According to Government figures there are currently approx. 400,000 disabled children in the UK under the age of 16, approx. 20,000 of whom are using wheelchairs.

By disabled children we mean children potentially experiencing discrimination on the grounds of impairment. The ‘Disability Discrimination Act’ (DDA) describes a disabled child as anyone ‘with a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect upon their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. The test of whether impairment affects normal day-to-day activities is whether it affects one of the broad categories of capacity listed in Schedule I of the Act, which are:

* Mobility
* Manual dexterity
* Physical co-ordination
* Ability to lift, carry or otherwise move everyday objects
* Speech, hearing or eyesight
* Memory or ability to concentrate, learn or understand or,
* Perception of the risk of physical danger
 

Many disabled children already make the best of the playgrounds already available to them, benefiting them enormously, but the Act requires the ‘reasonable’ addition of, for example:

* A path to the playground suitable for a wheelchair
* Gate/access point painted in bright colours for someone with visual impairment
* No steps, stiles or difficult to negotiate gates e.g. a ‘kissing gate’
* Sufficient seating

European Standards BS EN 1176 & 1177: these are European safety standards that have been adopted in the UK. They are not mandatory but compliance represents good practice. The standards cover general safety requirements and test methods relating to equipment, the spacing between play structures, areas of impact-absorbing surfacing and management of the site.

DDA for short, the aim of the act is to improve the life for many people in Britain. All service providers i.e. local authorities (many of whom have responsibility for 50–200 playgrounds), employers etc should have formulated action plans to make disabled people able to access all their areas – otherwise this is discrimination. An ongoing process, we should be endeavouring to improve access to our buildings, playgrounds, places of work, village halls and so on.

Disabled children need and want to play as much as other children. Clearly all disabled and able bodied children should be able to play together. If any child is prevented from playing, it diminishes the play experience of all.

The RoSPA guide to ‘Playgrounds for Children with Special Needs’ reinforces the concept that shared play is most desirable: ‘the aspiration of those providing play facilities must be to create challenges for all and barriers for none. Where totally shared play is not always possible, then at least opportunities can be created for similar and, if possible, qualitatively equal experience for all children… if there are slides, rockers and roundabouts in a play area, then all users should be able to have sliding, rocking and rotating experiences even if some users cannot access all play items or features’.

Playground providers/owners have the ultimate responsibility for the legal requirements relating to their play areas. Making the playgrounds accessible for all is a challenge for manufacturers: to design items that all children can use, rather than special ones that potentially segregate disabled children. If they are a good design, there will be lots of opportunity for all.

Fawns and PPL, to this end, will be happy to design or incorporate any inclusive play items or ideas into your playground design. Our design team is fully aware of the new guidelines and will be able to develop your ideas and schemes accordingly.

To comply with the Act, special attention should be paid to the following:

* Gradients (i.e. ramps, pathways, car parking spaces
* Clearance heights (shrubs, hedges etc)
* Handrail heights
* Width of gate openings
* Gate colour
* Pathway width
* Playground entrances
* Sign height
* Sign colour
* Suitable equipment e.g. swings, slides, roundabouts, rocking equipment and multi-play equipment
 

“Equipment plays an important role in play spaces. For disabled children this may be particularly true if they are unable to use some items of equipment. It is important to make equipment as accessible as possible so that more children have the choice to use it.

It is unrealistic to expect all pieces of play equipment, or indeed all areas of play space, to be accessible to all Children. It is inevitable that certain pieces of equipment will be specifically designed not to be accessible to certain groups of children, for example where age and height mean children might not cope with in-built risk factors. Children and families know this”

(Source: Developing Accessible Play Space – Office of the Deputy Prime Minister).