New inclusive playground at Kenneth Dr. Taylor School in the North West Community of Evanston.
Location: map
Address: 30 Evanscove Cir NW
Parking: free street parking
Nicky’s Review (9 years old): “I liked how they made the dome cave with all the stuff on it”
Robbie’s Review (6 years old): “I liked that twisty color thing. I actually did it.”
Age Range: 2-12.
Ground cover: pour-in-place recycled tire flooring
Features: School-aged climber with multi-level ramps. Dome climbing cave. Slides including a roller slide. Seated spinner.
Surrounding park area: Typical school yard tarmac and fields. Also has a pathway running alongside the playground and a basketball hoop.
Accessibility:
This playground strives for both accessibility and inclusiveness using Playcore’s 7 Principles for inclusive design:
- Accessible to children with mobility challenges
- Inclusive of those with diverse physical abilities
- Easy to understand, enabling participation and success
- Enabling every child to participate at his or her own level
- Providing both safety and challenge
- Supporting varying degrees of participation
- Providing comfort for all levels of motor control.
To support this goal, the playground includes things like: The climber has a good ramp system and steps. There is a roller slide and a seated spinner with back support. The playground includes spaces that could be used as quieter spaces and includes tactile and auditory features.
There is a short paved walk to get to the playground which is located at the back of the school. The entire play surface is paved and has some ground level play features.
Shade: limited. There would be some underneath the play structure and possibly some from the building.
Seating: none at the time of our visit.
Overall:
This new inclusive playground is a great addition to Calgary. The playground has been thoughtfully set up to appeal to kids of a wide range of ages and abilities.
The flooring, ramps and steps will be beneficial for anyone unsteady on their feet or people who use a wheelchair. The playground includes some really great features like the roller slide, color spinner, dome cave and web climber. The setting is not the most attractive at the moment and there is currently no seating but the playground is solid.
