Access Birding, 13551 W State Route 2, Oak Harbor, OH (2026)

05/21/2026

Sharing bird joy with disabled birders and allies at Indiana Dunes Birding Festival last week was a delight! 💙

I was invited to be the Saturday headline speaker and was thrilled to share a new talk, ‘Adventures of a Disabled Birder’, to a room full of birders. Many of the stories came from trips around the Lower 48 while researching ‘A Field Guide to Accessible Birding in the United States’, which will be published by Princeton University Press in January 2027.

Several birders with various disabilities came to chat with me afterwords about my story, and how they found their own story within it. One even said I’d reframed the disability identity so well that she felt like she could claim it for herself now. 💙

I co-led two accessible field trips too, including a spectacular morning on the wheelchair-friendly observation tower. The sunny day was filled with joy and birds (swipe to see), and several beginner birders who felt they could join us because…

The festival organizers had me consult and train their outing leaders (months ago) on writing more specific outing descriptions that include key accessibility details. A lack of information is the biggest barrier for disabled birders, and the number of people who commented on the improved descriptions reinforced this! 😄

Meanwhile, I got to connect with FIVE Certified Access Birding Outing Leaders! (Swipe for a photo with three of them!) So excited for the accessible birding spaces they’re creating after taking this 30-hour course. 💙

And Indiana Audubon is serious about accessibility: they also had me spend a day onsite at their bird sanctuary after the festival, consulting on access improvements to their trails, bird blind and indoor spaces. Yes! 🙌🏼

Photos thanks to .greco and

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04/23/2026

Begin where you are, and keep going. 🙌🏼

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Your new inclusive birding program isn’t going to be perfect the first time you lead it. The trail access improvements don’t all have to happen at once.

The important thing is to try, and learn, and keep trying. Being frozen by a fear of failure just means exclusion continues.

What’s one thing, no matter how small, you can do this week? Next month? By the end of this year?

Send this to an organization or an individual who needs some encouragement! 😃

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01/30/2026

Congratulations to Gary Herritz, the scholarship recipient for Cohort 5 of the Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course! 🥳

This scholarship, proudly sponsored by Zeiss, was designed to support a disabled birder who intends to lead accessible bird outings, but who does not have a nature organization that can cover the course fees, and is otherwise unable to afford them. Thank you Zeiss for making this possible! 🌿

Gary shares,
“I’m a disabled nomadic birder. I’ve been a Captain with Birdability for over three years, co-host the podcast “Any Bird, Any Body” with Jerry Berrier, and I volunteer with many organizations from bird banding to surveys to Project Safe Flight.

“Financial constraints due to being permanently disabled are a great example of an access barrier for many things, including continuing education like this course. This Zeiss sponsorship will help me gain the knowledge and skills to lead accessible and inclusive bird outings as a disabled person, for disabled persons.

“I believe that my lived experience with neurodivergence, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and being immunocompromised, combined with the training of this course, will allow me to design, plan, and lead outings that are safe, fun, and non-exclusionary.

“I want to personally thank Zeiss for this otherwise impossible opportunity. You are helping make the birding world a better and safer place for both existing birders and those that may have never tried if not for trusted, certified outing leaders.”

Congratulations again Gary. We can’t wait to support you as you take this course and create more accessible and inclusive bird outings! 🥳

Follow along on Gary’s adventures and learn more about future scholarship opportunities and the Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course by following .birding And don’t forget to follow 😄

[Image description: A white man with a cap and stubble has a camera strap over his shoulder. He is smiling at the camera. Behind him there are reddish/orange rocks which look like canyon walls.]

12/16/2025

Thrilled to announce scholarships for the Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course! 🥳

Disabled birders can make fantastic accessible bird outing leaders, but we know this course is not always financially accessible. Thanks to the generosity of ZEISS Birding one scholarship place is available in Cohort 5, which will run on Monday evenings in February and March 2026.

To be eligible for this scholarship, you must:

- Be a disabled birder. (You won’t be asked to share any diagnoses or medical history, just any broad disability categories you are part of, such as “mobility disability” or “neurodivergent”.)

- Be otherwise be paying out-of-pocket (ie without assistance from a nonprofit of your job), but the volunteer-level course fee is unattainable.

- Fully intended to lead, or co-lead, two accessible outings for the following three years.

- Be available to participate in Cohort 5, and meet all Certification requirements.

There’s a lot more information on the scholarship webpage, including instructions on submitting a written, audio or video application (whichever format you prefer!).

Please share this post with anyone you know who might be interested! 😊

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12/11/2025

These birders make us so proud! ☺️

It’s Access Birding’s third birthday today! 🥳 In among consulting with organizations like the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and building customized training for dozens of bird and nature organizations over the last three years, it’s the 58 people who have taken the Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course — who are out there making a difference in their communities — that bring us the most joy! 🤩

This photo was taken at a recent accessible bird outing in Philadelphia, where six (six!) course participants were co-leading and attending: John, Lindsay, Jason, Angie, Maddie and Katrina. Everything this course is about is wrapped up in this photo. 💙 And the course feedback shared by Jason (swipe to see) had us bawling. 😭

Cohort 5 is now open for enrollment! Weekly live sessions will be held on Monday evenings in February and March 2026. Fees are on a sliding scale in an effort to be as equitable as possible for folks who may have different access to resources. More info can be found on the course web page, including how to enroll. Let’s do this! 🙌🏼

The Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course is proudly supported by Zeiss.

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12/05/2025

By “anxiety“, we’re not talking about the expected feelings of concern or nervousness associated with doing something outside your comfort zone, but something much bigger...

This question came up during one of our weekly live sessions in Cohort 4 of the Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course. We discussed it then, and it felt like an interesting thing to share with you all, too.

Did you know, 19% of American adults live with an anxiety disorder? What isn’t clear is if that is the number of people who have been diagnosed, or the overall estimate. Because there are certainly a lot of people who haven’t been diagnosed but who live with clinically significant levels of anxiety.

The big question for us is not how people choose to view anxiety (although that is certainly interesting!), but what can bird outing leaders do to support participants with anxiety? 💙

📚 References:
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.
- Anxiety Disorders, National Alliance on Mental Health website, last updated 2017.

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11/06/2025

The most requested access feature by disabled birders: benches.

Benches with backrests, so we can lean back and rest.

Benches with arm rests, so we can easily transfer from standing to sitting… and back again. (But not the kind with armrests in the middle. They just police body sizes. 👎🏼)

Benches in the shade, so we can cool off.

Benches with a view, so we can enjoy it without being in pain.

Benches connected to accessible trails, so we can actually get to them. 🌿

[Image description: A white birder with multiple invisible disabilities looks through binoculars while sitting on a bench overlooking a wetland.]

10/23/2025

Knowledge is power. Bird outing descriptions have the opportunity to share knowledge about the event and the location in such a way that people with disabilities (and people with access needs that are not met by default) are empowered to determine if this is something they’d like to do (or not).

Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen often!

👉🏼 A lack of detailed information is the biggest barrier to disabled birders and outdoor lovers. That’s not a personal opinion; it keeps coming up in the research!

This is an easy fix. People writing bird outing descriptions, trail descriptions, or otherwise sharing accessibility information need to be:
- Detailed,
- Specific,
- Objective, and
- Transparent.

📚 For two great examples developed by participants of the Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course, and for complete references, visit the Access Birding Blog.

What pieces of information matter most to you when deciding whether to participate in an activity or not??

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06/26/2025

They’re saying this course is “AMAZING”. 🥳

Who is “they?” Have a read of some of the testimonials above to find out:
- Professional bird guides
- People who have never led a bird outing before
- Birders with disabilities
- Nondisabled birders with no experience working with people with disabilities

This course is designed for you! 😄

What course? The Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course — a one-of-a-kind 30 hour online course developed to empower you to feel confident designing and leading a variety of styles of accessible and inclusive bird outings for people with a variety of disabilities. 🙌🏼

➡️ Cohort 4 begins in September and will run for nine weeks, with weekly live sessions on Thursday evenings. More information, including the sliding scale for course fees, is available via https://accessbirding.com/certified-access-birding-outing-leader-course

This cohort has limited spaces available, so grab yours before they’re sold out! 🏃‍♀️‍➡️

Big thanks to and John Eskate (and many others!) for sharing their feedback about the course. 😊

The Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course is proudly supported by ZEISS.

ZEISS Birding

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06/05/2025

Guiding at the Biggest Week in American Birding is exhilarating, exhausting, and very rewarding! 😄

Held over ten days in northwest Ohio to coincide with peak warbler migration, this was the 15th year of this, well, *big* event.

Hats off to the team (who host ): this was the first year we had accessible field trips *every day of the festival*. 🙌🏼

Access Birding owner Freya McGregor (that’s me! Hi! 👋🏼) co-led seven of these, some with more than 30 participants, and all with lots of laughs and intentional acts of inclusion woven throughout.

One participant had never been birding before. She showed up on Day 2, grateful her father and uncle (age 91!), who both have mobility challenges, could participate too. And she came back… four more times!! 🥳

It was great to catch up with *two* other Certified Access Birding Outing Leaders ( and ), and *two* other guest presenters in the Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course ( and .greco)! 😃

Consulting with the festival team has been great fun, and we’re looking forward to being back there in 2026! 😊

🐦🐦🐦

Want to design and lead accessible and inclusive bird outings with confidence too? Cohort 4 of the Certified Access Birding Outing Leader course is now open for enrollment! Weekly live sessions will be held on Thursday evenings in September and October. Find out more at accessbirding dot com

[Image description: Photos of lots of happy people birding and enjoying nature together. Most people are white and standing, some are Black, and some are using wheelchairs.]

Access Birding

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