Accessible Parks and Adaptive Recreation

In this episode of Accessibility in Practice, Adam Fischbein sits down with Mel Dunn, Chief Operating Officer of the Aimee Copeland Foundation and a passionate advocate for disability inclusion and outdoor accessibility.

After acquiring a disability following a life-changing battle with MRSA, Mel's perspective on accessibility transformed dramatically. She shares her personal journey from navigating the challenges of limb loss and mobility impairment to helping expand access to outdoor recreation for people with disabilities across Georgia and beyond.

Mel discusses the evolution of accessibility, the importance of inclusive design in both physical and digital spaces, and the work of the Aimee Copeland Foundation's All-Terrain Georgia program, which provides all-terrain track chairs that allow individuals with mobility disabilities to experience trails, beaches, parks, and other outdoor environments that might otherwise be inaccessible.

The conversation also explores common misconceptions about disability, the impact of accessible outdoor experiences, emerging efforts to expand access nationwide, and practical advice for individuals and advocates navigating systems that were not originally designed with disability in mind.

Topics covered include:

• Acquired disability and disability identity
• Accessibility beyond physical spaces
• Digital accessibility and inclusive technology
• The Aimee Copeland Foundation
• All-Terrain Georgia and adaptive recreation
• Track chairs and outdoor accessibility
• Disability advocacy and awareness
• Accessibility barriers and misconceptions
• Inclusive community design

Whether you're an accessibility professional, advocate, educator, or simply interested in learning from lived experiences, this episode offers valuable insights into creating a more inclusive world where everyone has the opportunity to participate, explore, and belong.

Transcript

Adam: 00:01

Welcome to Accessibility in Practice, where we talk with the people shaping a more accessible world. I'm Adam Fischbein, and today I'm thrilled to be joined by Mel Dunn, a leading voice in disability and accessibility. Thanks so much for being here, Mel. Let's dive in.

Mel: 00:21

Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to get started.

Adam: 00:25

Yeah. Um so first off, can you tell us a bit about your background and what drew you into the field of disability and accessibility?

Mel: 00:36

Well, I have a background in sales and marketing, and I used to be a workaholic, and it was nothing for me to work 12 to 15 hours a day, and I was happy to do it. I planned a lot of events and raised a lot of money for nonprofits that I was part of. Then life changed drastically, and I went from being a completely able-bodied individual to being mobility impaired in the blink of an eye. With the change in my personal situation, my eyes were opened to the accessible challenges that individuals face daily. When I lost my left leg, that is when I hit my absolute low. I then reached out to a lady who is now a dear friend, and she helped me by showing me how to continue to use the gifts that I have been given naturally to get out of my own head and help other people.

Adam: 01:31

Wow. That's great to hear. Um, so it sounds like the particular moment that shaped your journey was kind of that when you had that injury, right? To your leg.

Mel: 01:44

Right. I contracted waterborne staph about 14 years ago now. And I had uh I've had just a myriad of complications from it. I just had my 80th surgery. The bacteria that I contracted is MERSA, but it actually went in and attacked every orifice in my body. Um every bone, every, everywhere it could attack, it attacked. And I have had pretty much every bone in in my body operated on. My spine has been operated on numerous times. And I am a double amputee. I lost my right foot to necrotizing fasciitis, and then I lost my left leg um shortly thereafter. So that is how I came to understand more about accessibility and what the needs are of people who are mobility impaired, and kind of drew me to my my purpose in life right now.

Adam: 02:50

Wow. Yeah. So speaking of kind of accessibility and accessibility means something different to everyone. So how do you define it in your own work? And how has that definition evolved over time?

Mel: 03:04

Well, accessibility means to me being able to have access to the same things that able-bodied individuals have the ability to use and partake in. But that was my old definition. My definition has definitely developed over time because early on in my disability, I only thought of it as it meant being able to access buildings, you know, being able to get a handicapped parking spot, get my wheelchair out, get in my wheelchair, and go into a building. That's what I thought it meant. While that's still an issue for a lot of people, most people, it's still an issue because we still have problems with that. Even in 2026, we still have issues with that. There are so many other ways that the world has changed, including accessibility in technology, sports, transportation, housing, and so, so many incredible ways that technology is bringing me on board. So it's exciting to see where things have come since 2017 when I became a double amputee until 2000 until 2026 in that short span of time, how things have just completely made a huge jump.

Adam: 04:22

Yeah. So on that topic, actually, like you said, a lot has changed over the past decade or so. Uh so where do you see real progress? Uh and what do you think needs still needs serious work, like more specifically?

Mel: 04:38

Well, I think we've had a lot of progress in the technology aspect of things. We have come a long way with using ADA regulations for wheelchair ramps and parking places and accessibility into buildings and having ADA bathrooms, which is great. But even to this day, those things still aren't 100% across the board. But I I see things going, like I said before, the the digital and technology aspect of things, um, you know, I never even thought about. And true accessibility spans digital platforms, document creation, teaching practices, multimodal interfaces in computers. Um, digital barriers are now affect more people daily than physical ones do, yet they remain under recognized by individuals in companies. There's now an a program that, well, it's actually the law that some large corporations have to make their websites ADA compliant with the new laws that are coming on board for disabilities in the technology realm. Smaller companies have two more years to make their sites compliant. So it's just, you know, there's so much that needs to be done.

Adam: 06:18

Yeah. So let's talk about your work more specifically. Okay. Um, so you uh you are the chief operating officer for the Aimee Copeland Foundation. Yes. Right? So can you can you share how what the Aimee Copeland Foundation is and how it began?

Mel: 06:40

Absolutely. Well, that friend of mine that got me out of my deepest depression when I lost my leg was Aimee Copeland, is Aimee Copeland. She is was a young grad student at West Georgia College here in Carrollton, Georgia, and she loves the outdoors, absolutely loves them. And she was studying ecotherapy to get her master's degree. And she was out with some friends and was zipling across a creek, and she slipped and fell and cut her leg on a rock in the creek. And within, I think, three days, she had been life-lighted to the medical college of Georgia and Augusta, which is on the other side of the state, and woke up and had all of her limbs amputated. So she is a quad amputee with the biggest heart and biggest brain of anybody I've ever met. She has more desire and more drive in her than most people do in their little pinky. She still wanted to make a place for people in wheelchairs to be able to go and experience nature. But she decided she didn't want it to be just one place where people could go. She wanted people to be able to experience the outdoors wherever they wanted to, and she wanted to be able to help. So the program of All-Train, Georgia, was born out of the Aimee Copeland Foundation. And the foundation raised money, and we purchased our first purchase of all-terrain chairs. We put chairs in 11 Georgia state parks. And we were the first nonprofit in the nation to put all-terrain chairs in state parks. And with a lot of meetings and lawyers and all the kind of good stuff in the background, we launched the program on November 4th, 2022. And it was a spectacular day, and we have grown by leaps and bounds. And that is kind of the background on Alterain, Georgia, and the Aimee Copeland Foundation. Aimee Copeland Foundation does a lot of other things as well. Um, it's the fundraising arm of Al terrain, Georgia. We couldn't do anything without Aimee Copeland Foundation. It uh the foundation itself does workshops for free. Everything we do is is for free. We want anybody with any sort of disability, people with all abilities are welcome to our workshops, our yoga retreats, anything that we come up with that we want to do to help the community, people are welcome to do. So we just want to be part of our community, and our slogan is everybody deserves a chance to play. So that's our that's kind of what we do in a nutshell. We have grown from those first 11 chairs. We now have 25 chairs. We're in 19 state parks and three national parks here in Georgia.

Adam: 10:02

Wow, that's that's that's really cool. Um, can you uh I'm just curious, can you tell our listeners a little more about the chairs um and how they work? Absolutely.

Mel: 10:16

They are um action track chairs or just track chairs now, and they look like a little tank. They have the the tank wheels on them, so the treads that look like little little tanks. Um, they are amazing little vehicles. You sit in them. The if you need to be able to transfer in and out of a wheelchair, the arms lift up on either side. You can put a transfer board in and you can slide right in. We have a lot of individuals that do use that mechanism for getting into the chair. Then you are hooked in by your harness, and you have they're controlled by a joystick. There's five speeds. Of course, the first time I got in it, I turned it all the way up and I hit go, and I took off like a race car. So it's uh it goes from a leisurely walk with your able-bodied buddy next to you to a pretty steady jog. So it just depends on how fast you want to go. We don't recommend taking it full tilt for your entire time of year reservation because you'll wear down the battery, but they're so much fun and it they'll go over little little tree branches, they'll go over, excuse me, rocks, basically anything that a human being could walk over on a trail, this chair can do it as well. So it just cannot go up curbs. Um, it cannot go up stairs, it is just a little wonder machine. Um, it can go across a short creek bed as long as the bat the batteries on the bottom of the chair, excuse me, do not get submerged. You can take it on the beach. We have a few on the coast here in Georgia, and people love taking them on the beach. And we also have a new type of chair. Um, they're called extreme modus chairs, and we've put those in the national parks here in Georgia, and those chairs are for individuals who cannot transverse the joysticks. Now, the track chairs do have a tendon controller so that someone could control the track chair from behind. But the extreme modus chairs are just imagine a a baby jogger, but larger that an adult or a child could fit in. That you can push someone on the sand. Um, you can push them in the mountains, or you can push them wherever wherever they may go. So we just uh purchased four of those uh with a grant that we obtained. So those are awfully cool too. So we're expanding what we're doing, and we are expanding our fleet of of chairs and offerings. So it's really an exciting time um to be part of our organization.

Adam: 13:25

Very cool. Um, so how so how do you track and evaluate the impact of your work? What do you say?

Mel: 13:34

Well, before each time um someone gets they have to make a reservation to go out. They do so through our scheduling system. So when they make their reservation, it comes to me. Um, I keep track of the reservations per park. I send the park information saying you're gonna have this person on this day at this time so that the park knows when they have somebody coming. The individual gets a confirmation, hey, just remember you have an appointment this day. Um, and then we track it on the back end. We also ask for individuals to send us pictures, videos, um, anything that they want to tell us, keep us posted on. Um we send out flyers through an email system, and we ask for feedback all the time.

Adam: 14:30

Very cool. Um, so can do you do you know how how many people have you utilized um uh the chairs total? It's kind of a hard question. Um if you don't have it in front of you, it's okay.

Mel: 14:47

It's probably upwards of 1200 people, individual people.

Adam: 14:53

That's really that's awesome.

Mel: 14:55

Yeah, it's um it's an amazing program, and I get very excited about it. Um, it is something that I have put a lot of my heart and soul into because I absolutely fell in love with the project. When I first met with Amy and she asked me to come on board and volunteer and um do some things with her, she asked me if I liked the outdoors. I said, Yeah, I love the outdoors. I you know, love sitting around a pool or the beach. And she's like, What about the woods? And I said, I don't do bugs. So um that that sentence has changed in the last eight years. I do bugs. I actually quite enjoy sitting in the middle of the woods by myself, um, just contemplating. It's a beautiful, peaceful time to just go out and, you know, we we require everyone to have an able-bodied buddy with them. So if anything were to happen, God forbid, that they would have somebody with them. But it is a wonderful nature, is one of those things that we take for granted. And when I got sick, and when especially when I lost my leg, I spent a lot of time outside because it was springtime once I finally got out of the hospital and got to a point where I could get out of the house on my own in my wheelchair. And I would just go and sit in my wheelchair in my driveway and just look at the sun and just feel the rays on my face. And that's something that we want our each one of our users to feel. We want them to feel that joy, we want them to feel that peace. And Altering Georgia does that for so many people.

Adam: 16:51

Yeah, sounds like it. Uh, for upwards of 1200 so far, I guess. Um, okay, so on another topic. As someone who had an acquired disability, right? Can you tell me what do you see as kind of the the biggest barriers um and maybe myths or misconceptions about acquired disabilities or people with acquired disabilities and kind of uh accessibility around that?

Mel: 17:28

Okay. Well, the the first thing is that this is for anybody who has a disability, acquired or born with. We are not less than period end of discussion. Disabled individuals are 100% human. You know, at the end of the day, we all bleed red. And you know, we may live our lives differently than other able-bodied people, but we are all the same. And the thought that we're not is very hurtful. And when I became a double amputee, I didn't want to go anywhere, but I got over that. But a lot of people didn't hear me when I said that that I want to go with you, or I'd like to go do that, but they just kind of don't listen. And then there's the looks and the stares and the you know, the pity from the people that you used to do things with when you were able-bodied. You know what? I'm over all that. Thank you for your pity, but pity is not gonna fix the situation. Empathy is one thing that uh is uh helpful, but pity is not because I don't pity my situation. I'm grateful that I am still alive and I'm still kicking and I still have a voice because I see things every day that need to be improved on. You know, when I first got my prosthetic leg, I made sure that I wore long pants, even if it was August in Georgia and it was 110 degrees with the 500% humidity. I wore long pants. I didn't want people to see my prosthetic leg. But over the last eight years, I've had to grow out of that and be like, listen, I don't care. I don't care anymore. You can look at me, you can snicker behind my back, whatever, you know, adults are horrible. Children are the most inquisitive and they are the most fun to tell people to tell about my leg, or I just had cervical spinal surgery, I had a big neck collar on, tell about my neck because they think it's cool. And I wish more adults would take that lightheartedness towards it. So I know I kind of went all around that question, but it's you know, we are all we're all the same. Whether and especially being someone who acquired my disability is that I never really thought I never really noticed or realized how difficult a world can be when it's not built for you.

Adam: 20:46

Yeah. Well said. Well said. Um okay. So in terms of uh the foundation's work, what's what's on what's on the horizon? Do you see any kind of uh you know, I'm I'm sure there are a lot of people who would love to uh love, like outside of Georgia, who would love to, you know, be in nature who have mobility disabilities and uh one could possibly use the track chairs. Uh are are there any plans for expansion or or what's on the horizon?

Mel: 21:25

There are actually a lot of programs out there already. Um I am working on a steering committee, a nationwide steering committee of individuals, and we are trying to get together a database of companies, nonprofits, state agencies who already have track chairs or accessible equipment for individuals to use free of charge. So that's our our goal right now is to get this database up and running and have it for individuals. Just to be able to go on and say, okay, I'm going to Iowa. Let me see what they have in Iowa that's free of charge that I can use if they have track chairs or if they have skiing or they have volleyball or golf. We want it to be on our database. So we make it easier for people to find these programs. And but there are programs out there already. I would say almost every state in the nation now has a track chair program. They might not call it a track chair program, they might call it an all-terrain program, they might call it a wheelchair program. But I would just look. I would look into your state and look to see what they have. I know that once we launched in November 2022, I must have met with every state in the nation and given them our blueprint for how we did things and our template of how we did things. And but there are so many wonderful organizations out there, lots and lots of nonprofits that have started programs and have things free of charge for you to use. From David's chair on the West Coast to us on the East Coast, there are just tons and tons of other organizations. We are expanding our program to include a tow-and-go program where you can go and hopefully get uh pick up an all-terrain chair as it at a designated site that has a designated trailer. And you can pick up the trailer and the chair, and you can take it wherever you need to go for X number of days. Um, you just reserve it for that time and then you bring it back. So we are working on that program right now. We've written some grants to get funding for those trailers so we can get that moving because there are Waymaker off-road in South Carolina has an amazing program, and they have a they have specifically a toe-and-go program, and David's cheer does as well on the West Coast. And the way that they handle their programs is amazing. So we are gonna kind of talk to them and see what they're doing and see how we can really ramp ours up and get it going. So we're really excited about it. We have our first trailer, we have the first chair to go in the trailer. So um things are looking up.

Adam: 24:49

Nice. Congratulations. Thank you. Okay, one more question. Uh so what advice do you have for people with disabilities or their advocates as they try to live in a world that isn't naturally built with accommodations and accessibility in mind?

Mel: 25:10

That's a good question. When you live in a world that wasn't built for you, didn't have you in mind, didn't have your wheelchair or your your walker, your cane, whatever mobility device you use, it can really be exhausting trying to figure out how you're gonna get somewhere or what you're gonna do. It's exhausting and it's unfair, but there are strategies to help individuals with disabilities and their advocates protect your energy and assert your rights and build real support. This isn't about overcoming anything, it's about navigating systems that should already be doing better and pushing them to change. And remember, you're not asking for a favor, you're asking for access. You're asking for something that should already be in place, and if it's not, they need to make it be in place.

Adam: 26:15

Very, very well said. Well said. Um okay. Well, Mel, thank you so much for coming on the pod and sharing your insights and stories with us today. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks to everyone for listening. If you enjoyed the conversation, please subscribe and share. Until next time, keep pushing for a more accessible world.