Photo Credit: Treve Johson
The Rotary Club of San Jose, Calif., asked the landscape architecture firm, PGAdesign, to create a playground that would be accessible to children with the widest possible range of abilities. We soon discovered that the Rotary PlayGarden would have to go far beyond what is called for by the Americans with Disabilities Act’s design standards. ADA guidelines—while ensuring that equipment is physically accessible—does not always encourage children of all abilities to play together. For example, ADA code stresses wheelchair accessibility. In fact, many disabled persons are not in wheelchairs. Some children who would use the playground—like those on the autism spectrum—have no physical disabilities at all. We tried to make the space universally accessible in two ways:
1. By going beyond the current physical-access codes required by ADA
2. By creating elements that will appeal to more than one type of user.