There also is at least one manual model that can be propelled by the user: the Hippocampe All-Terrain Beach Wheelchair, which retails for around $4,000 and is manufactured by Vipamat, based in France. Among the more economical options, Wheeleez offers kits to convert a street wheelchair into a beach wheelchair. Options range from around $300 to $1,000, depending on the size and number of wheels.

Opening up the ‘magic’ of beaches

Finding beach-accessibility information can be a challenge. The California Coastal Commission lists at least 114 locations in the state with beach wheelchairs, several of which — including Imperial Beach in San Diego County and Laguna Beach in Orange County — offer motorized chairs at no cost. But piecemeal listings by other local governments and beaches require people to check destinations one by one.

Some accessible-travel writers are working to fill the information gap. Sylvia Longmire, 48, of Sanford, Fla., who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, has compiled listings of dozens of Florida beaches that provide beach wheelchairs and mats on her accessible-travel blog, Spin the Globe. “I went eight years without going to the beach, and thought it was unattainable for me forever,” Ms. Longmire wrote on the blog. “This was until I discovered two revolutionary inventions — the beach mat and beach wheelchair — that reopened the magic of my native Florida beaches to me again.”

Jennifer Allen, 39, an Elizabethtown, Pa., mother whose son Jaden, 7, was diagnosed with spina bifida in 2017 and uses a wheelchair, lists more than 50 beaches that provide wheelchairs from New York to Florida on her website, Wonders Within Reach. “When we received our son’s diagnosis, we had to find new ways to travel and get outdoors,” Ms. Allen said. “We weren’t able to find a lot of resources to help us do that, especially with children. I decided to share as we travel and learn, so that other parents can be inspired and enabled to get out and explore with their kids with disabilities.”

On a trip to Buckroe Beach in Hampton, Va., Ms. Allen was pleased to find a paved boardwalk and a surf wheelchair. “They had all the things we needed, but we didn’t know beforehand because they didn’t have it available online,” she said.

Despite all the new measures and the growing number of beaches with wheelchairs — from Texas to New York to the U.S. Virgin Islands — some places remain an “accessibility nightmare,” Ms. Allen said, citing North Carolina. This summer, her family is planning a trip to the Outer Banks in that state, where she said, “There is less parking, fewer accessible access points and fewer beach wheelchairs available on loan.”

The family will rent a beach wheelchair to be delivered to an oceanfront rental home, but, she said, there will be still a major obstacle: “It sounds like we’ll still have some work to do to get the chair up over the dunes.”