The Need for Accessibility in Playgrounds for Children With Disabilities

Abstract

Date Presented 4/9/2016 This study examined the perceived need for and current level of playground accessibility in Omaha, Nebraska, for children with disabilities. A Playground Accessibility Checklist was created and piloted. Results support occupational therapy in assessing, modifying, and creating accessible playgrounds. Primary Author and Speaker: Amy Brennan Additional Authors and Speakers: Shirley Blanchard, Briana Scharn, Kathryn Milbert, Sara Samuelson

A scoping Review of Tools to Evaluate Existing Playgrounds for Inclusivity of Children with Disabilities

“…Of the eight peer-reviewed articles (9,20,(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40), each used a different tool for evaluating playground accessibility, with five referencing the ADA Standards as their guiding framework (17). All authors emphasized the need for auditing tool development and validation, and for future research to incorporate families who experience disability when establishing research priorities, developing and validating auditing tools, conducting playground assessments, and translating results.…”

“…Two grey literature tools (both from Australia) provided sufficient information to evaluate against 12 of 13 recommendations (42, 45), and one targeted 10 out of the 13 recommendations (44). All tools evaluated more than 50% of the recommendations in the combined entry points and surfacing/paths categories (accessibility-related categories); however, only six evaluated more than half of the recommendations in the features to foster inclusive play category (9,38,(42)(43)(44)(45), or included user involvement (i.e., families of children with disabilities and representatives from disability organizations) in the design process (9,35,(42)(43)(44)(45). No tools in the literature provided a question to assess supervision/staffing on the playground.…”

“…Of the tools examined in this review, one third suggested including families of children with disabilities and representatives from disability organizations in the audit process (9,35,(42)(43)(44)(45). This finding echoes a Dutch study where one quarter of municipalities surveyed had never consulted playground users such as parents and children when designing new community playgrounds (19).…”