National Geographic has named Gulf Shores and Pensacola Beach among the top five most wheelchair-friendly beaches in the United States.
The recognition comes more than a year after Gulf Shores rolled out its first public beach access mat to help visitors in wheelchairs or with difficulty walking reach the shore. Pensacola Beach installed its mat this summer.
The five-foot-wide plastic “access mat” was the first of its kind on Baldwin County beaches when it debuted in February 2018. The Mobi-Mat was brought to Pensacola Beach in June 2019.