Refuge Notebook: Nature is for everyone

A few weeks ago, I found myself in a dark room with around 500 spiders. This might sound like your worst nightmare, but luckily, most of the spiders were plastic and safely contained in sensory bins any visitors passing through could touch. We were hosting our first Sensory Friendly event, a Spooky Seasons Discovery Room themed around owls, bats and spiders. The dark room was actually the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge’s Multipurpose Room, with the lights reduced to a gentle 50%.

Sensory Friendly programs aim to center the experiences of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities who often face barriers that make it difficult or impossible for them to participate in public events. These challenges include inaccessible buildings, overstimulating crowds, or a lack of multisensory environments to suit every visitor.

With our Sensory Friendly programs, we want to break down those barriers and create an environment where every individual can show up as they are to participate in our programs. At our Spooky Seasons event, our Sensory Friendly program featured several modifications to make it more inclusive and enjoyable for visitors.

We had dimmed lights to help reduce sensory overload. Our learning stations featured tactile experiences, like the previously mentioned spider bins — the plastic spiders were nestled in different materials like sand or beans. We played owl calls on our speakers for visitors who enjoyed audio stimulation. A chill zone with bean bag chairs, storybooks and stuffed animals allowed visitors to decompress.

Our goal was to adapt our traditional Discovery Room setup to include activities that would be impactful for all types of learners; by combining tactile activities with engaging auditory and visual displays, we created a diverse educational setting. Where one activity might not work for a visitor, there would be more options that would. In doing so, we were not simplifying our existing materials but rather working to build an interactive and accessible experience that would be valuable to visitors regardless of ability.

After working so hard on developing this program, it was a true joy to see how much our visitors enjoyed exploring the Discovery Room, and how people of all ages and abilities showed up to see what the event might offer them. One of our most beloved features of this event was the bat cave! The bat cave was a special zone with model bats hanging down from the ceiling so our visitors could experience what it might be like to sit in a bat’s natural habitat.

Beyond our Sensory Friendly programs, the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center is also making the exhibit hall experience more inclusive to folks with different sensory needs. We have developed backpacks available to borrow at the front desk that include noise-canceling headphones, sunglasses, fidget toys, text magnifiers and weighted blankets — all tools to help our visitors explore the exhibit hall without the stress of overstimulation.

Future educational programs will include a designated sensory-friendly hour to ensure a safe and accessible space for youths and adults with disabilities. Environmental education and outdoor recreation are vital to childhood development, and we are working hard to ensure that access to these opportunities is not limited to ability.

I’ll admit, I’m not an unbiased source when I talk about the importance of inclusive programming. When I was a child, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that I will have for the rest of my life. While managing this disability is not without its challenges, the hardest part for me was always having to deal with people assuming they knew what was best for me.

I feel most at home when I’m in the woods or out of breath somewhere on a mountain, and I’ve dealt with many people throughout my life who have made a quick assumption that I am unable to participate in certain activities — or worse, that I wouldn’t even want to try.

I’m lucky that I am able to advocate for myself; not everyone can do so. Imagine how many experiences people with disabilities could be missing out on simply because someone assumed they couldn’t or wouldn’t want to try. This truth is what’s guiding the refuge’s new Sensory Friendly programs.

While the Spooky Seasons Discovery Room was just the first of our Sensory-Friendly events, I am confident that we are moving toward a more inclusive future of Environmental Education programming here at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. I can’t wait to see how it grows from here!

Alyssa Zawawi was the 2024 environmental education intern at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Alyssa feels incredibly proud to have reached over 4,000 individuals around the Kenai Peninsula during her 40 weeks here. She is excited to see what programs the refuge will have moving forward! If you have any suggestions or comments on inclusive programming at the refuge, please reach out to us at the Visitor Center at 907-260-2820.