#ACCESSIBLE PLAYGROUND HOW TO#

Similarly, most playground elements should not require auditory components to enjoy. Advanced structures may also use lights or other components to provide signals. One way of addressing deafness is using visual cues to get attention, such as waving large flags while calling for people to return. People with partial or total deafness may be focused on specific toys or puzzles and may not notice anyone calling for them to come back. The primary time this matters on a playground is when you’re trying to get all children to stop playing and return to the area’s entrance. These don’t affect someone’s ability to use a playground as much as other things can, but there are a few times when hearing is crucial. Hearing loss can range from being unable to hear noises that are too soft to difficulty hearing from specific directions. People with aphantasia cannot use their mind’s eye to make enjoying a playground easier, so people with both aphantasia and total blindness may see literally nothing.Īddressing loss of vision may require creating raised signs or putting bumped areas in pathways that can navigate to exits. This isn’t as easy to solve as teaching a route that people can duplicate in their imagination, either. Some people may have trouble seeing anything too far away, while other people may be completely blind.

The severity of vision loss can vary in its impact on playgrounds. More importantly, they may not be aware of gaps or cliffs in the structure until they reach them. People with visual limitations may have trouble navigating a play area without a physical guide. Partial or total loss of vision can affect someone’s ability to see some or all of a playground. Access Board and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) documentation. Here are the main groupings, which we verified and researched via the U.S. However, we can consolidate most functional needs into several categories based on how they affect someone’s ability to use a playground. Making playgrounds inclusive is significantly more challenging than making play areas accessible, and here’s why: there’s a variety of different needs, and it’s challenging to account for all of them. Inclusive playgrounds are those with toys, games, and segments that appeal to people with different needs or capabilities. While this is not an official term, anything that’s accessible to people using wheelchairs is as accessible as any reasonable designer can expect to make things. Some people refer to this as the wheelchair standard. Anything a person cannot reach along these paths is not accessible. To put it another way, accessible playgrounds are those with reasonably wide footpaths through the entire area. This means having ramps between areas of differing heights, no gaps that a child must jump or climb over, and no areas that are too narrow to fit a wheelchair through. In most cases, a playground is accessible if someone using a wheelchair can navigate the entire area independently. This means that all children playing there should be able to reach play sections in the area, regardless of height (more on minimum requirements later). Who can help you with ADA compliance What Is an Accessible Playground?Īn accessible playground is physically accessible to as many children as possible.Where to find accessible playset equipment.

#ACCESSIBLE PLAYGROUND HOW TO#

How to make your playset or playground accessible and inclusive.Playground and playset accessibility standards.If you want to skip down to a specific section, just click one of the links below:

We’ll start off by covering some basic definitions, then get into the legal standards for playsets, how to set up a playground for all children, how to find accessible and inclusive playground equipment, and finish up with some tips on financial assistance for local communities and who can help you get everything set up. If you’re a planner for your local community, hopefully this is a great head start to transforming a new area into an accessible and inclusive play space for all children. If you’re a parent looking to set something up in your backyard, this guide should give you a great head start on how to find the right equipment and make an accessible setup. Today though, we want to expand our focus to include local playgrounds and how to make them accessible and inclusive for children of all abilities to explore and have fun.Īccessible and inclusive playgrounds are becoming the new standard across the country, whether they’re in public parks or your backyard. At the Backyartisan, we love covering the latest and greatest in backyard playsets.

Accessible playground