A woman who is blind spins flax into thread at the Frontier Culture Museum in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Nearby, a man who is deaf feels the vibrations as a fiddler plays a lively Appalachian tune. A girl in a wheelchair watches a costumed interpreter plant seeds in a field to learn what early settlers grew for food.

At the other end of the state in Tidewater, a mature traveler in a motorized scooter enjoys a trip through Spanish moss-draped cypress swamps along the wheelchair-accessible trail at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach. A teenager using a white cane stops to read a Braille marker before continuing on through the fragrance garden at Norfolk Botanical Garden. In Central Virginia at Lynchburg's Amazement Square, a deaf child uncovers artifacts at Indian Island after learning about archaeology through signing interpreters.

No matter what age or ability, travelers looking for a vacation destination find numerous options throughout Virginia. Ramps, lifts, elevators, audio tours, and captioned movies or videos at Virginia attractions and historic sites help meet a variety of travelers needs.

For outdoor recreation enthusiasts, Virginia has adaptive sports opportunities including alpine skiing instruction for people with a variety of abilities as well as accessible fishing and hunting opportunities. State and national parks in the Old Dominion offer accessible boat ramps, swimming pools with lifts and cabins with roll-in showers.

To take advantage of locations best suited to their needs, travelers can look to a special guide to answer questions such as, "Is my wheelchair too wide to get through the doorways?" or "Are captioned videos available?" or "Does this attraction offer audiotaped descriptions of the exhibits?"

Accessible Virginia gives extraordinarily detailed descriptions of Virginia attractions, lodging, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, outdoor recreation and shopping facilities that meet the needs of travelers of varied abilities. The web site provides comprehensive information such as locations and measurements of doors, aisles, stairways and bathroom facilities, as well as listings of dialysis centers, equipment repair locations and even veterinarians for assistance animals.

Whether you want to experience life in the early days of America, to enjoy a stroll along the wheelchair-accessible boardwalk of the world's longest resort beach, to have Civil War history come alive in accessible museums and outdoor exhibits, to hike along paved paths where waterfowl and indigenous wildlife nest, or to touch replicas of historic artifacts, come to Virginia. You can do all of this and more!