When you’re planning a free event, would you make sure it was accessible for everyone?

A community group leader thought they were planning a fun, low-cost day outdoors—a simple hike and picnic at a nearby national park.

But when a member asked last minute whether the event was wheelchair accessible, things quickly spiraled into an online argument about inclusivity, accessibility, and common sense.

Read on for the story.

AITA for planning a hiking and picnic event that wasn’t wheelchair accessible?

I (late 20s) help run a small local group that organizes social events for adults in our area (most members 20-40s), to help people reconnect after COVID and get out of isolation habits.

We’ve held tons of different events: mall hangouts, museum trips, science centers, metro park picnics, basically things that are fun, low-cost and don’t need alcohol.

This month we decided to a hiking and picnic day at a nearby national park.

The trails there are really pretty, but not paved, so it was definitely a more hike, physically active event compared to some of our other events.

There’s one thing they didn’t consider.

The day of the event, a member posted in our Facebook group asking if it was wheelchair accessible.

At that point, it was too late to change plans, and honestly, the answer was no the hike definitely wasn’t accessible, and the picnic might have been accessible, but since the tables are first-come-first-serve, we couldn’t guarantee a flat easy to get to spot.

So I told them that it may not be fully accessible and gave the best and worst case areas we saw we may picnic at with pics from Google.

Oh boy.

That’s when everything blew up.

The member started calling us ableist and a jerk for not thinking of them, saying we should have thought about accessibility first, and that holding an event like this made them feel like an afterthought.

People were blowing up our facebook group, saying we should only plan events that are accessible to everyone and others where saying that not everything could be completely accessible.

OP’s response might’ve made it worse.

Now this may be where I may be more of a jerk.

After all the drama and being accused of being ableist I responded with a bit of a snarky and rude remark saying “sorry I couldn’t go out with my hammer and chisel the night before and make sure the rocky trails where smooth for everyone.”

I added, “If you would have actually read the event when we posted it you would have seen where it’s located and that it likely wasn’t accessible.”

It’s hard to please all the people all the time.

This is the first event we’ve done that wasn’t wheelchair accessible. Literally all our past ones were. The member who started the argument has come to maybe one or two events total.

It just feels like we got attacked for trying to do something a little different for the people who do show up regularly.

The event itself was super successful great turnout, everyone who came had fun, and people are already asking when we’ll do another one. But now there’s drama and I feel like no matter what we do, someone will be upset.

I get wanting to feel included, and I don’t want anyone to feel excluded, but is it really fair to make every event work for every single person?

Reddit mostly sided with the organizer,  however, there were a range of sides.

This person says ESH.

This person says NTA.

And this person voted both.

The real uphill battle wasn’t the hike itself, but trying to please everyone on the trail.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.