Carlos Rojas sat in his wheelchair on a ramp overlooking the crisp white sand and rough blue waves of the Atlantic Ocean. His grandchildren squealed as they climbed on the playground overlooking Belmar beach.

Last summer, Rojas would have easily joined them, toting their sand toys, beach chairs and cooler. But the 79-year-old man, who splits his time between Florida and New Jersey, recently lost his leg after complications with COVID-19.

He assumed a day on the beach this summer would be permanently out of reach since his wheelchair would never be able to cut through the sand. And he didn’t think the woven blue mobilitymats leading toward the water looked sturdy enough to keep his chair from sinking.

But on a June afternoon, Rojas decided to give it a try as his wife Mary watched, apprehensively. He navigated his motorized wheelchair over the small bump between the ramp and mat with ease and onto the beach he went.

“What a world!” Carlos Rojas said. “I am going to bring this (idea) back to Florida because this really makes the beach totally accessible to people.”

But if Rojas went to another beach along the Jersey Shore he may not have had such an easy time.

There are dozens of beaches lining New Jersey’s 127-mile coastline, but depending on where you go access for people with disabilities can vary widely.

Public beaches are mandated under the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide an accessible entrance, but there are no specific rules or guidelines outlining how or what other access should be provided, according to Jennifer Perry, an access specialist at the Northeast ADA Center.

NJ Advance Media compiled information about access at the 44 towns along the Jersey Shore and visited 18 different beaches to get a picture of just how reachable the beaches are. Each municipality — whether it’s Spring Lake with it the 2.3 miles of coastline or Ocean City with its sprawling beach — has at least one “accessible entrance,” which is the minimum required under the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to information published by each town. But the similarities end there.

During our visits to the shore, we found that some beaches had mats that extended all the way to the high tide mark, or water-accessible wheelchairs able to bring someone right into the surf. Yet other beach entrances that are listed as accessible only offer soft, sandy pathways through steep dunes that are hard to navigate in flip-flops, much less a wheelchair.

On a positive note, advocates for people with disabilities say accessibility onto beaches is improving but the lack of federal or state laws defining what “accessibility” should entail means towns are left to develop their own interpretations.

The patchwork approach can make planning a beach day a daunting task, adding another difficulty people with disabilities said they face when planning a trip to the Jersey Shore.

In Monmouth County, towns like Asbury Park and Manasquan offer flat boardwalks, ramps down onto the sand, and long mats or hard tiles covering part of the beach.

In Ocean County, shore towns on barrier islands like Beach Haven have zigzagging pathways of packed, rocky sand that gently slope up and over the imposing dunes and back down onto the soft sand.

Ocean City, the family-friendly resort town in Cape May County, has a mix of planks and hard plastic tiles on the sand with rinse-off stations near ramps onto the boardwalk.

And in Atlantic County, woven mesh mats line the dunes that lead from the street to Brigantine beach, providing stability for the town’s rentable beach wheelchairs.

Even the towns that go beyond the minimum legal requirements by providing mobility mats at every street entrance, can do more to improve access, advocates said.

A bill to create consistent guidelines for all of New Jersey with input from people with disabilities has been introduced in the state Legislature each of the past three years but hasn’t advanced past committee approval. And town officials say, despite more than $47 million in revenue towns collect through beach badge sales statewide, improvements can be costly and there are limitations to what they’re allowed to install due to state environmental regulations.

Chris Miller, the assistant to the director of policy at Disability Rights New Jersey, a statewide watchdog group, said he’s noticed the change in beach accessibility and awareness in recent years.

Miller, who uses a wheelchair, said he loves to be able to decompress at the beach and believes that making beaches accessible for everyone is imperative “so we can all enjoy the natural resources. When beaches are made accessible, they become better for everyone,” he said.

When someone like Rojas goes to the grocery store, an amusement park, or even gets on an NJ Transit train, the Americans with Disabilities Act ensures he knows what to expect, and where to expect it, in terms of accessibility.

Signed into law in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, prevents discrimination against Americans with disabilities and codifies the rights they have to access public places.

ADA Standards for Accessible Design, published as part of the Code of Federal Regulations, spells out specifically what that looks like in most places with regulations on the degree of a sloped ramp, the width of a doorway and, or the height of a handrail.

At the beach the law requires handicap parking spots, curb cutouts, and bathrooms with accessible stalls, said Perry, a Jersey Shore native and access specialist at the Northeast ADA Center, but there are few specifics for the beach itself.

“There’s a bit of a gray area” when it comes to designing accessibility for beaches, she said.

“Even though there isn’t very clear black and white design standards for how to make a beach accessible under the ADA, there’s still an obligation to essentially make it accessible for people with disabilities,” Perry added.

A bill introduced in the New Jersey Legislature by state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to spell out exactly what accessibility means and provide guidelines — not requirements — that would address features like ramps, boardwalks, beach wheelchairs, showers and bathrooms.

Until he spoke with Asbury Park resident Penny Gnesin, for whom the proposed “Penny’s Law” is named, Gopal said that he was unaware of the barriers to beach accessibility. But Gnesin, who used a wheelchair and died in 2019, had experienced the issues first-hand and brought it to his attention, he said. He hopes that spreading awareness will do the same for others to help achieve beach accessibility for all.

“We need to keep pushing on the legislation,” he said. “I’ll keep advocating for it.”

The proposal says the DEP would be required to consult with disability rights organizations and disabled individuals in drafting the suggestions. The Architectural Barriers Act, a federal law that dictates what accessibility looks like on federal parks and beaches, should also be used as a source, the bill says.

But a one-size-fits-all standard for beach accessibility won’t work, town officials and advocates noted.

“The problem that you have is everybody’s beach is different,” said Jim Bennett, Brigantine city manager. “I just think it’s best left in the hands of the municipalities rather than a blanket (federal) guideline that might run afoul of DEP.”

MORE: Download our town-by-town guide of accessibility features at the Jersey Shore.

From the bridge over Shark River to the clear, fresh water of Lake Como, there are 1.5 miles of coastline stretching through the town of Belmar.

And every one of its 19 beach street entrances has a blue woven accessibility mat — often referred to by the brand name of Mobi Mats — that ends in a T-shape about a third of the way to the lifeguard stands, said Business Administrator Ed Kirschenbaum.

In a town known for fierce competition to find a parking spot in summer, the municipality also has 21 beachfront handicap spots exceeding the nine required by regulations under the ADA, said Kirschenbaum.

Belmar Mayor Mark Walsifer said work to make the town more accessible began several years ago and was completed after a final push in 2020.

It’s a mission that Kirschenbaum said is personally important to him. His grandson has a severe case of spina bifida, and can’t walk. Without things like mats and wheelchairs, the boy would never be able to enjoy the beach, his grandfather said.

Scott Chesney, who has been paralyzed since he was 15, said Belmar’s accessibility efforts are impressive and would be the “gold standard” if other beaches were to follow suit. Most other beaches, including Asbury Park, only have a few entrance points with the mats — not on every beach street, NJ Advance Media found on a recent visit.

Chesney oversees Asbury Access, an initiative under the Christopher and Dana Reed foundation meant to make Asbury Park more accessible. Under the group’s guidance, mats were installed at several beaches, and beach wheelchairs that can float in the water with the help of lifeguards or family members are now available for use.

“There’s two or three beaches now (in Asbury Park) that have accessible features,” Chesney said. “So you can’t go to just any beach, nor do we feel there’s a need to do that. Again, we realize everything costs money. And so not every single beach needs that access point.”

Chesney said his organization is talking to elected officials up and down the Jersey Shore to share ideas on ways to improve access. Better ramps are just the beginning — but it shouldn’t stop there, he said.

“Whether it be stairs or a sand dune that we don’t have to, like, go down or try to maneuver with people helping us bouncing us down the stairs, you’re getting us on the beach,” he said. “But where are the access decks, the access matting? That’s all helpful. The water wheels — this is all allowing us to kind of have that same experience on the beach that everybody has.”

Eliza Israel wouldn’t be able to feel the cool ocean if it weren’t for the beach wheelchairs, her mother Carla Israel said.

A 27-year-old with cerebral palsy and developmental and visual impairments, Eliza uses a wheelchair to get around most of the time – and “she happens to love the beach,” Israel said.

Their first hurdle to enjoying a vacation down the shore each summer is finding a house that will accommodate her wheelchair, she said. They’ve rented an oceanfront house the past few years, which makes it easier to get Eliza onto the beach using one of the township’s sand wheelchairs, Israel said.

“When she wants to go in the water we’ll take her down (in the wheelchair) to the water, take her out, and she can sort of play around,” Israel said, calling it a “really, truly relaxing vacation.”

Those beach wheelchairs — large manual wheelchairs made of plastic piping with thick, rubbery wheels — are provided free of charge at most Jersey Shore beaches, NJ Advance Media found. Some offer ones with large yellow buoys on the arms that allow the chairs to float in the water.

Availability varies. Monmouth Beach has one, while Cape May has more than a dozen. Some towns have the chairs on a first-come, first-serve basis and say they haven’t encountered issues with demand, while other towns make clear on their websites that reservations are very strongly recommended.

The thick wheels are meant to make rolling across the sand possible even without mats or tiles.

Adults with disabilities said while the wheelchairs are great in theory, it’s still too difficult to push or be pushed across the sand.

“They’re awful,” said Joe Wright, of his experience with the provided wheelchairs in Ocean City. The Vietnam veteran lost his leg and uses a motorized scooter. “They’re not the easiest thing to maneuver with.”

And not all people can transfer out of their usual wheelchairs even if they wanted to, said Jessica Krill, a mom who has two daughters with special needs. The beach chairs don’t have three-point harnesses that some disabled people need and are typically uncushioned, she notes.

Krill is a founder of Beach Days For All, an Ocean County-based non-profit that works to increase access to the Jersey Shore.

“My motto is once your foot hits the sand, our beaches are no longer accessible,” Krill said, later adding, “I think they’re accessible, but they are not accessible for all.”

Her non-profit was instrumental in improving the accessibility at the F Street Beach in Seaside Park, which has hard tiles on the beach — different than the softer blue mats — that end in an area large enough for someone who uses a wheelchair to spend the day.

Lois Hamilton, a lifelong Seaside Park resident who started using a wheelchair about a decade ago, said the improvements made to the F Street beach were life-changing for her.

“I can go down with my family now,” she said from a platform atop the dune at the F Street entrance, enjoying the ocean views and mid-June breeze. “It’s wonderful.”

Part of the issue, officials noted, is that improvements to the beach don’t come cheap.

In Cape May, the city spent $25,000 on beach mats this year to ensure every entrance has one, Mayor Zachary Mullock said. The city plans on budgeting more money next year to install mats that run parallel to the water, not just off the boardwalks and onto the sand.

Jersey Shore towns brought in more than $47 million in 2020 through the sale of beach tags, NJ Advance Media found in an analysis of municipal revenue. Those funds are used to pay for things like lifeguards, beach maintenance, and accessibility features.

Belmar, which brought in the most total revenue that summer at more than $5 million, spent $30,000 of it on mats for the beaches without them, as well as additional beach wheelchairs which cost $1,500 each, borough officials said.

“We said, we have to budget for it and then get it,” Walsifer said.

But at least two towns said beach badge sales still weren’t enough to cover the expenses.

Avalon Borough Administrator Scott Wahl said the town spends more on beach costs than it makes in tag sales, which topped just over $1 million in 2020. The first beach wheelchairs the town on 7-Mile Island received were paid for by the fundraising of the Avalon Civic Club.

Other towns like Lavallette and Brigantine said they have relied on property owners to either donate money as part of their permit approval process, sought out financial help from community organizations, or applied for grants.

When Rose Gabbianelli’s brother Patrick Kronenwetter, who uses a wheelchair, visited her for a week in Stone Harbor three summers ago, there were hard tiles onto the beach — but they were covered in sand, she said.

The entire family, plus some kind beachgoers, had to sweep it away so he could get onto the beach.

“Even if there is some little bit of attempt to make a place accessible, you’d have to maintain it in order for it to be used, or it’s pointless,” said Gabbianelli, who spent $1,000 of her own money to buy a short stretch of mat that would help her brother.

Toms River took $200,000 out of its general budget to pay for accessibility renovations on the Ortley Beach section of town, Mayor Maurice Hill said.

“I don’t think the beach badges adequately cover the lifeguard salaries, and everything that’s involved,” Hill said, calling the use of tax dollars “the cost of doing business when you have to maintain the beach.”

One of the ongoing issues surrounding accessibility is that the Jersey Shore landscape is unforgiving. Erosion and changing tides are a factor in what can and cannot be utilized on the beach, several people who spoke to NJ Advance Media said.

“We’d love to have (the mats) down to the water, if it was (like) a lake and you didn’t have to worry about the tide,” Walsifer, the Belmar mayor, said.

Lavallette purchased 175 feet of matting but erosion from a storm made one beach shorter. The leftovers will be used on other streets, borough administrator Robert Brice said.

There are also environmental regulations and recommendations to take into consideration.

The Department of Environmental Protection recommends all matting and loose items be removed from the beach by October, a department spokesperson said, but it’s not an explicit requirement. Mats placed on top of the sand are not subject to regulation, but anything that requires digging or excavation is, department spokesman Larry Hajna said.

“We are not aware of any town that has ever asked to keep Mobi-Mats on their beaches in the winter because of the wear and tear that they would suffer during the winter,” Hajna said in an email, using the name brand for the plastic woven mats used by most towns.

Because of the amount of labor required to install and remove the mats each season, Cape May City wanted to put small platforms on the sand to increase access, but “it’s kind of a balancing act (between accessibility and regulations) because nothing can be permanent,” Mullock said.

The DEP wasn’t familiar with the specifics of what Cape May wanted to build, but Hajna said the city would likely need a permit from the state if it wanted to install something permanent.

“The DEP should be loosening some of those restrictions in the name of accessibility, but I think they’ve taken a hard line,” Mullock said.

Thinking back to his early memories of going to Lavallette with his family, Chesney, who became paralyzed at the age of 15 in 1985, said they all would have benefited from the changes he and other advocates have been fighting for — surfaces that are easier for wheels to go over, more gently sloped ramps, better bathroom access.

“So many people will use this decking or matting system to walk down to wherever it is that they want to set up their blanket and beach gear for the day. Then you have people who have strollers with their kids. And so it’s really made life a lot easier for everyone.”

The idea of designing something fit for everyone to use is a concept called “universal design” in which ADA standards are the bare minimum, Perry said.

“Whether you have a disability or whether you’re a mom who’s holding a baby on her hip and trying to push a stroller with another kid in it, if there’s a ramp to get into the building instead of a step, that makes everyone’s life easier, right?”

Perry has observed more recognition of beach accessibility across the Jersey Shore over the past few years and is optimistic about the work being done.

What she hopes to dispel is the idea that accessibility is a “nice thing to do” when there is extra funding, when they are legally obligated to provide accessibility. And it shouldn’t stop with getting onto the sand. Bathrooms, concessions, tables, drinking fountains, and showers should all be factored in, she said.

“It’d be really hard to make like a one size fits all design solution for access to beaches,” said Perry. “But I think the most important thing is that any town that operates a beach is at least thinking of the fact that this is something we’re obligated to do, we have to figure out how we can provide access, understanding that it might not look exactly like how the town next door does it.”

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