BirdAbility

Nothing should get in the way of adventure.

https://gis.audubon.org/Birdability

The lack of accessibility of public spaces has long barred individuals with impaired mobility from fully participating in birding and other outdoor activities. What’s worse is that the burden of ensuring the accessibility of a trail or birding site typically falls to the individual. Audubon believes that the joy of birding and appreciating the natural world should be available to all people—and we have a solution.

Birdability is a crowd-sourced, interactive, digital platform cataloging the physical accessibility of birding sites and hiking trails nationwide. Audubon’s Enterprise GIS team is synthesizing survey data from all across the country to develop the most thorough collection of outdoor mobility data available – but we need your help to make it happen.

Help us kick off this initiative by volunteering to survey a birding site or hiking trail near you. View the Birdability platform online and see how others have documented the places they love. Together, we can make accessible birding a reality.

Explore Birdabiilty

Our vision is that birding truly is for everybody and every body, regardless of disability or other health concerns.

Through education, outreach and advocacy, Birdability works to ensure the birding community and the outdoors are welcoming, inclusive, safe and accessible for everybody. We focus on people with mobility challenges, blindness or low vision, chronic illness, intellectual or developmental disabilities, mental illness, and those who are neurodivergent, deaf or hard of hearing or who have other health concerns. In addition to current birders, we strive to introduce birding to people with disabilities and other health concerns who are not yet birders so they too can experience the joys of birding.