A child’s play is a major part of his or her social psychological preparation and it is something that needs to be included as part of their well-being. Planning the child’s playtime, particularly for children who are physically handicapped, out do the real goal to create a more inclusive method that aims on understanding how handicapped children understand the levels of risk while playing in a physical environment.

Note: when we refer to being disabled or handicapped or impaired, we should not think of it as a child’s incapability to play and understand an environment because of that. It is written as such to reference and to target in curing.

Physically disabled children are a big part of the entire population of people with disabilities. For those between the ages of 3 and 21, 9% out of 1000 children will be diagnosed with some handicap. Out of this population, 1% of them will be physically disabled, another 1% will be disabled in senses, another 19% will be communicational-wise affected, another 11% will be diagnosed with a social disability, and 54% will be recognized as having an intellectual handicap. About 10% of children will have a serious health condition, such as Type 1 diabetes, hemophilia, and cancer.

There are of playgrounds that are “inclusive,” meaning they are available and helpful for those who are disabled in any fashion. Some features were meant to be built exclusively for them while any child can use others. In many other playgrounds, however, the entire design is flawed because it fails to meet with the Americans with Disabilities Act’s standards. Moves to plan ahead to include children with disabilities can end up overshadowing the complete idea of inclusion, sensory incorporation, levels of growth against any impairments, and chances for their independent discovery. Inclusive areas work when it’s built with an approach based on research on how to appropriately include these features.

There are seven rules in how to design a proper playground that is inclusive to all children. These rules are:

Be fair and design it for all children.
Designed it as simple and instinctive.
Design it with intelligence in mind.
Be independently minded on how to design it.
Make it very safe and make it less physically demanding for all children.
Designed with the right size and space in the area being built on.
Be calm with the design because it can look overprotective.

These rules are a guideline for all designers to follow with the disabled in mind. It should allow children to play like any other child. There can be healthy development in a child’s risk in playing as well as harming their growth with overprotection.

With these playgrounds, we must keep in mind those who are handicapped and work with specialists who can build within the needs of these children. The play must be inclusive to every level of ability to each child’s activities on playgrounds and enhance their potential. This is why the “inclusive playground” is important.