Best Practices

Choosing products for use in a park or recreation facility can sometimes be challenging and overwhelming with the overload of information from manufacturers and accessibility guidelines to consider.   This monograph introduces the major considerations for purchasing products to improve access for people with disabilities in recreation environments including:

The winter weather outside might be frightful, but the blooms of the newly renovated Sandusky Community Greenhouse are absolutely delightful. The community greenhouse and Sandusky/Erie Community Foundation are beneficiaries of one of the $15 million in grants awarded through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Access to Recreation initiative.

by Jennifer Skulski

“Doing more with less” seems to be the decades old mantra for many park and recreation agencies. These lean economic times aren’t any different. Simply, the frequency by which the old saying is used has increased and practitioners are pushed once again to find creative new approaches to meet bigger challenges. However, even when budgets are tight, recreation providers cannot afford to ignore ADA and Section 504 compliance. Here are four no-cost or low cost things you can do in 2010 to keep your accessibility management program on track and continue planning for improved access for your participants and visitors with disabilities.

by
Dr. Bryan P. McCormick,
Dept. of Park and Recreation Administration, Indiana University
Prepared for the National Center on Accessibility 

The National Survey on Recreation and the Environment (NSRE) is the most recent study of outdoor recreation of the US population. The study was conducted by the US Forest Service from January 1994 through April 1995 and included 17,216 Americans over the age of 15. All respondents were asked if they had a disability and over 1,200 people answering the survey identified that they had a disability. This report presents summary information on the characteristics, outdoor activity participation, and attitudes of people with disabilities in the NSRE survey.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Access to Recreation grant program provided $15 million in funding to 36 recreation projects in four Midwestern states from 2006 to 2009. Projects were selected based on their concepts for embracing universal design, opportunity to facilitate inclusion of people of all abilities and opportunity to serve as an exemplar of universal design to community planners, recreation practitioners and advocates.  Over the summer of 2009, the National Center on Accessibility hosted three free 90-minute sessions.  The webinars presented an overview of the project concepts, the planning process, design decisions, construction issues, and fundraising. This was an excellent opportunity for professionals seeking the latest information on universal design trends specific to parks and recreation. The series was sponsored by the Michigan Recreation and Park Association Foundation.
 
Playgrounds
 
Boating & Fishing
 
Interpretive Trails

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Access to Recreation grant program provided $15 million in funding to 36 recreation projects in four Midwestern states from 2006 to 2009. Projects were selected based on their concepts for embracing universal design, opportunity to facilitate inclusion of people of all abilities and opportunity to serve as an exemplar of universal design to community planners, recreation practitioners and advocates.  Over the summer of 2009, the National Center on Accessibility hosted three free 90-minute sessions.  The webinars presented an overview of the project concepts, the planning process, design decisions, construction issues, and fundraising. This was an excellent opportunity for professionals seeking the latest information on universal design trends specific to parks and recreation.