Accessible and ADA/ADAAG Compliant Playground Design

 I'm often asked if I design ADA compliant playgrounds. Yes, every playground design I work on is ADA compliant. Any composite playground design must be ADA compliant. If you want something non-ADA compliant, I might do it if the community signs a waiver. I did that one time a few years back, with reservation.

The American Disabilities Act of 1990 ensured us all of the right to remain employed despite a disability. This helped validate disabled persons by including them in the normal everyday business of living. But the law had shortcomings. It talked the talk but didn't walk the walk.

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It was the lesser-known ADAAG (Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines) that created the standards we use today with designing playgrounds for wheelchair accessibility. With approximately 88,000 children in wheelchairs in America alone, too many kids don't have the same access to playground equipment as children without disabilities. We may never be able provide for all of them but this doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Space and budget restrictions force us to compromise with  that are less than 100% wheelchair accessible. Is 50% or 80% accessibility okay? Sometimes it's all we are allowed to do. If I had my way every new playground would be 100% accessible.

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There are no laws requiring playground equipment be 100% wheelchair accessible but it doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Some want to mandate total accessibility but this isn't realistic. For obvious reasons additional space and money are required to ramp an entire playground for wheelchairs. We do it as often as possible but still, accessible playgrounds are few and far between and sadly, it remains difficult to locate fully ramped, ADAAG compliant playgrounds.

Unfortunately, the more space you require the more safety surfacing you will also need and that can get expensive depending on the type of material you choose (which I will cover in a separate article). It takes 12 feet of ramp to incline up 12 inches so if you need to go from a 2 foot high landing to a 3 foot deck that's 12 feet of ramp! Consider also that the average playground is about 5 feet high. That is 60 feet of ramp! A lot of steel! If you can create a berm 2-3 feet high and start the ramping from that elevation, you will save some money. We can also shorten the length of a tall structure by switchbacks but there remains the dilemma for the need of more steel.

Some playground equipment manufacturers have limitations that create less play value for ramped designs while a few companies have found ways to compensate by creating climbing elements that can attach to extra-wide decks and corners. These companies are paying attention and they are paving the way for future improvements in equipment that meets the demanding needs for accessible playgrounds.

All of this actually has a desirable benefit for playgrounds in general. It has been my observation that wheelchair accessible playgrounds are actually better for everybody and do not just benefit the 88,000 or so individuals in wheelchairs. A ramped playground is more fun because, let's face it, kids like to run and play tag on playgrounds and without all the steps there are fewer trip hazards. Mothers with children in strollers can access any part of an accessible playground. Grandparents in wheelchairs or with walkers get to every part of an accessible playground. In my opinion, a ramped playground is an even better way to bring the entire community together with its all-inclusiveness and this is the future for playground design.

The author discusses the need for and advantage of using 100% wheelchair accessible designs in playground equipment. Accessible playgrounds may not be all that new but they are often overlooked and avoided due to budget restraints and lack of available space. This article makes a case for reversing this way of thinking and making a policy change in the New York community to show the rest of the country that to remain exclusive with playground design is to deny worthy citizens of all ages a chance to be a vital part of their extended families.