Making Acadia More Accessible

Friends of Acadia has been working in partnership with Acadia National Park to improve accessibility so that all can enjoy its many benefits.

Whenever possible, Acadia National Park strives to make its facilities and programs accessible to visitors of all abilities. Visitors can find guidance on Acadia National Park’s website about facilities, trails, and areas accessible to people with limited physical mobility, as well as information to assist visitors with hearing impairments or blindness/low vision. Service animals on leashes are also allowed in all park facilities and trails, except those that are especially steep or that have iron rungs.

Despite the park’s best efforts, however, there are still popular visitor destinations, such as Sand Beach, where accessibility improvements will be challenging. To learn more about accessibility at Acadia National Park explore here.

Wheelchair Accessible Carriage

A wheelchair accessible carriage is now available for Acadia National Park Tours by reservation.

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Acadia National Park Accessibility Study

With funding from the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, Friends of Acadia underwrote the work of the National Center on Accessibility at the Eppley Institute for Parks and Public Lands at Indiana University to prepare an accessibility assessment of selected sites in the park.

The purpose of the assessment was to raise awareness among all park staff about inclusivity and equity for all visitors. Consultants studied 28 sites in the park and made recommendations for improvements. Additionally, they recommended that Acadia’s website be updated with more detailed descriptions of park features so that visitors could decide for themselves what is accessible to them. Acadia National Park will incorporate the study’s recommended improvements into future infrastructure projects.

You can download the full report here.