Just for the fun of it: making playgrounds accessible to all children

Abstract

There seems to be growing interest worldwide in the concept of purpose-built public playground facilities that are intended specifically to provide play experiences for all children, regardless of their abilities. As this article will reveal, the complex principle of inclusion underpins the concept of shared play in inclusive playgrounds. However, despite generally being identified as important, inclusion, particularly for children with impairments within play environments, seems to be often poorly understood and sometimes overlooked in existing literature about children's play in playgrounds. This article draws attention to the current situation surrounding public playground accessibility and teases out two discernible ways of approaching playground provision for people with impairments. The first is technically driven and mandated by guidelines and legislation. The other is child-centred or community-focused, in which participation in play in a playground is supported as a desirable social activity within a connected, inclusive community. Furthermore, this article will provide an outline of legislation and policies in Australia that are relevant to inclusive playground provision, along with some approaches that have been adopted in some other countries (notably, the United States and the United Kingdom) to provide playground access for children with impairments.

Keywords:

• playgrounds
• inclusion
• children's play
• universal access