Economy Challenges Disabled People’s Ingenuity Accessing Recreation

Posted by Andrew Leibs Dec 10, 2008

In January, while readying to attend Ski For Light, I booked a flight into the wrong airport (North Bend, instead of Bend, Oregon) and had to pay an additional $348. It irked me, especially since Yahoo Travel auto-filled North Bend for me, but I thought little of it.

I bought a new ticket and splurged for a private room and an airport limo. I won’t mention my behavior at the silent auction.

With the economic collapse, such debit card swipes feel like the sort of antediluvian excess that brought the flood. Ski For Light in 2009? Out of the question. I can’t stop dividing that vanished $348 into this month’s bills.

Recessions hit recreation programming hard: donations dry up, volunteers give up hours for jobs, while the disabled, of whom many are unemployed or on fixed incomes, have fewer dollars to devote to travel or adventure.

In times such as these, we need to remain inquisitive, flexible, and creative in finding ways to get or keep fit and enjoy our leisure time.

Here are four money-saving tips from my experiences as a disabled, some-time athlete:

1. Always ask for a disability discount. My city’s adult recreation center charges seniors half the annual membership fee. I said my legal blindness should warrant the same discount, and they assented.
2. Work with organizations; they want to help. Ski For Light, for example, has limited needs-based scholarships; many established programs will offer reductions or strategies. When a layoff threatened my attending Outward Bound, the school cut my balance in half.
3. Be on the lookout for new programs. Just when I think I’m aware of everything, I find something new, as I did last month when I learned about the America the Beautiful Access Pass, a free lifetime entrance permit to US national parks and historic sites, available to those with medical disabilities. No entrance fee and falling gas prices could put that Yellowstone trip back on the table.
4. Be creative and flexible: Do you have a volunteer who’s into hiking or museums? Tag along. Find out if para-transit options can avail you of new opportunities. Tell the Meetup board-game group you’d like to host a game night.

Creating your own opportunities can be as rewarding as the activities themselves.