Creating inclusivity in Parks

 

Many people with disabilities don’t get to experience outdoor recreation at all

How would you define disability?

Something that limits you due to x, y or z.  Everyone has a disability of some sort.  No one's perfect.  Everyone has a flaw of some type.  In terms of ADA, we should all be treated the same, because we are all disabled. 
 -Christopher Noel, NYC Parks ADA Accessibility Coordinator

Defining inclusivity

i was talking to a senior who uses a wheelchair, she asked me if I could let her know if there were any inclusive playgrounds in the city where she lived . I asked her to define inclusive playground. She said a park that would have activities for her to participate in. and from this I get my definition of inclusivity

If a park offers activities that you want to do then it's inclusive , if it doesn't offer activities you want to do then it is not inclusive for you

  most Parks don't offer a lot of activities for people with special need. actually come to think of it most Parks don't offerr a lot of activities for people without special needs.

the service model most Parks use is to offer a few activities and if you want anything else you got to bring it yourself. bringing it yourself is actually quite a burden especially if you're a person with special needs

The service model libraries use is much better, libraries are like an indoor park that offers a lot of books, and videos. a lot of information can be stored in a small amount of space

para Parks uses a variation on the library service model to be able to offer thousands of activitiy ideas  to parkgoers. the emphasis here is on activities for people with special needs, but I suspect this concept we'll find us efor people without disabilities too.

the books in libraries help people I'm reading literacy, the activitiesthe activities Orford and power parts help gain physical literacy

inclusivity and distance

Going to Disneyland, is  an incredible experience but how often do you get to go to Disneyland? We have only 2 Disneyland's in the United States  so the answer for most people is not very often.

It kinda the same with Inclusive playgrounds, these are great, but there are only about 100 of them in the United States, So most people will not be getting to them very often.

On a day to day basis what's important is not Disney, it's your neighborhood park. .Most of our neighborhood parks offer  very few activities for people who are able. And far fewer for people with disabilities.


The further you are from an park the less likely you are to use it.  I found this in  Christopher Alexanders A Pattern Language. After 3 blocks (minutes) park usage drops off drastically .link

Creating inclusivity in outdoor spaces

the most inclusive park for you is probably the place where you live. Over time you have filled it with items that give you Joy. a 1994 survey has shown the people spend 92% of their time indoors. and I suspect most of that time is spent in your house because you have stocked it with the things you want to do. Those things can't be found in most outdoor spaces.

Kids now spend twice as much time playing indoors than outdoors  They found that the average child spends just seven hours a week outside, and over twice that amount of time playing video games inside. link

Research also supports this theory. In 2016, National Geographic printed a study called Your Brain on Nature. It found those who lived near green spaces reported less mental stress. This was constant even when they adjusted for income, education and employment status. link

how to make the outdoors as enticing as the indoors.

this is a good question I don't have all the answers to it , this website is a start to answer that question

A lot of the activities listed here could be done just as well on your home as in a park. However being in a park gets you Outdoors and it's important to go Outdoors we spend too much time indoors a survey found the people spend 92% of their time indoors

below here is ....

creating inclusivity

  in the city where I live most parks are based upon building fixed structures , benches basketball courts , swings Etc. There is a limited amount of these that could be put in the small space of many of our parks.

what this means is that

 It's probably impossible to create a park that's inclusive for everybody using fixed equipment

on the other hand if rather than only fixed equipment , our parks were also designed to offer non-fixed equipment it becomes a lot more possible to make these parks inclusive tip for everyone no matter what their ages or abilities

  the ParaParks website it's meant to Show an example of how this can be done

leverage smartphone apps to create a virtual Park House

smartphones contain thousands of apps offering activities that people can do i in a park . The issue is matching the right apps with the right people the parrot Parks website is set up to do that

Place signage in the park letting people know this matching service exists

most parks don't offer a lot of activities for people with special needs. If your Park has this sign posted , they are committed to making sure there are activities available to you no matter what your special needs.

No Smartphone, no problem

not everyone wants to use a smartphone. When I offered 121 gentleman Mysore sitting with his wife in a wheelchair he said to me that's not for me I use a quill pen and vellum so to make sure that the park is inclusive for everyone including this fellow and his wife the park should also offer physical loose parts the supplement the fix Parts architecture of the park

 
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 Contemporary American playgrounds don’t hold or inspire older kids...More and more, preteens avoid the playground altogether, choosing instead to spend time indoors, most likely sitting in front of some kind of screen...What teen will go to the playground to play a game when he has better graphics at home on his computer or anywhere on his cell phone? The Science of Play

creating outdoor apps for people with special needs

 

Philadelphia has the largest in-city park system in the world, which can serve as a tremendous resource for social interaction, relaxation and recreation. Yet 72% of older Philadelphians report they had not gone to a public recreation facility in the past year.   link

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 Philadelphia's findings are  not an aberration. A Rand Corporation study found that seniors seldom use Los Angeles  parks.link

Why are seniors not using parks? One possibility comes from the authors of the book People Places they said   "The natural environment of a park is not enough to attract some elderly users, but a park with many activities can simulate social exchange and provide a sense of belonging"   link

 Seniors are not the only groups with issues that cause them not to use parks...
 
 Overall this is a great facility I just wish the community would use it for more activities other than the one concert in the park they have every summer because that's pretty much the only reason why I've ever gone here.  link

 I was visiting Manhattan's Union Square Park , I talked to a youth there who told me, “there's benches for seniors  and a playground for the little kids but nothing for us.” 

  
 Contemporary American playgrounds don’t hold or inspire older kids...More and more, preteens avoid the playground altogether, choosing instead to spend time indoors, most likely sitting in front of some kind of screen...What teen will go to the playground to play a game when he has better graphics at home on his computer or anywhere on his cell phone? The Science of Play

 
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