Design Consultation – Inclusive Play Environments

Think about the playground or other play environment at your neighborhood park.

Is it serving the whole community? In what ways does it fall short? Have you noticed a flaw in the design that excludes certain groups from using the space? What about parents and seniors? What about people with different abilities? What about people with cognitive differences?

Try to imagine your ideal playground and how that would look from an accessibility and inclusivity standpoint. Also think about the area around the play environment, not just the play equipment.

Registered Friends of Park groups in City of Atlanta, unincorporated DeKalb County, and City of Brookhaven who are interested in incorporating inclusive play into their park submit their application to participate by Sunday, August 13.

Up to three groups will be selected to participate and paired with a local volunteer landscape architect to create a conceptual plan for their project. 

If selected, your Friends of the Park group will be paired with a professional landscape architect to create a conceptual plan for an inclusive play project in your greenspace. Over the course of six weeks, selected groups and their landscape architect volunteers will

• Meet onsite at your park and discuss the opportunities for inclusive play, and
• Work together to develop conceptual graphics, recommendations, and strategies to make your playground more inclusive.

At the end of the six week consultation period, Friends groups will receive final drawings of their conceptual plans along with prioritized recommendations to move your project from vision to reality.

As part of the design consultation opportunity, participating Friends of the Park groups must attend a virtual Park Pride Roundtable on September 20 from 12 – 1 p.m., featuring guest speaker Meghan Talarowski, PLA, ASLA, CPSI, an internationally recognized play expert, who will share strategies for incorporating inclusivity in play environments.

Strategies from this Roundtable should be considered in groups’ final inclusive play designs.

Registration for the Roundtable will open soon. You must confirm your availability to attend this event (Sept. 20) on the design consultation application to be eligible for selection. 

Participating Friends of the Park groups must share their final concepts for inclusive play to their peers in-person at the Park Design Workshop, scheduled for Wednesday, November 1, 6 – 7:30 p.m.

Registration for the Park Design Workshop will open soon. You must confirm your availability to attend and present at this event (Nov. 1) on the design consultation application to be eligible for selection.