Why Aren’t Our Texas Beaches Open to All?
By Ronald Rodriquez

The Texas Open Beaches Act guarantees free and unrestricted access to all Texas beaches to be enjoyed by Texans and visitors from across the United States.  This includes people from all walks of life.  This is the intent of this Texas law.  But why aren’t our beaches open to all?

I am referring to a growing part of the American population—persons with disabilities and the elderly.  There are 54 million Americans that are disabled which is 20% of the U.S. population.  Approximately 30 million Americans have physical disabilities.  There are over 25 million family caregivers and millions more who provide aid and assistance to persons with disabilities.  Nearly 3 million Texans are disabled.  This is a large segment of the American population.

Their physical impairments include orthopedic, neuromuscular, cardiovascular and pulmonary disorders.  People with these disabilities often use wheelchairs, crutches, canes, walkers, and artificial limbs to move around.  The physical disability may be congenital, as a result of an injury, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, amputation, heart disease, pulmonary disease, respiratory disorders or from other sources. 

In Texas, you are considered a person with a disability if you have difficulty performing major life activities, such as:  walking, breathing, seeing, performing manual tasks, working, learning, and hearing.  Now consider that there are 2.7 million Texans aged 60+ or about 13% of the total population with almost 20% of them living in the Gulf Coast region (Demographic Profile of the Elderly in Texas, Texas Department on Aging, March 2000).  Many of our elderly could easily be categorized as persons with a disability.  You probably know someone who fits in one of these categories—being a person with a disability or elderly.  This may be a friend, co-worker, family member or you, now or in the future.

Persons with disabilities and the elderly face access issues which may include:  the inability to gain access to buildings, transportation, parks, and services; decreased eye-hand coordination; decreased physical stamina and endurance; and others.  Mobility for these individuals is an everyday challenge. 

Millions of people flock to Texas beaches every year.  Many of these beaches are fully accessible to all visitors because they allow vehicular access directly to the water’s edge or high tide mark.  There is no better access available to persons with disabilities and the elderly than driving directly on the beach.  If vehicular access is prohibited, which is allowable under Texas law, an equivalent or better alternative must be presented.  Alternatives to vehicular access are often costly and overlooked by public officials and city administrators.

Galveston beaches were once fully accessible.  Vehicular access was allowed on all of West Beach from the Seawall to San Luis Pass.  Up to the 1970’s West Beach was frequented by families, teens and retired couples enjoying the sea breeze, warm Gulf waters and sunny weather.  Progressively over the last thirty years the City of Galveston has allowed beachfront subdivisions to discriminately close-off almost every mile of West Beach to vehicular traffic except a 3.2 mile stretch from the Rusty Hook Bait Camp to San Luis Pass.  The “open access” alternative offered to the general public in these areas often consists of off-beach parking and dune walkovers.  The public may have to travel up to a quarter mile to access the beach.  This presents a major obstacle to individuals with disabilities and the elderly, effectively barring them from the beach.  Several off-beach parking areas and dune walkovers fail to meet accessibility requirements set forth in federal law, by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The ADA gives civil rights protections to persons with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age and religion.  It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, State and local government services and telecommunications. The ADA was signed into law by the elder President Bush in 1990.  The former President said the ADA let persons with disabilities “pass through once-closed doors into a bright new era of equality, independence and freedom.”  The public is familiar with provisions of this act which includes disabled parking areas, graded ramps, automatic doors, widened bathroom stalls and handrailing, lowered water fountains and light switches which are part of our everyday life now.

Title II of the ADA (www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/reg2.html) as printed in the Federal Register (7/26/91) prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in all services, programs and activities provided to the public by State and local governments, except public transportation services.  Section 35.150 requires that each service, program, or activity conducted by a public entity, when viewed in its entirety, be readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.  This section of the ADA enables individuals with disabilities to participate in and benefit from the services, programs, or activities of public entities in all but the most unusual cases. This standard, known as “program accessibility,”applies to all existing facilities of a public entity.  Enjoyment and access of our public beaches is part of this program accessibility. Equitable, timely and effective enforcement of this landmark civil rights legislation is a high priority of the U.S. Department of Justice (www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm).  The State of Texas’ Department of Licensing and Regulation (www.license.state.tx.us/ab/ab.htm) has similar accessibility standards in the Texas Architectural Barriers Act.  Unfortunately, several of our public beach areas in Texas do not meet these state and federal guidelines.

Please imagine the following scenario.  A person with a disability or elderly person drives to an area of the beach with off-beach parking and dune walkover access.  There is proper signage to mark these areas now, whereas in the past signage was pulled down as fast as it was erected.  There is adequate off-beach parking with a disabled parking area next to the dune walkover.  The parking surface is hard and level and is properly maintained to ensure an even surface.  Dune walkovers with stairs have been modified and well-maintained.  The dune walkover is wide enough to allow the passage of a wheelchair with a graded ramp on both ends.  As the person with a disability or elderly person reaches the end of the dune walkover, on the seaward side there is still approximately 50 to 75 feet of loose sand and debris to travel over to get to the water’s edge.  Crossing this distance unassisted via a cane, walker, or wheelchair is nearly impossible.  Individuals with disabilities and elderly persons do not travel to the beach to view it from afar, they travel there to enjoy all parts of the beach, particularly to the water’s edge where the hard packed sand meets the Gulf of Mexico.  Every time people with disabilities are limited by the lack of access, it also limits their family or friends with whom they are traveling or recreating.  Driving this point home, I would like to tell a real-life story that I recently heard from a gentleman who represents persons with disabilities. “I can still remember the frustration that a close friend who uses a wheelchair, shared with me when he told me that when his two small children went to the beach for the first time, he had to watch them and his wife from an overlook where he couldn’t even hear their excited voices.  That’s not the way parents want to remember those types of experiences.”  I agree, it should not be this way.

Other beachfront cities have been progressive in ensuring persons with disabilities and the elderly have access to the beach.  Daytona Beach in Florida lead by the National Center on Accessibility (www.ncaonline.org/beaches/beaches.htm) has experimented with various temporary mat surfaces that can be easily traveled over by someone with a cane, walker or wheelchair (see pic @ www.ncaonline.org/beaches/01study.htm).  New York State constructs concrete walkways to the water’s edge or high tide mark.  Both measures allow individuals with disabilities and the elderly to travel along a continuous unobstructed path across the surface of the beach to the high tide mark.  If these areas are positively addressing access for our persons with disabilities and the elderly, why can’t the City of Galveston and State of Texas do the same?  Why do persons with disabilities have to travel over 17 miles from 61^st (the main thoroughfare from Houston to the island’s West End) to access Galveston’s only “free and unrestricted access” beach?  This is an undue hardship for many of these individuals. 

The U.S. Access Board (www.access-board.gov/) is an independent Federal agency devoted to accessibility for persons with disabilities.  The President appoints representatives from Federal departments and public members to this governing board.  The U.S. Access Board and its working committees have established “best practices” for program access.  Progressive beachfront cities have set precedence for beach access for persons with disabilities which courts would most likely take under advisement when hearing ADA discrimination cases.

They say that being disabled is a club any of us can join at anytime, and most likely will.  Americans are living longer and are now facing issues that need to be addressed by our chief elected officials and local, state and federal authorities.  Equal access for persons with disabilities and the elderly is not only the right thing to do—it’s the law.