Welcome to the Accessible Wilderness Society “text only” website. It is our hope that this site will enable those people with visual challenges to better read the content of our site. We are by no means professionals when it comes to designing for people with physical challenges but with your help and input we hope to make this page easy to navigate. So please, email us and let us know what we can do to improve this new component of our website.
The Accessible Wilderness Society
Create, Develop and Promote
Barrier free Wilderness Opportunities for "Every Body"
Based on Vancouver Island in
beautiful British Columbia the Accessible Wilderness Society is working
towards building Canada's first "Universally Designed" Resort and Campground
Facility.
Please, explore the website to
learn more about this Project and others that we are currently working on.
We are proud to be promoting barrier free wilderness opportunities for
everyone.
Go to Graphics Enabled
Website
Although just recently incorporated as a non-profit organization back in May
of 2009, the Accessible Wilderness
Society
is an idea that began over 25 years ago.
Dan Bauer, the President and Founder of the AWS was injured in a motor
vehicle accident in 1985. It was during his initial stay in rehab that
he decided that one day he wanted to help make the outdoors and wilderness
more accessible to people with physical challenges.
Created with the idea that inclusion is a concept that should not be the
exclusive domain of urban centers the AWS strives to "create, develop and
promote" this idea that all people, regardless of their limitations should
be able to enjoy one of Canada's greatest natural resources,
"The Great Outdoors"
The Accessible Wilderness Society works to:
Presidents Message
"This resort will not be for people in
wheelchairs...but they can come because we will build it using the concept
of "universal design".
This is not a place for seniors or other people with mobility
challenges...but they can come, because we will build it with their needs in
mind. This resort will be for
"Every-Body", a place where friends, family and loved ones can come
to enjoy and participate in a barrier free wilderness adventure.
Dan Bauer - President and Founder - Accessible Wilderness Society
The Resort and Campground Project
"We
are just days away from securing the 25 acres of property on Roberts Lake.
Once that stage is complete we will begin the process of developing
this property into what will become first
“Universally Designed” Resort and Campground Facility."
What is “Universal Design”? Our definition of the term is rather simple. Universal design means that you will see no special “accessible” aspects or terminology at the resort or campground. There will be no ramp on the side up to the entrance because there will be no stairs. There will be no wheelchair accessible parking signs because all the parking spaces will be wider. We’ll have no “accessible” rooms for people to stay in because all the rooms will be designed to accommodate. In a nutshell, our resort is for “Every–Body”, everyone is welcome and everyone can enjoy.
What makes us unique?
Well, the universal design concept is just one
component. The second and
probably even more important component is that along with an barrier free
facility we will also be providing opportunities for
“Every-Body” to have the opportunity to go kayaking,
sailing, fishing and hiking.
These are just a few of the outdoor adventures we will make available.
If that isn’t enough to make us the first of its kind in Canada then
add to it the fact that we will be utilizing alternative energy (wind,
solar, geothermal, micro-hydro) to help with our power needs.
Where and When?
Roberts Lake is located approximately
40kms (24 miles) north of Campbell River on Vancouver Island in British
Columbia Canada. Vancouver
Island has it all, beautiful beaches, majestic mountains, old growth
rainforests and fresh mountain rivers…nature at its finest.
We are starting the building project now and with your help we hope to have
the facility up and running in the next 3 years.
For more information download our pdf
The 2011 Vancouver Island Travel Guide
This is the second edition of the guide that showcases a variety of different parks and trails on the Island that the A.W.S. has visited and deemed to be at the very least, “reasonably accessible”. Also in the guide are a number of hotels, restaurants and attractions that are wheelchair accessible.
New this year is that the guide is available in an online “flip book format”, click here to go to the online flipbook.
This page is currently under construction as we work to find a way to best display the information we’ve gathered on various parks and trails here on Vancouver Island.
The New Website – For you return visitors this is obviously not a revelation. It was pointed out to us that our last “Flash” based website was not viewable by people with visual challenges. So we took on the challenge and implemented a mirror site that is strictly text based. We design our website in-house and are by no means professional web design people. We’ve done our best to ensure that the site can be read by all because after all, the resort and campground will be for “Every-Body” and so should our website. Please, if you still find issues navigating the site let us know and we’ll make the changes when possible. Thanks for your understanding.
Wilderness Safari Contest –
Lots of Fun for Kids and Grown Ups! Prizes awarded
each month. Animals are hiding throughout the website, find them all
then click on one of them to enter the contest. This month’s prizes
will be AWS T-shirts! You need to enter the contest each month to be
eligible for the next months prize. New prizes will be added each
month and to make things a bit more challenging we'll get new animals to
find harder places to find as time goes on.
Please, only one entry per email address.
The animals are hiding throughout the
main website.
A.W.S. Visits the Roberts Lake site
- Since the property is still not very wheelchair accessible we sent out
Judy Bauer, Brad Bradbury and his father-in-law Ian out to explore the
future home of the resort and campground facility.
Judy did some rather serious bushwhacking to get this video of a
portion of the property shoreline.
The second video is of the point Judy talks about in the first video,
hilarious commentary from Judy in the first video.
Link to
Youtube video
Strathcona Provincial Park
Event
– on August 21st 2011 the Accessible Wilderness Society co-hosted
an event in Strathcona Provincial Park up on Mt. Washington to help
celebrate B.C. Parks 100th anniversary.
The folks up in Strathcona Provincial Park have worked for close to
14 years to create a gorgeous partial boardwalk trail called the “Centennial
Trail” that is completely wheelchair accessible.
This trail meanders its way through an area called “Paradise Meadows”
and as you can see from the photos below the name is most suiting.
Minister Steven Fletcher Minister of State (Transport) of the
government of Canada was in attendance as well as Minister Terry Lake
Minister of Environment (Government of British Columbia) and the Assistant
Deputy Minister of the Environment Lori Halls.
More than 100 people attended and a fun time was had by all.
The trail itself gets a huge thumbs up from the Accessible Wilderness
Society, well worth the drive up the mountain. For more information
about the Strathcona Provincial Park Trail
click here.
We are at the very early stages of this project.
Ground-breaking is about to begin.
The first 3 things on our "need to do list" are:
1. The construction of a 7m stringer bridge across an S-3 creek.
We have the engineering plan, we just need the equipment
and skills to get it done.
2. We are approximately 800m short of road access to
the property. We could use your help.
3. Site development plan - survey and elevations are needed.
If you think you can help with any of the above
please give us a call at
250-923-9612
We still have a few banner spots available for rent on our new
website. Show your support for the Accessible Wilderness Society!
The header banner is sized at 792px x 90px and fade in
for 20 seconds. You'll only share this spot with three other
supporters and your ad will appear on every page in this website.
Spots are $25.00 per month or $250.00 for the year
The
side banners are sized at 120px x 300px and fade in for 20 seconds.
You'll be sharing your spot with 3 other supporters and your ad will appear
on every page in this website.
Spots are $20.00 per month or $200.00 for the year.
Even though everyone here at the Accessible Wilderness Society are
volunteers we still need money for operational expenses. The money our
supporters give for the sponsorship ads in this site go to those expenses.
Email us Here to reserve your spot
How else can you Help?
Let your voice be heard! Tell us what you think.
Email us here
Mailing Address
Accessible Wilderness Society
#301 - 9 Adams Road
Campbell River BC Canada
V9W-1R9
General Info – Email
Telephone
250-923-9612
Fax
778-420-0074
