(Radio Iowa) – Explore Siouxland has received a $10,000r tourism grant from the state Economic Development Authority to support a project called “Wheel the World.”

Spokesperson Kristen Heimgartner says the project aims to enhance accessibility for tourism in the Siouxland region. “We pick a couple restaurants, hotels, attractions that we think would be a good fit, and they survey them and see how accessible they actually are,” she says. Heimgartner says the program is a national effort, and they want to find out which venues are accessible to all. “They found that especially hotels are the biggest one, but sometimes they’ll say their wheelchair accessible rooms, and really they’re not,” Hiemgarten says. “Yes, they have more room than a normal hotel room, but they’re still not accessible for those that are in wheelchairs or have mobility issues.”

Those who have mobility issues are asked to take a survey when they visit. “So they come, they do a survey, they go home, they send the survey results back to us, and then it gives the attraction, hotel restaurant, the opportunity to make some changes and then become a certified, accessible business, basically,” she says. Heimgarten says they will start ten local businesses that will be part of the “Wheel the World” network. “They have their own website, and so by us participating with Wheel the World, we will become a certified destination for accessible tourism and have a landing page on their website,” she says. “So those who may have mobility issues or just need some extra help while traveling can go to this website, search a destination and then find all the results of our surveys that they do so.”

Heimgarten says they will begin the program in the new year and hope to expand the effort in the months to come.