A challenge course program has features similar to any other recreation service delivery operation. There are administrators who must plan and make decisions, marketing and public relations efforts, supervisors directing front-line operations, and program delivery staff who have direct contact with participants. Spread across these functions are responsibilities for risk management, staff training, environmental concerns, and program quality. In the delivery of challenge course programming that includes people with disabilities, it is necessary to evaluate the operation in its entirety to determine an agency's readiness to begin serving these persons.

A participant wears extra protection gear and receives support from the facilitator. Photo courtesy of Bradford Woods.

The Association for Challenge Course Technology (ACCT) has established standards for operating a challenge course program. These standards are comprehensive, yet lack specific language that would be considered guidelines for including people with disabilities. Instead, general phrases such as "for the populations served" and "varying abilities/differences" are used to suggest that these standards apply to participants with disabilities. Within ACCT is the Universal and Accessible Design (UAD) committee. Established in 1997, the UAD is primarily responsible for researching and reporting on topics that affect the use of challenge courses by persons with disabilities and making recommendations to the standard-setting committees.

Given the vague nature of standards in this field with regard to accessibility and the general incompatibility of the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines with the challenge course environment, there is a need for specific information on how to design, manage, and deliver safe, effective challenge course-based programming that includes participants with disabilities. This monograph reports on research done by the UAD in 2003 and 2004. Findings from this research will hopefully aid challenge course managers and facilitators in their efforts to include participants with disabilities.