One mother’s quest to unite a community

Inclusive playgrounds have grown tremendously in the past few years, but there is still room for improvement. In this article, we learn about Ava Villarreal’s experience with public playgrounds. Ava suffers from multiple, still-undiagnosed disabilities, but that hasn’t stopped her inspiration from spreading. Ava’s mother saw a lack of inclusive public playgrounds, so she took it upon herself to create a playground suitable for all. It started as an idea and has led to the development of dozens of playgrounds created by parents around the United States.

In this article, IPEMA’s Immediate Past President, Tom Norquist, touches on inclusive playgrounds and talks about universal design. Norquist estimates that between 5% and 10% of the quarter-million playgrounds in the United States built by park and recreation departments, schools and housing developers have made at least some attempt to incorporate inclusivity. Click here to read the full iPondr article!