Spotlighting Accessible Caches

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Spotlighting Accessible Caches

Henderson House

and

Meister’s Mystifying Box

National Disability Independence Day #NationalDisabilityIndependenceDay (July 26, 2023) #spotlightcache

Today we are spotlighting two caches that are great examples of placing caches with accessibility in mind; in Falls Church, Henderson House – FCCRH (GC3EFEQ) and in Winchester, Meister’s Mystifying Box @ Jim Barnett Park (GC5115R). Read on, to find out what makes these caches great.

Henderson House – FCCRH (GC3EFEQ)

According to Atlas Obscura, the Henderson House is a Sears Catalog kit home built in 1913. Its owners, Dr. E.B. Henderson and his wife, Mary Ellen Meriwether, were both notable civil rights activists. In front of the little house is a marker noting the historic significance of Henderson’s contributions. The cache page tells more history than can fit on a marker. What makes this cache by cacher zgrav special is the unique way that a regular size container is hidden in plain sight. Henderson House – FCCRH was voted “Best History Related Cache” for 2012. Congratulations!

Meister’s Mystifying Box @ Jim Barnett Park (GC5115R)

Welcome to Jim Barnett Park in Winchester! You won’t need your hiking boots and bug spray for this one. In fact, this is an all-weather cache. Although you will start outdoors, the cache box you are looking for is indoors. It is no ordinary cache box either. We won’t spoil it for you here, but there are plenty of spoilers in the cache logs if that’s what you want (we won’t judge). One nice thing about this cache is that a log of trackables make stops here. Be sure to check the hours of the community center before planning your trip. Thank you to geocacher wallmeister22601 for placing this cache in 2014 and continuing to maintain it all these years.

What is it like to geocache from a wheelchair? How would someone with a disability know whether they would be able to search for a geocache? To find out the answers to these questions, read this great interview with reviewer Poltrona Polaris as she shares her experiences.

Some sites, like Handicaching.com have a special terrain rating system for geocaches. They use five different criteria because not all people with disabilities have the same limitations. It only works when people leave their ratings for others to find. A recent search of geocaches in Northern Virginia returned only a handful of mostly old ratings. Still, the site has potential. Cache owners who rate their cache a terrain one (remember, you’re required to add the wheelchair accessible attribute for T1) might want to link Handicaching to their cache page and encourage finders to rate it.

If you would like to test out Handicaching.com, here are some local geocaches that have very accessible ratings:

What do you think? Are these caches accessible to those with disabilities? Have you found others around NOVA that your would recommend for others? Log in and comment below.

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