This is the fourth page of the summary.

Recent and upcoming presentations

May 10, 2012

This document, in its Final Draft form, was presented at an event held at the City of Portland on May 10, 2012.  Whereas last-year’s event of June 10, 2011 was directed primarily at people with various types of disabilities, to determine if these Guidelines were considered beneficial, the May 10 event was attended mostly by representatives from various public agencies, at all levels of government, and included a number of their web masters - those responsible for creating agency websites and disseminating public information.

We were pleased at how well received this document was at the presentation.  Conversely, many attendees were surprised at how basic and simple the information was and offered that they could easily adjust their current webpage content to accommodate these recommendations at little or no cost.

We were reminded, yet again, to consider people with visual impairments and not to focus solely on mobility impairments, especially in the section on Ratings - an easy trail for wheelchair users may be difficult for those with limited vision or vice versa.

Similarly, we were reminded that agencies need to clarify their policies on the use of service animals - true all the more with wilderness area trails where concern about safety of the service animals and interacting with wildlife needs to be considered.

Finally, we reminded attendees that these Guidelines do not propose to define the terms “ADA accessible” or “inaccessible”, but to share information about trails and amenities so that trail users can make their own informed decisions.

Additional presentations

1. •September 10, 2012: ORPA Annual Conference, Medford, OR
   

2. •October 26, 2012: WSTC 2012 Washington State Trails Conference, Vancouver, WA
   

3. •November 2, 2012: Access Recreation is Celebrating Completion of the Guidelines City of Portland, Portland, OR
   

4. •April 15, 2013: American Trails International Trails Symposium, Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, AZ
   

5. •May 4, 2013: Blinded Veterans Association, Newport, Oregon
   

6. •September 17, 2013: ORPA Annual Conference, Welches, OR