Improving Accessibility of Trails and Campgrounds

New Zealand’s conservation estate includes many campgrounds and walking trails that are at least partially accessible to people of all ages and abilities. Previous work has been done to assess the accuracy of the accessible information provided on the Department of Conservation’s website. However, it is known that some of this information is inaccurate as updates are not always made following weather events and changes to the condition of the experience.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) engaged ViaStrada to undertake a pilot programme to audit and update DOC’s existing accessibility information and recommend improvements. To deliver the project, ViaStrada partnered with Smart Access Limited, Bridget Doran Consulting, and the Kennett Brothers. A smartphone-based system was used to conduct a physical audit of over 50 locations against the newly published Recreation Aotearoa outdoor accessibility design guidelines. The data capture included gradient, crossfall, roughness, stair locations, photos, and many other parameters.

At the 2026 Transportation Conference in Wellington, John Lieswyn, Bronwen Bisley and Tanja Simon led an interactive Learning Cafe session, where they introduced attendees to the DOC auditing project and highlighted good and bad issues identified during the various audit site visits.

You can read the full practice paper here and the co-presenters also provided accompanying presentation notes (NB: 40MB).