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A Whyalla community project designed to provide beach access for wheelchair users has hit an insurance roadblock, which keeps the chairs locked away for more than a year.
In Nov. 2017, the Whyalla Access Group fundraised and bought two adult-sized and one child-sized beach-access wheelchairs with the help of the Lions Club and British American Motorcycle Club, as part of community efforts to make the city accessible and inclusive for people of all abilities.
But due to a lack of public liability insurance, the wheelchairs remain locked in a storage shed and have only been used for a few events, leaving a section of the community still feeling excluded and without access to the beach, ABC reported.
Rachel Barlow, Whyalla Access Group member, said the chairs were in demand and that it was an issue of dignity and access.
"To be able to be included and to do at least one activity that everyone else can do and to be with your family [is important]," Barlow told the news agency. “It is life-changing to people to just be able to do regular things… We all know how much the beach means but we don’t know what it’s like to have that taken away and not have a choice to be able to get near the beach.”
The Whyalla Access Group said it was working closely with the Whyalla City Council to solve the insurance problem and that the council has covered event insurance for the chairs to be used on special days.
Barlow is hoping the insurance dilemma will be resolved within the next six months, ABC reported.
