Restricted to a wheelchair because of muscular dystrophy, Joseph Akmakjian rarely joined friends on the playgrounds as a child, but with his help, now other children with disabilities roam freely on Colorado’s first universally accessible playground.
“The coolest thing is the platform swing you can drag a wheelchair onto,” said Akmakjian, who was 12 when he donated $1,000 to the fundraising effort to build Inspiration Playground in Fort Collins. Other designs incorporate Braille, motion-activated sound and light features, harnesses and other accommodations for children with compromised muscle tone or balance.
Inspiration Playground opened nearly a year ago. Concerted fundraising from civic, community and private donors, including the Colorado Eagles hockey team, gathered $1.35 million for rubberized surfaces and features designed to accommodate users with physical disabilities from autism to spina bifida. Among the playground’s more popular mainstays is the Sleeping Giant, a monolith whose playful details include a giant nostril that sneezes or snores when hands reach inside.
True to its name, Inspiration Playground has motivated another universally accessible playground in Colorado Springs. There, Michelle Dusserre-Farrell, mother of a child with spina bifida, is among the leaders of the Swing High Project. They hope to begin construction next spring.
Watch a video of a universally accessible playground: youtube.com/watch?v=zo9_Arscgwk
