10.06.2015 - Ausgabe: 3/2015

Inclusion in public playgrounds

by Ute Eckardt, Amt für Stadtgrün und Abfallwirtschaft der Landeshauptstadt Dresden [Office for Urban Parks and Waste Management of the State Capital Dresden]

What exactly do we mean by inclusion? Plenty of people have heard the word. What is behind it? And what does inclusion mean for each of us personally? And what does it mean for the playground?

Inclusion is a word which we come across almost everywhere at present. Since the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was enacted in 2006 and came into force in Germany in 2009, it has been transferred by stages into municipal and regional law. The main emphasis is on barrier-free urban design and inclusive education. Inclusion implies involvement and means that all those on the edge of society are as entitled as the rest of us to be able to participate in life. There is immense willingness to implement the requirements of participation, but there are also worries about inordinate costs and a certain perplexity in seeing a way to put this willingness into practice. This applies also to the inclusive children's playground. We all want one, but no-one knows exactly how to go about producing one. The first thought in the minds of many people is the child in the wheelchair and these people set off in the direction of a barrier-free playground, for example with the first wheelchair swing in the city. Working in the area of inclusion has made one thing clear to me: this is not how it works in the public playground.

Participation for everyone goes beyond taking those with disabilities into account. The groups who in certain areas are stranded on the edge of society also include, for instance, socially vulnerable families on low incomes, single parents and migrants. With every public playground, which by nature is a meeting place, a place of communication and coming together, we create a space in which inclusion can be lived. There are many reasons for constructing, equipping and maintaining playgrounds. They are not a necessary evil, but an important space in our towns and cities which make a decisive contribution to the quality of life.

But why not install the wheelchair swing in the public playground? Because it is not an inclusive item of equipment. It can be used by children in wheelchairs, but only by children in wheelchairs. Inclusion means coming together, everyone participating in play.

Which disabilities must actually be taken into account? The only statistics available are for the severely disabled. For the city of Dresden this is 1.6 per cent of all children. The total proportion of disabled children can only be estimated; the figure is thought to be about 5 per cent. The Federal Government's Report on Health gives the distribution for severely disabled persons, but these are concentrated into groups in such a way that it is difficult to elicit concrete evidence as to individual categories of disability such as children in wheelchairs. One thing however is certain; children use wheelchairs much less often than adults. The paraplegic child who is also a sportsman or woman, is the absolute exception. He or she cannot be the benchmark for our planning. For some children it makes sense to be motivated to leave the wheelchair; conversely, others will have no use for special equipment. The completely barrier-free public playground has the additional disadvantage that it offers no challenges for most children. They either seek out risks in the playground which had not been envisaged, or they shun the area, which runs contrary to inclusion.

There are many forms of disabilities in children: for instance there are blind and visually-impaired children. Anyone who has experience of blind children in the open air knows that they do not need any special conditions. They know the playground in their neighbourhood inside out and move about on it very confidently. Visually-impaired children sometimes have difficulties and for them and for others it makes sense to set swings off to one side, so that a child cannot accidentally run into the swing area. Furthermore, strong colours are helpful for this group. Deaf children also do not require special facilities; for them it is the dangers behind them which are the problem, since you cannot warn them by calling to them. They benefit from clarity. The different types of physical disability often include difficulty in grasping or walking, impaired coordination or problems with the sense of balance. For these children surfaces to lean on are helpful, shallow ramps are better than ladders with steep rungs and nest swings and saucer-type merry-go-rounds are suitable. A further large group are children with mental disabilities, who are sometimes really physically adept, but who often enjoy simple equipment designed for younger children; this however, must be re-designed for their body weight.

 

Planning principles

Since it is impossible to obtain information on the distribution of disabilities in any given neighbourhood, general principles should be observed in planning:

 

1. Find ways of involving as many of the users as possible in the planning process. In this way the social groups mentioned at the outset can be taken into account just as can the children with disabilities. As a rule, the planning office will not be able to provide such involvement. Therefore aid should be sought from specially trained partners, who spend several days reconnoitring the area with the children, report or illustrate conditions, ideas and wishes or have a model of them built. Great attention must be given to publicising the event, in order to reach the children in the district. A campaign with one children's nursery group or school class will not achieve the desired aim.

2. The playground must always be accessible and barrier-free. This benefits not only children in wheelchairs, but also parents with prams, children on tricycles, scooters and bobby-cars, as well as persons with walking difficulties, who accompany the children. As a minimum on the playing area the seating area should be accessible. To what extent other paths can be barrier-free depends on the location and the overall design concept for the playground. Unnecessary barriers are to be avoided in any case.

3. The more varied the range of play, the more children participate. It is not just equipment which makes a playground, but also sand and water, elements for role play, secure movement areas, remodelling of the terrain and much more besides.

4. Since the size of a playground often limits diversity, the whole district should be considered. If every playground in the area has the same tower with a slide, opportunities are wasted. In many small areas there is the opportunity to offer something for everyone in the residential quarter.

5. Those involved in planning must engage with a change in perspective. In the foreground there are the various needs of the children, not the design and landscape architecture (that can take second place). Results from the involvement of the community must be taken into account. Moreover, the planners should ask themselves the question as to what they could do in the playground if they had difficulty in grasping or walking or if they suffered from impaired coordination or sense of balance. Are there dangers for the visually-impaired which could be prevented and are there enough places designed for taking a break to allow observation and to stimulate meetings and communication?

6. In order to promote participation, items of play equipment which allow children to come together should be preferred to those on which only one child can actively play.

 

Individual play elements

Consideration of individual play elements, while taking into account diversity and coming together:

Sand play can be used by a particularly large number of children and is interesting if the area is big and the sand is of good quality or can be "mined". Sand tables with wheelchair access can be installed in individual cases on large squares with benefits for the whole city; here height of fall and maintenance costs must be taken into account. Platforms at the edge of the area can have a similar effect. Sand becomes much more interesting when water is added. Such play facilities can be used by most children.

Role play items such as play houses quickly make children forget physical limitations.

As already stated, swings should be placed apart from the other play equipment. This allows the installation of the most diverse selection of swings possible, in particular of the types which can be used by several groups. This also applies to see-saws of all types.

It is important to install slides with access methods of varying degrees of difficulty. Hill slides are an all-purpose solution, if the slope can be scaled without barriers at the back of the slide. Wide slides are usable in many more ways, narrow slides give more purchase. Tunnel slides are safe, but using them requires effort. A long slide exit is easier for some disabled children to use, but a short exit can be more fun. Fireman's poles offer huge challenges for children who like to be active. Each version has its merits and can be installed

The same applies to the merry-go-round as to the swings. Nets or shells allow lots of children to participate, single seats are less suitable.

For climbing equipment there is an especially large variety of steps to think about. Every child should be given the opportunity to use the equipment, but not every child needs to reach each level. Risk is necessary to motivate children to move, as a challenge to keep on discovering new things. Balancing and hanging areas enlarge the range of climbing activities.

Elements such as painting boards, play equipment to stimulate the senses, distorting mirrors and play figures can also be used by children who have particularly severe mobility problems.

Areas for ball games and table-tennis tables, where children play together, must not be forgotten. Skating facilities can also be constructed, so that there are easier and more difficult areas.

But it is not simply the equipment which contributes to inclusive use; the design of the playground also contributes diversity. Asphalted surfaces can be accessed by all sorts of means, or ball games can be played on them. Earth mounds stimulate many ideas and planted areas can shelter children and create the necessary areas for being quiet and withdrawing.

The underfloor should also be varied. Synthetic material is indeed barrier-free, but so expensive that it can be justified only in exceptional cases. Wood shaving surfaces are more cost-effective and just as accessible. Most disabled people however manage on gravel surfaces; here, for example, a direct connection with separation and climbing equipment must be taken into consideration.

Sometimes you hear an argument that is thought to be in favour of the demand for barrier-free access to all equipment: parents and especially grand-parents in wheelchairs should be given the same opportunity to help their children on the play equipment as other parents. Unfortunately, I should like to disagree. If parents accompany their children to the playground, they should chat with other parents, read a book or enjoy the free time, but let the children use the play equipment quite independently. How can a child learn to assess risk if every step is commented on and supported? The more this principle is observed, the more independently will the children cope and in some cases even help each other – that is real inclusion.

 

Sources

Schwerpunktbericht der Gesundheitsberichterstattung des Bundes, Gesundheit von Kindern und Jugendlichen [Focus Report of the Federal Health Reporting System, Health of Children and Adolescents], Robert Koch Institute, Federal Office of Statistics, Berlin 2004

miteinander spielen, Leitlinien für die Integration von Kindern mit Einschränkungen auf Spielplätzen in Nürnberg [Playing together, Guidelines for Integrating Children with Impairments into Playgrounds in Nuremberg], published by the City of Nuremberg, 2006

Statistische Mitteilungen Arbeit und Soziales 2012, Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Kommunale Statistikstelle [Statistical Information on Employment and Social Issues 2012, State Capital Dresden, Municipal Office of Statistics]

 

Photo: Ute Eckhardt / State Capital Dresden