Real-life scavenger hunts using GPS assistance can involve people with developmental disabilities.

A booklet called “Accessible Geocaching” explains how to find accessible nature areas and instructions for novice geocachers. It‘s an effort to promote inclusion of young adults with developmental disabilities in community-based wellness programs.

“Accessible Geocaching” is part of the New York State Developmental Disabilities Planning Council‘s Inclusive Fitness Initiative. Upstate pediatrician Nienke Dosa, MD, assembled the booklet with help from several students and collaboration from the City of Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth Programs, Syracuse University, SUNY Cortland department of therapeutic recreation and physical education, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Click here to download a copy of the booklet.

This article appears in the summer 2017 issue of Upstate Health magazine. Click here for a podcast/radio interview in which Dosa talks about the Fitness Inclusion Network and ways that the outdoors can be made more accessible to people with disabilities.