Inclusive Playground Design: Our Free Best Practice Guide

We have published a free best practice guide to designing inclusive playgrounds: play spaces where children of all abilities can play, explore, challenge themselves and play together.

Why it matters

Physical access alone does not make a playground inclusive. A systematic review of accessible playgrounds found that disabled children can still miss out on play and social interaction, even in playgrounds described as accessible. Real inclusion means designing the whole experience, from arriving at the site to playing alongside friends.

What the guide covers

• The social model of disability: designing out barriers in the environment, rather than asking what a child can’t do.
• Eight evidence-based principles: from accessible arrival and routes that reach real play, to shared play, appropriate challenge and designing with users.
• Sensory design: our Six Senses approach, with sensory choice and quieter spaces rather than maximum stimulation.
• A practical checklist: for the concept, design-review and pre-opening stages.
• Standards: how the principles sit alongside UK, European and international playground standards.

The guide is for playground designers, landscape architects, local authorities, developers, operators, community groups and families. It draws on peer-reviewed research and on our experience at Inclusive Play, where we have designed and manufactured inclusive play equipment since 2006. To put the principles into practice, see PiPA, our inclusive design methodology.

Read the guide

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Prefer to save a copy? Download the guide (PDF). For product details or project support, visit inclusiveplay.com or email info@inclusiveplay.com.