Off-road wheelchairs and mountain trikes will be trialled for the first time in regional South Australia in an initiative to allow people living with disabilities to travel to places they may never have seen before.
Former triathlete Yvette Eglinton lived a physical and fast-paced lifestyle working as a marine biologist and training in her spare time before a bike accident changed her life.
"I'd go out into the field, doing diving and driving the boat, and mapping the sea floor doing reef surveys," she said.
"I was trying to keep fit and work at the same time. So, to fit in extra riding training, I'd ride to work with my partner."
One of those mornings, she stopped to fix the chain on her bike but rode into a pothole.
Ms Eglinton became a paraplegic as a result of dislocating her T4 and T5 vertebrae.
She said that since the accident, she had faced a number of barriers as a full-time wheelchair user and mother of two young boys.
"Pushing them in prams and not being able to go uphill, or taking them out to playgrounds that's fenced, so they're not going to run away from me," Ms Eglinton said.
"Going into a playground where I can actually access the swing to push them.
"We might be few and far between but we are still a part of the population, and it'd be nice if it was considered in the concept designs."
Breaking the barriers
Now, as the Access For All coordinator with the Department for Environment and Water, Ms Eglinton has worked to ensure national parks are accessible to everyone.
She has been involved in a project which will see alternative transport methods trialled across the state to improve tourism experiences for people living with disabilities.
The state government has provided $130,000 to implement the program, which will be carried out across metro and rural councils.
The all-terrain wheelchairs and electric trikes will be available at popular regional locations, including the Riesling Trail in the Clare Valley, the Rail Trail in Melrose and at national parks over the Yorke Peninsula.
The District Council of Yankalilla's Economic, Tourism & Community Group manager Lisa Pearson worked alongside Ms Eglinton for the project.
Ms Pearson said the project would enable people who used wheelchairs to access nature in the same way as those who did not.
"They allow people living with a disability to get out there with their families and their friends, and participate in nature-based recreation and ride alongside all of their peers."
Opening the doors to nature
Ms Pearson said there was a limited number of these methods of transport available.
"There isn't any of these mountain trikes in South Australia that we're aware of," she said.
"But what we hear from people with lived experience is that they really just want to know, "What do you have out there?', so that they can make their own assessment as to whether or not something is suitable for them."
Ms Eglinton said she hoped the project would provide more opportunities for people like herself to explore the outdoors with their families.
Speakers will be talking to the community about accessible tourism at a forum in Kadina this Friday, ahead of the project's launch in September.
