will get some handicap-accessible improvements. There is already a wheelchair lift at the railroad's Garibaldi station, allowing wheelchairs onto the train ride.

In Newport, Oregon Coast Aquarium recently debuted its redone Rocky Shores gallery, which has a touch pool and a host of fun creatures to interact with. The big deal here is that the pool's out edges were reduced to a thinner area, which allows greater access with those of varying abilities. This was done through funding via Oregon Travel.

Lincoln City will also be soon getting ADA sidewalks on other parts of town. ODOT is in the middle of that construction job right now. See that article. This is to bring the majority of the town up to current American with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility standards. The ramps make it easier for wheelchairs and anyone else by creating a gentle slope down to the roadway, which promotes safer travel to and from the sidewalk.

Seaside

Accessibility has been expanded in that central coast town in more ways than one. As covered in Oregon Coast Beach Connection last month, they have brought in new mobi-mats to other locations in town: two new ones on top of the two locations found before. Now, something that is the first of its kind happens here.

The color blindness program, said Explore Lincoln City's Kim Cooper Findling, utilizes EnChroma® loaner glasses for visitors who have a color vision deficiency often referred to as “red-green color blindness.” Lincoln City is one of the first organizations in Oregon to loan out color vision deficiency glasses for free.

“This summer season, we are expanding our beach accessibility options as well as piloting a new program to serve those with vision deficiency,” Findling said.

The color accessibility program will begin on June 10. The loaner glasses will be available for checkout at the Lincoln City Community Center at 2150 NE Oar Place. Eight options will be available which will include four adult pairs, two child pairs, and two pairs of wrap around lenses for those who wear prescription glasses. Users can identify which pair might suit them best by taking Enchroma's color blindness test. See their site for full details

For the mobi-mats, Lincoln City currently has them at NW 40th St., NW 34. St. Grace Hammond access, D-River Wayside and SW 51st St.

In Seaside, you can now find them at Avenue U at the southern edge of the Prom and at 12th Ave. at the north end. More Mobi-Mats for Oregon Coast Sands at Lincoln City, Seaside

David's Chair in Florence

Beverly Beach State Park at Newport also has mobi-mats.

Beach wheelchairs with fat beach tires are available to borrow at various towns now along the coast. Through the group David's Chair, there are also all-terrain, electric-driven chairs at Gold Beach, Newport, Seaside, Rockaway Beach, Manzanita, Netarts, Florence and Pacific City. Newport Latest Oregon Coast Town to Get All-Terrain Track Chair for Accessibility for full list

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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