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What does it mean to think like a child again? And what if that child is hard of hearing, visually impaired or both? For Nunn and our Design/Build partners at NES, working on the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (CSDB) new ADA Playground, our task was to create a playground experience that can be enjoyed by all their students regardless of any disabilities.
Map of the new ADA Playground for CSDB.
The Need for a More Accessible Playground
Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind’s campus is over 150 years old and their existing playground wasn’t meeting the needs all their students. Many students weren’t able to safely use the equipment or navigate independently around the site causing them to sit on the sidelines instead of feeling engaged in play as learning during their school day. The Nunn and NES team helped CSDB assess the best location for a new accessible playground that also fit into the landscape of the campus, provided access for multiple groups and avoided disrupting the delicate historic infrastructure of the steam-powered utilities on campus.
A Fast-Paced Collaborative Effort in Design & Preconstruction
Once a location was chosen, the team was tasked at creating a playground that accommodated a large range of students with various disabilities and a focus on allowing those students to feel independent and autonomous in their experience of play as learning. The team worked closely with staff to bring creative solutions that would allow all students to come fully off the sidelines. This playground had to be ADA compliant, while not fitting neatly into standard ADA requirements and be completed in a tight schedule for state-allocated funding and to be ready for students return in August 2024.
With that tight schedule looming, Nunn and NES worked with four committees of stakeholders who were responsible for finalizing decisions. Committees were comprised of stakeholders who mirrored the diverse population of the school, so interpreters and sensory tactile tools were incorporated to aid in quick decision making.
The critical piece of selecting the right playground equipment needed to be balanced with the equipment’s long lead times, but our team was able to work collaboratively with the stakeholders to land on a variety of equipment that would ensure all students would have opportunities to explore, imagine, discover, and aspire; themes that were ultimately incorporated into the playground’s entry arches.
Students, staff and families enjoying the new playground at its ribbon cutting.
The New Playground’s Accessible Features
A playground for CSDB’s diverse population required outside the box thinking and design to allow autonomy, safety, and adventure for all students. A traditional neighborhood or school playground with open spaces and only visual cues for where play structures and swings are located would be nearly impossible for a student with visual impairments to navigate safely – especially without use of their canes. They need to know where swings or pieces of equipment are and their impacted radius to stay safe and most importantly feel independent, a core “learning as play” curriculum objective. Our team came up with different playground zones, incorporating textural ground changes along with self-guiding rails that students will run their hands along, following a safe path from one playground feature to another with breaks in the handrails that serve as exit markers to specific play areas. The playground was designed with bold colors for partially visually impaired students as well as different turf heights to notify them of dangerous zones, such as directly behind swing sets, to prevent injury.
The playground is spread out so students can navigate around the various rail paths, use braille wayfinding, and independently discover each section. In addition, musical instruments play structures simulate drums, xylophones, and chimes (that also vibrate) provide multi-sensory stimulation for blind and deaf students alike. When speaking to some blind student stakeholders for this project, their dream was to get the opportunity to run and play like other students. For this reason, our playground engineers crafted a scooter racetrack to give these students the thrill of racing with the safety of rolled curves to help them keep on track.
A race track with curved edges allow visually impaired students to safely and independently play.
The playground has additional play experiences such as student-created tactile art pieces, swing sets for all including a wheelchair accessible swing set, a crawl pit, cyclers, shade sails and dome structures for students with light sensitivities, seesaws, and spinners. The design team worked together to make sure that students could reach features while still complying with playground equipment height standards. All playground features were geared to serve students of varied impairments while creating a collaborative playground experience. It was important to the stakeholders that many of the structures encourage play by both visually impaired and hard-of-hearing students, rather than separated spaces.
Musical play equipment includes grandioso chimes (not pictured), cascata bells, drum ensembles, and vivo chimes.
A New Place to Play and Learn
After almost 10 years of CSDB working to get state funding for this playground upgrade secured, this project boasted a few learning curves as it was CSDB’s first Design/Build project. Our team helped guide CSDB’s project leadership to ensure they were informed about the process and what was needed to meet the requirements of the Design/Build State contract.
This playground was designed for all CSDB students, who can now experience a place that will excite them, spark their imagination, and allow them the joy of play; some for the first time at CSDB. Nunn and NES are grateful for the opportunity to steward this project for the incredible students at CSDB and for allowing us the opportunity to design and build a playground that will stimulate and engage all their students.
When getting into the mindset of being a kid again, many of us recall memories of bells being rung, racing to playground, and enjoying unencumbered, imagination-sparking play. This new playground sparks the imagination of all CSDB students, and proves that regardless of their hardships in life, recess can be fun! This project allows students at CSDB to explore, imagine, discover and aspire, and that, to us, is priceless.
