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Accessibility Guidebook on Outdoor Recreation and Trails

The USDA Forest Service has published a guidebook to help trail planners, builders, and managers better understand accessibility for trails.

The Forest Service Accessibility Guidebook on Outdoor Recreation and Trails will help users integrate accessibility into planning, design, construction, and maintenance of outdoor recreation facilities and trails while maintaining the natural setting. It provides detailed information about accessibility requirements in an easy-to-use format, with photos, illustrations, design tips, hotlinks, and sidebars.

This Guidebook is web-published and available in HTML and PDF on the Forest Service accessibility web page at www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/accessibility.

This Guidebook was funded through a partnership with the Recreational Trails Program of the Federal Highway Administration of the Department of Transportation under a Forest Service Recreation project with the Forest Service Missoula Technology and Development Center (MTDC).

This guidebook will also help Forest Service personnel, partners, contractors, and Federal and State agencies working in cooperation with the Forest Service understand how to apply the Forest Service Outdoor Recreation Accessibility Guidelines and Forest Service Trail Accessibility Guidelines. The Forest Service Outdoor Recreation Accessibility Guidelines (FSORAG) and the Forest Service Trail Accessibility Guidelines (FSTAG) were finalized on May 22, 2006, through Federal Register publication.

The FSORAG and FSTAG provide accessibility direction for outdoor developed recreation areas in the National Forest System. The guidelines recognize and protect the environment and the natural setting while integrating accessibility where possible to do so without changing the environment and the natural setting. Both guidelines are available at http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/accessibility.

Related topics:

Trail design
Structures
Maintenance
Federal funding
Greenways
Health & trails
Rails to trails
Planning

More resources:

Bibliography
Quotations
Glossary
Acronyms
Tools
Products & services

For more opportunities for training on trail design, construction, and management see the National Trails Training Partnership area.