Autism-friendly attractions and adapted boat trips: Florida's accessibility drive
From wheelchair-accessible beaches to autism-friendly attractions, Florida is taking strides to make the state user-friendly for all.
In 10 years’ time 40% of all adult Americans will have some form of disability, according to Visit Florida. This data, gathered by the state, is informing its work to make the state as accessible as possible. “There is a giant market for accessible travel because the number of Americans, both adults and children, who travel with some sort of disability, be it physical, mental or something else, is huge,” said Dana Young, CEO of Visit Florida.
Visit Florida’s website has a landing page with information on the state’s varied accessible travel offerings, featuring contributions from disabled content creators. Meanwhile, the state is focused on providing wheelchair accessible beaches and accommodation, as well as attractions for children with autism. It is also home to the St Augustine Braille Trail, a permanent installation of seven sculptures with braille signage, raised tactile diagrams and audio stories available for free by phone and mobile app.
Florida has 175 state parks, and many of them are Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant.
Elsewhere, in most of the big theme parks visitors can get an accessible pass from guest services. Certain attractions have different sensory features, and they can put the lighting and the sound down and generally adapt the attractions. Kennedy Space Center, for example, can send out a video to caregivers prior to arrival so they can prepare children with autism.
Recent efforts
July 2023: Traveller survey
Visit Florida surveyed visitors and out of 1.1 million people from the UK travelling to Florida, about 12% had additional needs when travelling. With this statistic, Visit Florida has compiled all the information from partners together on an accessibility portal on their website with more than 8,000 articles, ranging from airports all the way through to attractions and state parks.
When repeat bookers with additional needs were asked why they chose a holiday in Florida, beaches and the climate were raised, and a top reason for returning was because they felt safe and welcomed.
November 2023: Partnerships
Florida specialist Ocean Holidays partnered with Visit Florida and influencers Hannah and Becky Cheetham to highlight the sunshine state as an accessible holiday destination, which attracted 1,000 bespoke bookings, generating sales of £8 million in its first year.
Wheelchair-accessible Florida destinations
Sarasota is home to Siesta Key Beach, one of the most accessible beaches in Florida. Here, you’ll find plenty of accessible parking spaces, complimentary manual beach wheelchairs available on a first-come, first-served basis, and more than 400 feet of Mobi Mat.
Sarasota is also home to The Ringling Brothers Circus, established in 1927. Clients can tour The Ringling estate, complete with a circus museum, an art museum, beautiful gardens, and the home of John and Mable Ringling. It has paved paths, but if preferred, there are also wheelchair-accessible trams. Carers enter with free admission.
Nearby, St Armand’s Circle is a luxurious shopping, dining, and entertainment district with more than 130 shops and restaurants featuring easy curb cuts and smooth pavements.
Tampa Bay’s Riverwalk is a 2.6-mile-long paved pedestrian trail that connects downtown’s major attractions to stunning views of the city. The TECO Line Streetcar is fully accessible, and also free, and wheelchair users can roll straight in.
The Palm Beaches have DuBois Park in Jupiter (for views of the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum) and Ocean Reef Park in Riviera Beach, and both parks offer beach wheelchairs on a first-come, first-served basis at no cost.
Shake-A-Leg Miami offers wheelchair-users and their families a ride in an accessible sailboat, kayaking with kayaks modified to fit any disability, and fully-accessible water sports and activities – at no cost. Miami also offers manual and powered beach wheelchairs on a first-come, first-served basis at 1001 Ocean Drive.
Accessible activities and destinations
The Braille Trail in St Augustine
For visitors with vision impairments who want to learn more about St Augustine on foot, the TOUCH St Augustine Braille Trail is a great way to combine a little learning with Florida sunshine. TOUCH stands for Tactile Orientation for Understanding Creativity and History.
Smartphone Tour of Miami Beach’s art deco district
The Miami Design Preservation League’s self-guided tour is available on the Apple Store or Google Play. It costs $25 and is delivered in English, Spanish, French and German.
Text accompanies the tour in each language. There is no sign language offering on the guided tours. An option is to use an AI sound-to-text app such as AVA which captures and captions conversations in real-time. If the tour guide is willing to download the app for free for short-term use it could be synced with the traveller’s phone. It’s best to ask ahead of time about this.
Other guided walking tours offered by MDPL include South Beach Scandals, Jewish Miami Beach, and the Gay & Lesbian Walking Tour. These tours are offered on request and private tours can be booked.
The free GPS My City app also includes a self-paced guided walking tour of the iconic art deco buildings. Users can create their own experience or follow a prescribed route. More than 1,000 city walks can be accessed, including 15 cities in Florida.
Key Largo Water Adventure
Captain Mick Nealey is on a mission to get people out on to the water to fish, snorkel, swim or maybe just sightsee, no matter their physical abilities.
Nealey is the owner of Tranquil Adventures in Key Largo. He answers the phone, books the trips, loads the boat, drives the boat and washes it all down when the excursion is over.
He’s also a fishing guru and Florida tour guide. The idiom “chief cook and bottle washer” might have been coined for him.
As founder and chairman of Active Disabled Americans, his mission is to share what he enjoys about Florida, especially the Keys: swimming, snorkelling the reefs, and especially fishing. But maybe more than any of that, he said, he wants to give people back some of the joy that may be missing from their lives.
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