Spurred by growing public demand and a new federal law, handicapped-accessi ble playgrounds-a new generation of play lots with swings that can be propelled by the upper body and ramps and passageways that are wide enough for wheelchairs-are opening all over the Chicago area and the nation.
One of the latest was dedicated last weekend in southwest suburban Orland Park, immediately earning high praise from Judy Harp, whose daughter, Amy, has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair.
The Harps have visited plenty of playgrounds, but like many kids with physical disabilities, Amy could do little more than watch the other children play. She could get no farther than the edge of the sandbox or the bottom of the slide.
”We`ve been to playgrounds, it`s just that with the wheelchair there`s too many things they can`t do,” said Judy Harp. ”You try to make them feel like everybody else. You make the disability secondary.”
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Amy said her favorite part of the playground was turning a steering wheel mounted on one of the jungle gym posts. She also enjoyed speeding her wheelchair down the wide ramps.
Many communities are taking similar steps to help disabled children get their chance to dig in the sand or play on the swings.
In the past few years, special-needs playgrounds have been built in Chicago, Palatine, Glenview, Alsip, Niles, Wheaton, Morton Grove, Skokie, Streamwood, Oak Brook, Elmhurst, Buffalo Grove, Waukegan and Arlington Heights. They`re on the drawing boards in Evanston, Park Ridge and Schaumburg. ”Five years ago these types of playgrounds were very rare,” said John McGovern, executive director of the Northern Suburban Special Recreation Association and a national consultant for the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The ADA, which took effect this year, requires that people with disabilities be able to use all facilities run by local governments- including playgrounds.
”We`ll be seeing more and more of them in the future,” McGovern said,
”because one of the things the ADA does is allow you to directly file a federal complaint against those who don`t comply.”
McGovern said since the legislation took effect in January, 500 complaints have been filed with the U.S. Department of Justice over play lots. But that does not appear to be a problem in the Chicago area.
”Illinois seems to be particularly sensitive to this issue and one of the national leaders is the Chicago Park District which has several state-of- the-art handicapped accessible playgrounds,” said McGovern.
What makes the Orland Park playground and others of its type handicapped- accessible is a series of wide, gradual ramps that allow wheelchair passage through the entire area and to the top of several slides. Slides are made of rollers instead of steel. There are also features that allow disabled children to use the swings and sandbox.
The Orland Park playground is named for Kevin Hertz, who died in 1990 at the age of 11 following surgical complications to help correct a congenital spina bifida condition.
Amy Harp said she used to be Hertz`s girlfriend.
”I even kissed him once, when we went on a date,” she said between giggles and rides down a wheelchair ramp.
Surrounded by baseball diamonds and soccer fields, the Orland Park playground features three modular hexagonal decks that are wheelchair accessible through a series of earthen berms and ramps and wider passageways. That was especially exciting for 10-year-old Ashley Schmidt, who visited the playground before Saturday`s ceremony. Schmidt was born with a deformed spine and limbs and could not easily do what most kids take for granted-slide down a slide.
”I can walk up to the top of the slide,” she said in amazement.
The new park is also a welcome relief for parents such as Sharon Grill. She said that she once had to struggle to extricate her two sons, who wear leg braces, when they got stuck in a conventional swing set.
Besides traditional swings, the new park has special swings that are propelled by upper body movements. Other equipment has also been modified for special needs.
In the sandbox, a ”super scoop” sand shovel that functions like a backhoe has a seat for kids. Another, without a seat, is situated next to the sidewalk so it can be operated from a wheelchair. Beside the traditional ground-level sandbox there`s another waist-high sandbox that can be used by children in wheelchairs.
The kids without physical handicaps also enjoyed the new park, declaring after a few test rides that it matched up well with most other playgrounds.
”All parks should be this way,” said Mary Kay Hertz, for whose son the playground is named. ”A lot of it has to do with public awareness. When people see that it doesn`t look like a therapeutic place, that it looks like a normal playground, they get interested in the idea.”
”I`ve been in this business 20 years,” said Jack Gleason, president of NuToys, a La Grange-based distributor of playground equipment. ”Fifteen years ago, you never even heard of this type of equipment. Five years ago, requests for it were rare. Now at almost every playground we help design, it`s at least considered and discussed.”
Handicapped-accessible playgrounds can cost from 5 to 50 percent more than conventional ones, depending on the extent of the special equipment, said Tom Creech, landscape architect for the Chicago Park District.
Creech is helping to coordinate a five-year overhaul of the city`s parks to make many of them handicapped accessible.
Creech predicted that by the end of this year, 300 of the city`s 500 play lots will have some accessible features. They could be as simple as adding a waist-level tic-tac-toe panel or as extensive as a deck filled with wide ramps, handrails and specialized equipment.
”We are committed to creating 18 of these regional accessible playgrounds scattered throughout the city with maximum accessibility,” Creech said.
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Several elaborate jungle gyms already exist in Mann Park in the Hegewisch neighborhood, Loyola Park on the Far North Side and Humboldt Park on the city`s Near Northwest Side.
”It`s been a long time in coming,” said Mary Evans, who attended the Orland Park dedication with her 3 1/2-year-old daughter, Bridget. Bridget, who also was born with spina bifida, gets around with the help of friends and sturdy leg braces. She could barely contain her smile Saturday while sweeping down the slides.
”We`ve actually gone to other parks and been criticized by other parents who thought having her at a regular park was dangerous to their children,”
Evans said. ”Here I don`t have to worry about that.
”Look at that smile. Doesn`t that say it all?”