Disability Rights: The Rural/Urban Link

It may not yet be apparent but an exodus is taking place.

Campaigns waged for generations to make urban environments at first merely accessible - and now fully inclusive - are sprouting up in rural and wilderness environments.

The US Access Board is circulating draft guidelines on outdoor access while the maritime industry absorbs the Waypoint-Backstrom Principles. Yet the real dynamism has left the US and sunk deep roots in other regions:

Equal Adventure (UK)
http://www.equaladventure.org/index.html

Accessible Whistler (Canada)
http://www.whistlerforthedisabled.com/

Disabled WinterSport (Australia)
http://www.disabledwintersport.com.au/

Alpine Accessibility Toolkit
http://www.disabledwintersport.com.au/Pages/AATP/Toolkit/start_here.html

Adventure Tour Operators Association of India
http://www.atoai.org/

Brazilian Adventure Society
http://www.bas.org.br/

Siyabona (South Africa)
http://www.krugerpark.co.za/Kruger_Park_Travel_Advisory-travel/kruger-park-travel-article-disabled-traveller.html

This year the thrust of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is making the Millennium Development Goals inclusive. The incidence of disability and poverty is high in rural areas. Successful campaigns for inclusive recreational facilities and programs  in these rural and wilderness areas brings income and the example of self-determining independent people with disabilities. It has a positive transformative impact on the economy and culture of rural areas or people with disabilities