[blindkid] Playground Equipment

Tue Jan 31 15:42:50 UTC 2012

Lots of great suggestions. I underscore my agreement with the suggestions on safety issues like avoiding rail-free platforms and "walk-under" hazards above cane level. 

Thinking back to the National Convention in Kentucky the last time (maybe 8 years ago?), I remember a stairway in front of the room where we had the braille book flea market. It descended to the main walkway and floated down like a giant wedge that was higher than I could reach when it started. I lost count of the number of cane travelers whom I saw walk under that as it descended over their heads until they scraped the top of their heads. The "clothesline effect" is even worse from some of the floating platforms in playground equipment. (Same thing for suspension bridges and such.) If I were designing these features for blind / vi kids, I think something on the ground , like maybe a short wall or handrails parallel to the features above would be in order.

Something else I have often wondered--- what might be possible to set aside an obvious "zone" around the swings? Especially when she was younger, I often had to dash in and scoop Kendra aside before she walked in front of kids swinging. It seems like there might be a way to change the ground cover or do something to let blind kids know that in this area, swings may be in motion... not that I didn't have similar problems with sighted kids who would walk straight in front of moving swings as well!

One more thing that I have seen to be somewhat hard to navigate... "things on sticks", meaning, for example, little platforms that act sort of like stepping stones over a pond, but they are small platforms the kids step across up in the air a bit, with only a single narrow post from the ground, or sometimes they are suspended and swing from a single overhead poles and kids move from one to the next. If they float and swing, again, they can be missed with a cane and in this case, be more of a shin or knee-buster, and with the single-pole pedestals, the items are still wider than the pole, so canes can miss the items or make kids think they are clear of them, and therefore they pose a trip hazard.

More than anything though, I suggest that blind kids who are old enough to leave further than arm's reach (the same age as I'd leave sighted kids beyond grabbing distance) just need a proper orientation to the setup, and then the occasional verbal cue to remind them what they are headed towards, especially the first several times they are using the playground facility.

We did have a particular concern at Kendra's first school as well. There was an unsafe gap on an upper level of the equipment where I suspect a vertical slat had been left off on an upper level that posed a "step-through hazard". A $5 added plank solved the problem for good.

I want to toss out one other safety concern for all kids (and especially blind ones) just because I think it is always a great thing to remember for playground safety and I have seen this happen too often. If a chid is wearing a helmet for whatever reason-- occasionally for some special needs kids, they are worn as protection for some sort of special concern, but generally I'm talking about things kids have on because they were biking to the park, or on a skateboard, etc., the helmet needs to come off before they are on playground equipment unless you are 100% certain they pose no hazard. (Some designs make this a greater concern than  others.)

Here is why: there are clearance requirements to keep safe spaces when kids slide through between play structures and platform levels. Gaps have to be small enough to prevent step-through hazards and to absolutely keep heads from getting caught, like spacing vertical balusters along stairways safely in a home. Still, they have to have LARGE enough gaps not to prevent a head from going through when a child's body slides through where kids are INTENDED to go. An example would be descending between platform levels, or dropping between them to get to the ground level.

With a helmet on, kids can end up with their head being effectively the largest (widest) part of their body. When that happens, kids can drop through a gap, only to find their head is caught and they cannot move and they are stuck, or worst case, if their body weight is unsupported, they could obviously be seriously injured or killed.

This isn't a theoretical situation. Children have ben accidentally hanged by this hazard, from what I have read in the past. Sorry to post such a gruesome thing, but it is a real hazard. I didn't have any real idea of how dangerous this was until I read about it in a cycling magazine, and then soon after, I witnessed a kid at the park (not my child) doing exactly what they spoke of. He got off his bike, began climbing (right in front of his parent) and then decided to squeeze right between platform levels and drop to the ground,  only his head did not fit.

Fortunately in this case, he was stopped before his fully body weight hit is neck, but this really can be deadly. It was really frightening to see happen. Sighted kids and parents often do not recognize the hazard (before I read that article, I probably would have assumed it was safer because it would protect a head in a fall from a platform) so I should think a blind child is not terribly likely to anticipate such a hazard either.

Since then, I have not seen another head get stuck, but I have seen dozens of kids playing with helmets on while climbing on play structures-- usually when they have just gotten off of a bike.

The only truly safe way to avoid this concern is to entirely block any possible opening not so large that it would absolutely allow a helmet wearing child to pass through the opening, and even then, there is always the chance a helmet or helmet strap could snag. Once it happens a child can end up stuck or suspended my a chin strap.

Sorry for the long post and "safety lecture" on helmets, but maybe it will prevent an injury for a child one day. We have to keep them all safe!

Richard

On Jan 30, 2012, at 9:07 PM, Carol Castellano wrote:

> For ALL kids!!!
> Carol
> 
> At 08:45 PM 1/30/2012, you wrote:
>> When my vi twins were small, we went to a new park, and they had climbing areas to get to the slide. (It was one of the big metal play structures.) There were no rails on any of the sides. Both fell off at the same time, one on each side. I would recommend rails on the sides that where there isn't a slide or steps.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Doreen
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: Deborah Kent Stein <dkent5817 at att.net>
>> To: Multiple recipients of NFBnet BlindKid Mailing List <BlindKid at NFBnet.org>
>> Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 10:11 AM
>> Subject: [blindkid] Playground Equipment
>> 
>> 
>> I recently received an inquiry from a TVI in Chicago.  Please let me know your thoughts and I'll pass them along to her.  Off the top of my head, I don't know why a blind/VI child would need any adaptations in order to use playground equipment, but it's been a LONG time since I played on a playground!  Is there new stuff out there that would be hard for a blind child to play with?
>> 
>> _______________
>> 
>> I am on the leadership committee at Neil School and would like some of your valuable input concerning our VI students.  Neil  School is in the process of designing and purchasing equipment for a playground to meet the needs of the children during recess for next year. I have been asked what type of equipment etc. would benefit students with visual impairments. I know I can look in the instructional materials center catalog for material but I wanted to know is there anyone who would have more in depth knowledge. We are writing a proposal and I want to make sure our VI students are represented when we submit the grant.
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> 
> Carol Castellano
> President, Parents of Blind Children-NJ
> Director of Programs
> National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
> 973-377-0976
> carol_castellano at verizon.net
> www.blindchildren.org
> www.nopbc.org  
> 
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