Question: This genteel sport of birding has a profound economic impact. According to the 2001 US report, "Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis," birders account for $32 Billion dollars in annual retail spending items like field guides, binoculars, bird food, houses, boats, transportation, guide costs and other direct birding expenses. Has the Disabled Birders Association had any success convincing governments or industry to reinvest some of that income into site accessibility and appropriate products?
Answer: You will have to ask the dba-usa chapter about what's happening in the US but I can report progress in the UK.
Birding here is still seen as a minority, not to say weirdo, pursuit. "Twitchers" as we all tend to get labeled, are on a par with train-spotters - sad, anorak-wearing, bespectacled, border-line Asperger's, spotty youths without the physiques to be footballers nor the brains to be nerds. I don't know why its still the butt of tabloid fun-poking but it is. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has over 1 million members - making it the biggest membership conservation body in Europe, 20 million households (out of 25, million) feed wild birds in their gardens yet birding still has this rather silly image.
Nevertheless, the dba has begun to have an impact on the direct service providers and is helped with its costs by commerce in the birding field. Our sponsors include birdfeed companies, optics retailers and bird book-sellers and in the UK virtually all companies that have interests in birding equipment or supplies do donate a percentage of their profits to conservation in general.
As to nature reserves, changes are happening. When I set up the dba in 2000 and went along to the British Bird Fair (BBF ; the biggest of its kind with around 20,000 participants) I spent half my time there badgering the RSPB to think about disabled access to its reserves. Last year at the BBF their Director of Operations came to me and asked what they could do to improve things - so changes are afoot.
In my local area there have been improvements at nearly all reserves, observatories and parks. This coincides with a recent bit of legislation making disability access a requirement of all premises and all types of provision. I feel most encouraged.
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