Spotlight on Virginia Rose
/BY CARA SCHAEFER
If you’ve ever spent time squinting through a pair of binoculars, trying to identify a warbler high above you in the trees, you may be familiar with the joys of birdwatching. You might also be familiar with the accessibility challenges many birders face. We spoke with Virginia Rose, founder of the non-profit Birdability, about birding as a wheelchair user, accessible outdoor recreation, and amusing bird encounters.
Photos courtesy of Birdability’s Instagram page (linked at the bottom of the profile).
OUT THERE: How did you get into birding?
VIRGINIA ROSE: There were several influences, one of whom was my grandmother, who birded her entire life. I remember her with her little gray head of curls, her green leather jacket, and she always had her binoculars around her neck. When she passed away, she left me her Peterson's guide, and it had all of her observations in it, which was so fun, and so dear to me now.
I didn't start birding until I was 42. One evening, driving home from work, I listened to an ad that said there was going to be a birding seminar at the neighborhood Unitarian Church. So I went, and it was all about the breeding success of the house finch, or something just random like that. I was so enthralled that as I left the meeting, I called my mom, and I said, “Mom, why didn't you tell me I was a nerd? My life would have been so much easier.” I still think that.
OT: Is there a bird that is especially dear to your heart?
VR: No, I love them all! The saying goes that the last bird I saw is my favorite. So I'm going to plead that. It's sort of like taking the fifth.
OT: How have accessible spaces, or the lack thereof, affected your ability to go birding?
VR: Well, that's a huge question. I have been in a wheelchair for 48 years. I've always been super fit and super outside. And when I started birding, I didn't know any other people in wheelchairs who birded. And so I just hoofed along with all the walking people wherever they went. It didn't really dawn on me that I could ask for an accessible birding space. Mainly, it's because I was raised that way, which is to not ask for accommodations, and just to do the best I could.
It finally dawned on me, particularly as my joints were aging with overuse, that maybe the reason I don't ever see any other people in wheelchairs birding is because they don't know they can do it. I needed to do something to make sure that people who have mobility challenges know about birding, and in that effort, make sure that we could identify accessible parks or birding sites. And of course, I couldn't do all that myself (although I wanted to).That's how Birdability came about.
OT: Can you tell me more about Birdability?
VR: The first thing I did was just make a list of the access considerations that walking people would need to know in order to identify a park as accessible or not. And that very quickly turned into a fabulous, GIS map. We now have over 1000 sites; it's just amazing. We created this interactive map online, whereby people can simply pull up the list of access considerations and check for each one of those categories what is present, or not present, at the site. So, for instance, parking would be the first category. Second would be the restrooms. Third would be the surfaces of the trail. Fourth would be whether or not there are benches. There's 30-something categories now.
There was such an outcry. People were like, “Wait, you need to be addressing the needs of the blind and people who have low vision; you need to address the deaf and hard of hearing; we need to address autism and other health concerns.” And that's when I realized, ‘Oh, you know what? This is for everybody.’ Because this is going to be each one of us in 10 years, or 20 years or 30 years as we age, right? These are our grandparents. These are our moms with strollers and toddlers. This is every single person.
OT: What are a few ways that you think we can make birding and other forms of outdoor recreation more accessible?
VR: First, if you don't even know what access considerations are, go to the Birdability map and look at the site reviews. All of the things that we need to be thinking about are there. We're talking about signage. We're talking about tactile opportunities, like ropes, for people who are blind or have low vision. We're talking about voice boxes that tell you what the text says, and railings that are low enough — or have the kind of material — that don't obstruct the views of people who are seated. We're talking about benches for people who have all kinds of different reasons for needing to stop every eighth of a mile. We're talking about the grade of the slope, and about using a surface that's going to be good for wheelchairs and strollers. Once we start recognizing all of these various access considerations, that's when we're going to start making everything more accessible for everybody.
OT: What's the most amusing thing you've ever watched a bird do?
VR: Recently I was having breakfast outside with a friend — in a parking lot, because I'm still a little nervous about sitting inside with Covid. I looked over and I saw this bird. It was a Cooper's hawk poking around a parked truck. And it was walking very cautiously around the truck, just sort of exploring. I'm thinking, ‘What is going on?’ Then the bird comes back around the front of the truck, and looks under a tire, and three great-tailed grackles come screaming out of there, making all kinds of racket. I swear the hawk like jumped back. I think he startled them…and startled himself! He was very slow to pursue them. Apparently the grackles were hiding behind that tire. I've never seen anything quite like it.
