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kwasiak
kwasiak
First Reviewer
3 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
1
Review
4
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Editor Pick

Columbus Park Accessible Playground

  • January 9, 2008
  • Rated 3 of 5 by kwasiak from Tucson, Arizona
Columbus Park Accessible Playground

My 13-year-old brother has cerebral palsy and mostly uses a wheelchair at this point in his life, although in the past he did use a walker. When he was little I remember carrying him up playgrounds and sending him down the slide to our Mom or Dad waiting at the bottom. He does not remember any of that, though, so when I found out there was an accessible park in Chicago I told my parents we had to take him.

The playground is accessible in that there is a ramped way of getting onto the play structure. The whole ground is also accessible because it is a rubber like surface and not sand, which can get tough with wheelchairs. Overall however I do not think it did that well at making it a fun place for a physically challenged kid like my brother. Now if he was back up to strength and not just out of a cast from having his legs repositioned he could have at least stood with some help and enjoyed more of the playground, such as the slides.

I will give it to the playground that at least it tries and is at least good for those with physical challenges that can walk with assistance such as canes or for only short distances at a time. For example, the bridge on the play equipment has low rails on the inside walls that are perfect height for kids to hold onto for support. There is also a seat area on part of the upper playground and several seats under the play equipment.

The main thing that annoyed me was that all of the slides had a step up to them. From what I read online about the Boundless playgrounds, which this is one of, it said that slides have some kind of thing to help with transferring onto slide. Well, this one does not. Is it that hard to have made it so someone could roll up to the slide hold onto a bar above the slide and transition to go down a slide?

While I would not recommend this for disabled kids that are extremely reliant on their wheelchair, I do think that for less extreme physical disabilities this playground is great. It is also great for normal kids because it has a lot of different types of climbing things to play on.

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