Document text
Ashland school swings into action for play area By JOHN DARLING ASHLAND - The Walker Elementary School community is raising grant money in hopes of creating the town's first playground fully accessible to disabled children. Principal Michelle Zundel and the Walker Playground Committee of staff and parents are soliciting area foundations, service clubs, governments, hospitals and individuals to raise $176,500 for "universally accessible' equipment, ramps and rubberized surfaces for wheelchairs. With the city's Parks and Recreation Department contributing the construction, Walker during April removed conventional playground equipment, leveled the playground to OSHA standards and poured footings for new play areas. They hope to have the "boundless" playground ready for fall opening, when a kindergartner in a wheelchair will begin school. "We're not just building a new playground," Zundel said. "We're also modeling inclusion and social justice." The remodeled playground, the last of five such projects in Ashland elementary schools, is not being built just for the one disabled student, but will be open all hours, year-round for integrated play of "typically able" children and those with physical, sensory or developmental disabilities, said playground committee member and Walker parent Linda Hilligoss. "All children will be able to play together," she said. "ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) just provides minimum requirements, but doesn't guarantee inclusion for all in play activities. We're doing this not because of any law, but because it's the right thing to do." ADA requires ramps and curb cuts, but allows sand, pea gravel or wood fiber playground surfaces, which can't accommodate a wheelchair, Zundel said. Walker's rubberized surface would work for all kids and soften head bumps. The project's main feature is a $50,000 "play structure" which is "rollable" throughout by wheel chair and allows universal access to ship and castle features and an overhead, hand-operated rail glider. A $96,000 rubberized surface (made from recycled tires) and $12,500 ramps allow access for all to secure "throne" swings, sand and water table and drinking fountain. For children with milder disabilities, a universally accessible playground allows development of motor skills, improvement of balance and coordination and increase of strength, while wheelchair-bound children are fully able to interact with peers and, "instead of playing lookout for pirates, they can be the pirates," said Bonnie D'Mello, Asante physical therapist. The Walker playground will provide access not just for children, but for parents and grandparents sidelined by disabilities and unable to play with their kids, said Lisa Molnar, director of the Ashland YMCA, which uses nearby Walker in many of its afternoon and summer programs. Mary Ellen Cole, mother of the incoming wheelchair-bound Walker student and a member of the Playground Committee, said she was unable to find a universally accessible playground anywhere in Oregon until she discovered one near the Portland Zoo. "Watching our son play with complete strangers on his first truly playable playground was nothing less than profound," Cole said. "Just five minutes into exploring it, our son and his three new, able-bodied friends landed in a pile, laughing riotously at the bottom of a slide." The experience had more subtle effects for the typically able children, she said, as "without knowing it, they had started down the path of honoring diversity as a reality in an inclusive culture where everyone wins." Contributions can be sent to Walker Elementary School, 364 Walker Ave., Ashland OR 97520, or arranged by calling 541-482-1516 On the Net: www.shanesinspiration.org/ playground.html, www.snet.net/features/issues/ articles/1999/10110101.shtml, www.stylelive.com/ wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/29/ 102l-062900-idx.html John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.