The Boundless Playground

Playgrounds are spaces that have been designated for children. A typical playground has equipment such as a see-saw, swingset, monkey bars, and more. The social and physical benefits are among the many advantages of this play area. These spaces have been proven to be very beneficial to children because it allows them to build on their social skills, by providing them with an environment to communicate and interact with their fellow peers. Playgrounds also give children the opportunity to have free play andget exercise while doing so. These benefits are open to all children, assuming that they have access to the "public spaces" in the first place.
The unfortunate truth is that playgrounds are not public, but are rather exclusive, tending only to the needs of a specific population. My opinion is that the playground is a barrier, one that prevents children with special needs from taking part in all that it can potentially offer. Before doing research on the children's playground, I did not give much thought into how this space affected children with different needs, and I doubt many of us ever do.
The article I read was about the first Boundless Playground that was built in Boston, Massachusetts earlier on this year. A Boundless Playground is a play area that is truly public. It caters to the needs of all children, with and without special needs. Its' design is different from a regular playground in many ways. An example is removing the gravel to help children in wheelchairs move around more freely. This idea was discussed in the Homeless Vehicle article. The homeless person is unable to move around to their liking because they would have to bring all of their belongings with them. Similarily, a child in a wheelchair is also unable to move around in certain places because the environment is not always wheelchair accessible.
The production aspect of building these Boundless Playgrounds can be expensive, but it is definitely worth the cost. The Boston Public Schools database states that approximately twenty per cent of children enrolled in these schools are given special education for some type of disability. This means that the production of these playgrounds is an important need that would be put to good use. More playgrounds like this are needed around the world to liberate children of different needs from the exclusion that they typically face.

Sources used:

http://www.boundlessplaygrounds.org/index.php

http://www.boundlessplaygrounds.org/newsroom/documents/cvscaremarkbostonbp052109.pdf