There was far less wheelchair access during her college years than there is today. Wherever she went--to a restaurant, store, or office building--she phoned ahead to ask if she would be able to get in or use the restroom. "Half the time they wouldn't even know what I was talking about," said Lewkowicz.

She found a job with the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP) in Berkeley. She organized wheelchair tennis matches, led outdoor adventures like skiing and rafting, and helped start the first California teams of quad rugby, a fast-paced sport played with wheelchairs and a volleyball on a basketball court. While working at BORP she also met Paul Church, a disability services specialist with the City of Berkeley. They are now married.

In 1987, Lewkowicz began dancing again. She and six others--three wheelchair riders, three not--formed the AXIS Dance Company, which choreographs modern dance pieces that use the strength and movement of the wheelchairs to facilitate a new form of dance. Their first performance, at the Oakland Furious Feet Festival, brought a standing ovation.

"What went through our minds was, were they clapping at 'those brave people up there' . . . or at good art?" Lewkowicz said. Eventually she decided it was the latter. Working with choreographers and musicians including Bill T. Jones and Joan Jeanrenaud, AXIS has performed on stages from Siberia to New York.

Today, at age 49, Bonnie Lewkowicz looks out at the world through dark, cautious eyes that light up as she talks. Her life is rich and busy. She founded and directs Access Northern California, a nonprofit organization serving travelers with physical disabilities, writes for travel publications, and is an avid gardener. When she undertook the task of writing A Wheelchair Rider's Guide: San Francisco Bay and the Nearby Coast for the Coastal Conservancy Association in 2003, she figured it would take 12 months. It ended up taking three years to explore and describe more than 100 scenic places, as she fit her field trips between rehearsals, performances, and travels beyond the Bay Area.

She drove to each area, alone or with a friend, in her Braun Entervan, a vehicle that kneels, opens its side doors, and unfolds a ramp in response to a remote control. To maneuver the van, she uses hand controls attached to the brakes and gasoline pedal. Sometimes her husband would go with her on weekends. A few times she went out with Brett Wilkison, one of the book's editors, who rode his bicycle.

In the book, Lewkowicz describes topography and various features of interest. She tells of good places to watch birds, picnic, stroll quietly along, or bring children. She details fees, hours, trail lengths, food, lodging options, and even weather patterns. She reports on parking: Is there a blue Handicapped Parking Only space? Is there an "access aisle" alongside the parking spot so a wheelchair can exit? She inspected each trail for barriers such as turnstiles or narrow passageways, as well as noting its condition. Was it firm, stable, and level, or was there gravel, sand, mud, or deep ruts? Armed with pen and pad and a tape measure, she poked around drinking fountains, restrooms, picnic tables, playgrounds, and docks and piers, checking to make sure they were accessible. In some areas, such as Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley, she was delighted to find picnic tables with the bench cut away to allow a wheelchair in. Many parks had restrooms with some combination of wide stalls, grab bars, roll-under sinks, and lever door handles, though few had all of these.