High Tech Treasure Hunts!By Steve Hoad"Handicaching – bringing greater accessibility to geocaching!… Geocaching? Have you heard of this hobby? The hobby or game is also known by other names, "letter boxing" is one common one. And, there are web sites where you can find clues — sometimes mysterious clues to those of us who don't have GPS receivers because they are all given in the numbers and letters that refer to the Earth's navigational coordinates. But there is a way to find caches you want to visit — and then, will you be able to handle the terrain? That's where HandiCaching comes in. When I found the HandiCaching web site, I realized it would be hard for a visitor with very little knowledge to figure out whether there were caches listed in Maine so I wrote to the site administrator. Here’s what he told me in May. "I will check and see if there are any caches in Maine. Because of the nature that geocaching.com likes to protect… the location information, we can't provide coordinates on our site, so I have to get some caches from geocaching.com and see if they have any ratings." So, I left it up to the expert, and, in June he wrote: "Sorry for the delay in getting back to you — I've been snowed under with work. I downloaded 500 caches for Maine and checked to see if any of them had been entered into the Handicaching.com site. Unfortunately none were. We currently have 2552 caches rated but I guess we need some more publicity in the Maine area amongst geocachers so they start using the site." So, publicity is our aim, right here and now. Do you know people involved in the Geocaching hobby? Maybe you like to play hide and seek? You can visit www.geocaching.com and find caches by zip code, by state, or by country in their site search engine. After that, go! Find the cache! Review it on HandiCaching so Maine geocachers with disabilities (or our visitors) can get a look ahead at the conditions for their own personal treasure hunt!Here's what the Handicaching site says about itself at www.handicaching.com: "Handicaching aims to improve the accessibility of Geocaching for disabled people all over the world. By rating caches using a simple system, disabled geocachers can quickly find the caches they are able to do. Too often a 1 star or 2 star rated cache turns out to be impossible, causing dissapointment. Our ratings aim to avoid that. You can help by taking a few moments to quickly rate the caches you have visited! For disabled geocachers we also provide tools and resources to find caches with ratings, find out what caches you will likely be able to do and a quick reference guide to the rating system. Aims of Handicaching The typical cache rating allows for one to five stars for terrain. It is suggested by the Geocache Rating System that one star is used for caches that are wheelchair accessible. This idea is flawed in several ways and this site aims to address those flaws. Flaws of this system include: The rating system or the wheelchair aspect of the system is often overlooked by cache hiders, who can rate the terrain for caches higher or lower than they actually are A cache that may be wheelchair accessible may not be accessible to people with other types of disabilities, or even people who cannot use a wheelchair for anything other than short distances Many non–disabled people are unsure of what constitutes accessible and are therefore unable to rate or mark a cache accordingly. Attempting to rely on the fact that a one star cache should be accessible to some degree often turns into dissapointment for many disabled geocachers. With your help we aim to improve this situation by providing specific accessibility information for caches. We aim to: Provide a set of accessible cache hiding guidelines that can help to plan and hide a more accessible cache Provide a rating system that generates additional information for each cache, along with averaging to eliminate inaccurate rating Provide tools for disabled geocachers to help locate caches near them that they might be able to do and how to plan for the trip. Who Are We? We are a group of people with the same aims. Together we devised everything you see on this web site, and continue to help promote our aims of including more disabled people in Geocachng. If you have suggestion for improving the site and services with offer, please contact us. Links for the Hobby We currently have 2552 caches rated but I guess we need some more publicity in the Maine area amongst geocachers so they start using the site. Here's what ratings look like on http://www.handicaching.com: Individual Ratings for Cache GCWFY9 Rating: Terrain: Decoded rating: H 3 = Distance to cache 1 = Route surface 1 = Route slope 1 = Route obstructions 2 = Cache height Comments: Wheelchair access in the back of the park. Do NOT use the front entrance, it has stairs; but you have to ask there for the wheelchair gate to be opened :-/ i.e. bring a helper. There are currently 2556 caches rated, and most ratings have individual comments. The comments often give you an idea of what to expect. Here are samples from the site "Tarmac to the cache. Last two metres are in bushes." … "The cache is well off the ground and requires going about 12 feet off the paved path onto rough terrian." … "This geocache was recommended by a wheelchair user who found this cache with ease. The terrain is paving other than in the secret garden where there is 30 yards of lawn to cross, which is smooth in the summer, but can become quite waterlog in winter after heavy rain. The cache itself is at ground level under a shrub at less than 2 feet from the path. There is free disable parking bays on Chester Road and disable toilets just off this road too." |