Guiding the Design of Inclusive Playgrounds through Needs Assessment and Materials Selection

Playgrounds can serve as an influential site in children’s lives, but their designs and features often exclude those with disabilities and their social, emotional, and physical needs. This study was conducted in collaboration with Bennett’s Village, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit seeking to build an inclusive playground. The purpose of the study was to investigate the needs of adolescents and young adults in the disability space and to create a materials recommendation for playground surfacing. The parameters of these analyses were established and prioritized alongside Bennett’s Village. For the qualitative needs assessment, the team recruited members from organizations focused on the disability community and had 6 participants in the semi-structured interviews and 77 participants in the survey. Through qualitative content analysis of interview and open-ended survey responses and descriptive statistics analysis of close-ended survey responses, we found that, among other trends, participants viewed playgrounds as a site for community and socialization, wanted open spaces that could serve a variety of purposes, and emphasized the importance of nature. For the materials recommendation, the team created a life cycle assessment and cost-benefit analysis and found that poured-in-place (PIP) rubber was the optimal surfacing material with regard to factors such as permeability, local weather factors, and traffic/usage. These findings will be passed on to Bennett’s Village to use in their design of their playground and will also contribute to future inclusive playground design broadly.