Our Coastal Path Access Guides are a new initiative to identify sections of the coastal path around Essex that have higher levels of accessibility for wheeled users, including users of manual and motorised chairs (independent and accompanied), and users of mobility scooters and all-terrain vehicles. The guides may also benefit parents with young children in pushchairs, and older or mobility-restricted walkers.
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Two guides have been completed so far, but more are planned. The walk sections identified are step-free, level or mostly level, and free of man-made barriers. They are however mixed in character, terrain and length, and not all will suit all wheelers. This is in recognition of the wide range of ability within disability, and an increasingly wide range of all-terrain equipment expanding horizons for wheelchair and scooter users. Our focus is therefore on good quality information enabling users to make their own informed choices.
The guides are currently produced by members of Essex Local Access Forum. We hope though that these initial two guides will also serve as templates, so that future guides might be created by volunteers outside ELAF working to shared guidance (this is important to ensure that the same kind of information is reliably collected and presented, so that the guides come to have a recognisable and trusted format).
Be in touch! We are looking to expand on these routes and regularly seeking to improve and update them. To contact us with new route suggestions or with feedback, please email us: ELAF@essexhighways.org