How to design Inclusive Playgrounds

Start by ensuring accessibility to the playground and the surrounding area. Plan for easy access to transportation, parking, and restrooms with ramps and wide pathways to and from the playground. If you are planning a gated playground ensure that gates are wide enough to facilitate assisted access and assistive devices. Avoid physical obstacles such as curbs and gates placed out of reach. Accessible safety surfacing around play equipment is necessary for social play value and peer communication.

Next, ensure everyone feels comfortable in the playground, especially children with sensory or physical challenges. Children have differing needs for socialising and retracting, and so do caregivers. Additional facilities nearby will encourage longer visits, i.e. toilets, water fountains, café, electricity etc. Make sure that the playground caters for young, old and all abilities by providing shade to avoid overheating, seating and tables for a break, also for caregivers and create a layout with transparent sight lines for easy supervision and contact across the play area.

Lastly, getting around the play area is hugely important. So, ensure users with mobility difficulties can get around the playground and reach the play equipment. Implement play equipment that provide play from all sides and spaciousness to support diverse body, sizes, abilities and positions.

Also make sure that elevated-level and ground-level play activities are accessible and usable for users with mobility difficulties, either by a ramp structure or easy-access surfacing material. Ramp structures provide access to levels of play otherwise not reachable by, e.g., wheelchair users.

Accessibility also means considering users with sensory or cognitive disabilities. Considering sensory play events in your inclusive playground design is a beautiful way of activating equal play opportunities. Factors to consider are tangible and visual textures, areas with equipment for soothing body pressure, auditive movement motivators, and sensory experiences, e.g., scented plants.

Varied play equipment is the main success criterium when planning inclusive and universal playgrounds—having a choice of physically challenging, thrilling and sensory stimulating activities that can be played in groups or individually will ensure playability. Choosing spinning, rotating, swaying, swinging, and rocking equipment for the physical thrill will ensure success. For sensory stimulation, a choice of natural features and tactile, sound, and visual elements to play with, alone or together, will increase play retention.

Create signal transitions in the playground and play area by using different textures and contrasting colours placed strategically in the surfacing. This will help users with vision impairments and a range of users with sensory disabilities navigate the playground.

Dramatic play elements such as themed equipment will help many users connect and relate to the playground.

Respites are essential to avoid overstimulation. A quiet area to retract to is a need for many users. Consider site amenities with accessible seating and table options, and solitary play areas with play equipment which can be used individually as this is also crucial for inclusive playground design.

Social interaction is important for all of us. Therefore, an inclusive playground must also include play equipment and activities that stimulates social interactions; such as “two-of-each” parallel play options for training social skills. Placing side by side swings, springers or spinning devices is an amazing way to create a parallel play option.

Variety in play opportunities is about creating a play space with wild and quiet activities. An inclusive playground should provide physical, social-emotional, cognitive-creative activities but also allow for breaks with seating and areas for retraction from play.