All-terrain wheelchairs are coming to five Connecticut state parks in October.
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) piloted the program and started with purchasing 10 all-terrain wheelchairs.
One model has a track system and the other is a wheel-based chair. Both give people the ability to venture off onto the trails who may not have been able to before.
“We’re kind of pioneering this, right? I mean if you look in the New England communities or the other state departments, they’re not there yet. We’re there. We’re making these strides for equitable access in our state parks,” said Jeremy Hall, the acting director of Connecticut State Parks.
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On Monday, DEEP trained its staff at Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, one of the five locations that will offer the all-terrain wheelchairs.
The other parks include Topsmead State Forest, Gillette Castle State Park, Rocky Neck State Park and Harkness Memorial State Park.
“We chose this based on our trail locations and we thought this would be a great opportunity to match it with trails and also give an opportunity for people to be able to see some of our museums or other values besides trails within our state parks,” said Hall.
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The all-terrain wheelchair with tracks offers even more capabilities than the wheels because it allows people to go over rougher terrains. But the tracks make the wheelchair wider, so that chair can’t go through some of the narrower trails. The state park staff has already vetted which trails would work best and will have them clearly marked for people.
The cost of the 10 all-terrain wheelchairs is about $140,000, according to Hall. That came from $500,000 in grant money the state legislature approved during the last session.
To use the all-terrain wheelchairs, people will be able to sign up and take a training video.
