Studer Community Institute

Making Pensacola Beach more accessible to all

November 15, 2014
/ Mollye Barrows
/ community-dashboard

Advocates for the disabled say Pensacola Beach has room for improvement when it comes to being more “user friendly.” Members of the Escambia County Disability Awareness Committee gave their report to county commissioners this week, identifying several problems they say need to be addressed throughout the county. “I want to talk about making Pensacola and Escambia County user friendly,” said Frank Cherry with the Escambia County Disability Awareness Committee. “Your action to make the county and city user friendly helps your family, your friends, your neighbors, your visitors, our community, and it’s good business to bring people to Pensacola.” The committee was formed about a year ago with the goal of raising awareness of the issues people with disabilities face and advising the county on how to help. The committee represents more than 54,500 people with disabilities. In their semi-annual report, they identify several issues around the county, but focus more on Pensacola Beach because it’s such a big draw for visitors. It is recognized as an accessible beach for people with disabilities, but the committee wants to make it more so. Recommendations include updating Port-A-Potties, making the Visitors Information Center more accessible, making signage more accessible for people in wheelchairs and walkers to read, adding more handrails to the ramps at the Santa Rosa Island Authority building, as well as walkovers to the beach. They’re also concerned the ramp to the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier is too steep for people in manual wheelchairs. [caption id="attachment_9837" align="alignright" width="300"]

Escambia County advocates for the disabled would like to see railing at walkovers and other entrance points to Pensacola Beach improved.[/caption] Other issues include easier access to beach trails, more handicap parking spaces, and the signs marking those spaces inaccurately say there’s a $255 fine for illegal parking, when in Florida the maximum fine is $250. The report points out incorrect signage and better access to handicap Port-A-Potties is a problem in other areas of the county. “Honestly we’ve got to do better in the future,” said committee member Warren Jernigan. “With all of you supporting it, we will.” Commissioners are supportive of the initiative and are taking corrective action on many of the issues the committee identified. The Visitors Information Center was already set to be demolished. Committee members will be reviewing plans to ensure the new building will be more user friendly for the disabled. The county is also making changes to its website myescambia.com, after the committee raised concerns. “It was not user friendly at all,” said Cherry. “One of my staff members is totally blind, so he’s getting on the website and they’re working together to make the website more user friendly.” Advocates say the easier it is for the disabled to get around Escambia County, the better it will be for business. “This is very important to the community,” said Jernigan. “We don’t just want to be the ones being helped. We want to help also.”

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Making Pensacola Beach more accessible to all

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