June 22, 2009 – People with disabilities will have another chance this summer to camp, kayak and ride park trails, thanks to the 2009 Alberta Access Challenge and a UofC Education graduate.

At an on-campus press conference last week, Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation Minister Cindy Ady announced the renewed initiative, noting it was designed to encourage people with disabilities to visit provincial parks through the use of adaptive equipment like TrailRider wheelchairs or tandem sea kayaks.

“This unique program gives all Albertans the chance to experience nature from an entirely new perspective,” she said.

The first Alberta Access Challenge in 2008 was a “great success,” adds UofC Education grad and Alberta Outreach Co-ordinator Don Carruthers Den Hoed, whose M.A. thesis provided the majority of the research and rationale behind the innovative project.

“Last summer, our Parks staff and volunteers helped guide a dozen disabled Albertans into such wilderness areas as Tombstone Campground and the Elbow-Sheep Wildlands Provincial Park, contributing over 2,000 volunteer hours to the challenge,” he says.

“We’re confident that this year’s program will bring even more people with disabilities, their friends, families and volunteers into our magnificent parks.”

Carruthers Den Hoed’s graduate work with the Faculty of Education explored how Alberta Parks can create meaningful wilderness experiences for marginalized groups, and how that inclusion can become a catalyst for transforming society itself.

“The whole Parks philosophy is about biodiversity – we think nothing of saving a particular species of plant or creating corridors for deer or bears.

“That same ethos is important for social diversity. I wanted to explore how we could combine inclusion with social justice so we may all have the benefits of Alberta’s green space.”

For wheelchair-bound Greg McMeekin, last year’s introduction to the Alberta Access Challenge resulted in an ecstatic re-introduction to nature, “something I hadn’t experienced in over a decade. I’d actually forgotten how beautiful our mountains are.”

The 36-year-old law student adds that while rejuvenating, the experience was no walk in the park. “Our day was physically grueling for everyone involved – me included. While the TrailRider looks as though it should provide you with a smooth ride, in fact the experience is usually bumpy and sometimes even turbulent. It’s a cross between being dragged in a rickshaw and pulled along in a wheelbarrow.

“But at the end of it, I was able to ‘climb’ mountain paths again and even bathe – albeit for just a minute – in a glacier lake. And all with the assistance of perfect strangers!

“This, to me, is real progress.”

Progress and education are at the heart of the Access Challenge, says Carruthers Den Hoed. He explains that in his 16 years with Alberta Parks, he’s spent a good deal of time bringing “parks to kids” in school outreach programs, many of which included Special Ed classes.

“I found that as an educator, often the most rewarding part of my day was seeing an autistic kid smell a bear skull or rub it against his cheek.”

But this graduate’s work has done more than simply create a new education program. In scoping out his thesis, Carruthers Den Hoed connected with the Premier’s Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities, whose chair suggested that his thesis could in fact bring about significant change to the government division.

“In essence, he said I should challenge Alberta Parks to transform its policy so that people with disabilities, new Canadians, seniors and youth could successfully enter and experience our wilderness areas.

“Of course, I jumped at the opportunity – and today, that challenge is part of a new inclusion strategy outlined in Alberta’s Plan for Parks.”

That Carruthers Den Hoed’s Master’s research led to real government policy was not only due to him being in the “right place at the right time,” says his former supervisor, Education’s Dr. Darren Lund.

“It also comes down to the sort of person Don is, and to the quality of his work,” says Lund.

“It took him a couple of extra years to complete this very impressive doctoral-level research – he conducted province-wide surveys, led focus groups and special events, completed multi-stage data gathering and a comprehensive study of other jurisdictions.

“I think it’s safe to say that nobody has put inclusion and parks together the way Don has.”

For more information about the 2009 Alberta Access Challenge, visit www.albertaparks.ca/pushtoopen.