Design and analysis of outdoor playground equipment
accessible for all kids including those with special
needs
Makris Thanasis
Industrial Designer
Department of Mechanical
Engineering
Kingston University – T.E.I. of Piraeus
E-mail: makathid@yahoo.gr
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Playing is with no doubt one of the most
important and basic elements in children’s
life. In the early ages playground is the area
where children interact and develop basic
social skills. Much later is the place where
friendships evolve.
When it comes to playgrounds one thing is for
sure, parents care about the safety of their
children. Since 90’s various organizations
have been working to improve playground
safety, proving that safety concerns abound
when children are involved. Not only do these
political and social problems demand
attention, but economics also play a role in
playground safety.
As people became more concerned about
playground safety, the government,
specifically the centre for disease control,
started to keep track of injuries and deaths
while providing information on how to
prevent injuries. Also, various social
organizations started in order to regulate what
types of equipment are being manufactured
and to insure safety. Among these are, the
American Society for Testing and Materials
(ASTM), the Handbook for public Playground
safety (HPPS) the Canadian Standards
Association and the European Standard EN
1176-77 (general safety requirements and tests
methods). So, when looking for playground
equipment, make sure the manufacturers have
certification from at least the ASTM or
Canadian Standards Association or European
Standards.
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Acknowledging the importance of playground
facilities, internationals laws have been
implemented in order to secure the safety of
people. Among recent legal acts, the EN
1176-77 directory is the one that oversees this
issue. Each manufacturer, company or other
institutions are forced to comply with the new
director and follow the detailed specifications
when designing, producing or implementing
new playground facilities.
Recently, a new research area has been
developed and gradually continues to
challenge industrial designers. It is the area of
designing and delivery high quality and secure
products for children with Disabilities and
other Special Needs.
It is a problem nowadays, in many
countries of Europe and mainly in Balkans,
that playground equipment manufacturers and
designers create equipment without
considering children with special needs. This
is mainly due to the lack of official standards
which would give to the manufacturer the
necessary guidelines. Perhaps the most serious
issue is around of disability and the
implications for creating a new standard. The
question is if its necessary or appropriate to
make different standards for the disabled than
for the able bodied. This almost becomes a
moral issue potentially segregating the
disabled from the able bodied, which is
completely contrary to the current move
towards inclusivity.
The scope of this research is to develop a
prototype playground area considering the
accessibility and the safety for the kids, and
giving at the same time to manufacturers
guidelines from two different standards
(Americans with Disabilities Act, and EN-
1176-77) the ability of creating a play area for
all children.
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The designer has to find out, types of play
components that can provide a wide variety of
comparable experiences. Some children walk
using assistive mobility devices such as
crutches, walkers or canes, and others use
wheelchairs. Some children who use
wheelchairs can also walk, crawl or scoot
along when out of their chairs, whereas others
need assistance while out of their chairs.
Sometimes, children do not have the strength
or skills to move around unassisted; the
experience they are trying to achieve is not
worth the effort required to move around
without assistance, or it may not be to crawl
while others walk or run. Subsequently, the
designer has to choose activities that can be
experienced while using a wheelchair or
assistive mobility device. He has to choose
activities that are physical and social, that can
be played alone or with other children. He has
to choose opportunities to rock, spin, play
interactive games, swing, slide, make sounds
and music, balance, climb, dig, crawl, scoot,
bounce, etc.
Here are some pointers on good design:
- Can the structure be accessed in
many different ways?
- Is there a suitable number and variety
of experiences for all children?
- Does accessible surfacing allow for
easy entry and exit?
- How many activities and which of
them cannot be accessed by the
individuals who use wheelchairs or
other mobility devices?
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A real life case study is outlined in this
Thesis where it presents an assembly
playground construction as it has been offered
in a training center in Cyclades. Equipment
has been designed according two standards;
European (EN 1176-77) where it is
appropriate to be discussed the safety of the
equipment and American Act Disabilities
requirements (ADA) where it is necessary to
test mainly the accessibility of the
construction. The play area guidelines apply
to play areas designed and constructed for
children ages two and over. The playground
equipment has five grounded components and
six elevated. Accessibility is provided to all
components neither by grounded routes nor
elevated routes like ramps. User can enter on
the equipment using the accessible big ramp
with inclination no more than 5o. The first
stage is a tower with enough space for kids to
play (there are two activity panels) and rest for
those use mobility devices. The fist slide is
placed in the platform with 595mm elevation
and is reachable for all kid to use it as there
are two ramps and a big platform among it.
The short slide is also accessible from the
northern component –climbing ramp- that
starts from the ground and leads on the big
platform. This platform is the point where also
a kid has to decide if he or she will leave the
wheelchair or other device and try to use the
transfer system to access the platform with the
bigger slide. Around the equipment there are
grounded play components for those kids they
don’t want to use the platforms of the
construction. On the elevated platforms there
are also fences that protect kids of falling.
The geometry of the playground
equipment is (length x width) 10.30m x 8.26
m. The zone of the safety area is almost 120
m2.
Materials and especially lumber where is
the mainly material of the construction is
pressed with great mechanical resistance and
impregnated with special non- toxic materials
for better resistance through time and against
weather conditions.
Rubber that used in this area has (length
mm x width mm x thickness mm)
500x500x40. The rubber safety are water
permeable tiles with no change on slip
resistance when whet, with long time wear
resistance.
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The thesis attempt to aid manufacturers and
designers by providing information of
accessibility and safety, combining the
European standards (EN 1176-1) and some
baseline accessibility standards from ADA. At
same time in chapter five the design of the
playground equipment will be the
“fingerprint” to companies mainly in those
who hasn’t involved yet the accessibility, to
create an accessible and safety playground
area.
General thesis provides specifications for
elements within a play area to create a general
level of usability for children with disabilities.
Accentuation is given on ensuring that
children with disabilities are generally able to
access the diversity of components provided
in play area. A child with disability is a child
with abilities, and that activity, rather than
appliance, oriented design creates a setting
where all children may be included in the fun.
In the design of children’s play environment,
the inclusion of children with disabilities
among their peers should be one of the
principal goals of the design outdoor play
settings. Understanding children with
disabilities, and what they capable of, is the
first step toward designing truly inclusive
environments. Emphasis also placed on the
safety area general for all kids.
The construction has been designed,
according the standards and gives the chance
to use it all the kids. All the components are in
such place where children with disability have
the opportunity to play with them. The
distances also are suitable for users to have
easy passages through the equipment.
Materials of equipment are non toxic and
against weather conditions. Calculations of
user loads, has been made, and after the final
construction, tests according the calculations
has to be made to approve the integrity of the
equipment.
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There are many people who have provided
invaluable assistance during the writing and
completion of this project.
In particular, firstly, I thank my advisor
Mr. Stergiou, for his support in the MSc.
Advanced Industrial and Manufacturing
Systems program.
I would like to express my sincere
appreciation to all the associates of Super–
Sport Sa playground manufacturer company
in Greece for providing the data and
knowledge on unknown fields for me before
this study which are covered in this project.
Without their time and interest this project
would not have been possible. Those are
production manager Mr. Dimitrios Stamatis
for his assistance to this project and General
Manager Fotios Kirilis for his admission to
use company’s data.
A special thanks goes to Mr. Stergiou for
letting me choose this particular subject for
my Thesis.
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[14] The new ADAAG / The American

institute of Architect 2006

[15] Federal Register, Department of

Justice, Part II, 28 CFR Part 35, July 26,
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[18] Disabled People and Social Policy /
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