Inclusive playground equipment is becoming increasingly popular among businesses and municipalities that want an alternative to traditional playgrounds. This attraction can offer many benefits to communities, including increased interaction and profound developmental benefits. Inclusive playgrounds come with advanced safety features to ensure kids of all abilities can play safely, and to help your organization reduce liability.
This inclusive playground equipment guide will explain everything you need to know about adding this attraction to your park or facility. Learn more about the features, the benefits an inclusive play space can offer your commercial or public location, and how to properly install this recreational play area.
What Is Inclusive Playground Equipment?
Inclusive playground equipment is recreational equipment that provides equitable play experiences for children with diverse physical and cognitive abilities. This product provides a rich sensory experience and facilitates cooperative play for kids who might otherwise be sidelined. At InqilaPlay®, our commercial-grade inclusive playgrounds incorporate the following features:
- Accessible ramps and wide pathways for wheelchair navigation
- Sensory play elements designed for children with different cognitive needs
- Shock-absorbent, seamless rubberized flooring
- Adaptive swings, specialized slides, and modified climbing structures
- Inclusive space intentionally designed for all abilities and ages
- Quiet zones for children who need a break from overstimulation
- Recommended tools, installation instructions, and accessible hardware
- Play elements are intended to sit at varying heights for universal reach
Compared with standard playground structures, an inclusive playground is a safer, more welcoming, and more socially responsible option that still offers tremendous physical fun. If you want to incorporate an inclusive playground or a turnkey accessible system at your commercial location, turn to us at InqilaPlay. Our playground equipment can attract diverse families to your business and help you grow your community impact and revenue.
Inclusive Playground Equipment Benefits
Fun, engaging, accessible play areas can fit your budget, design preferences, and spatial requirements. Consider inclusive playground equipment if you want to add the following benefits to your business:
- Encourage interaction: With an inclusive playground, you can offer your guests a play environment that facilitates interaction among children of all abilities. Kids can collaborate on interactive panels, play group games, and build friendships. Inclusive playgrounds even allow for interaction between parents with disabilities and their kids, so they’re fun for the whole family.
- Offer versatility: Multiple sensory and physical zones make inclusive playgrounds appealing to all ages and developmental stages.
- Provide accessibility: A well-designed inclusive playground goes beyond basic ADA compliance to ensure full accessibility for all kinds of physical abilities, so every kid can join in the fun.
- Energize your environment: With a commercial inclusive playground, you can bring a formal or urban space to life with vibrant colors and engaging physical challenges. An inclusive playground can attract visitors and serve as a fun place to gather in your local community.
- Increase revenue: Plan for adjacent pavilion rentals and concessions. Optional fees or community sponsorships can fund maintenance, operations, and future expansion.
- Enjoy efficiency: Locating your inclusive playground near established amenities can make your commercial property more efficient by providing accessible parking, family restrooms, picnic areas, and maintenance.
- Promote developmental growth: Throughout the year, an inclusive playground can provide stimulating recreational activities that enhance physical, cognitive, and sensory development.
- Tie in your branding: Enhance your company’s branding by working with our team to select themed, accessible components for your inclusive playground.
- Generate interest: With a modular mounting system, a facility can periodically rotate sensory fixtures. Doing so can renew interest in the location and encourage visitors to come back. You can also stand out from your competition, drawing more visitors to your location.
- Enjoy durability: We use the highest-quality materials to build all our playground equipment, ensuring our play components withstand harsh weather and years of heavy use.
- Gain customer loyalty: By installing an inclusive playground, your business can attract new customers and increase loyalty by giving families a reason to keep coming back for more fun.
- Choose from various design options: We offer a range of options for inclusive playgrounds. Playground surface colors and play elements come in all shapes and sizes, enabling countless theming and design possibilities. With so many options available, you can incorporate elements from your local community or create a new, unique area that stands out.
With all the advantages an inclusive playground can offer, it’s no surprise that more businesses are becoming interested in installing these accessible play areas.
Cost Considerations for Inclusive Playground Equipment
Your company can also enjoy the following cost benefits by investing in an inclusive playground.
Construction
Compared to a massive indoor recreation center, the cost of an inclusive playground’s initial construction is far less. Additionally, an inclusive playground utilizes modular designs and sustainable materials that streamline the building process. Because modular playgrounds can take less time to install than custom-built indoor facilities, your operations won’t be on pause for long, offering another cost benefit.
Maintenance
After your inclusive playground is built, maintenance costs are significantly lower than those associated with highly mechanical attractions. Equipment operating costs are also much lower, especially since our structures utilize durable materials that drastically reduce repair needs and ongoing parts replacement.
If you do use a playground with specific moving sensory parts, you may need to inspect them regularly, especially if kids are tracking in dirt, grass, or other debris onto the mechanisms. If you have multiple sensory stations, you can set a schedule that alternates which sections are cleaned and maintained.
Operations
The operational costs for an inclusive playground are significantly lower than the operational costs you’d pay for a fully staffed amusement park. If you don’t charge visitors to use your playground, you may not need access control personnel. Safety concerns are generally mitigated by smart design, which doesn’t require you to hire active monitoring personnel, as well.
Your costs will vary depending on how you structure your community involvement. You can choose from two main approaches for operational upkeep:
Community-led programs: A community-led system relies on volunteer programs for upkeep, so professional monitoring isn’t needed as often, and the greatest benefit is community ownership.
Partnership programs: Partnership systems, on the other hand, collaborate with local organizations for funding and professional cleaning. Though this requires coordination, financial monitoring is a manageable cost.
Considerations Before Developing Inclusive Playground Equipment
If you want to install commercial inclusive playground equipment, there are a few considerations to keep in mind beforehand.
Size and Layout
One of the first things you should consider before moving forward with installation is the size and shape of your inclusive playground, as well as the available space and community needs. At InqilaPlay, we can customize our playgrounds to your needs, so your inclusive play space can be any size and shape you want. Just let us know what your vision is for your accessible play project, and we will make it happen!
Safety Features
The inclusive playgrounds we provide at InqilaPlay use durable, non-toxic materials that give kids on your commercial property a safe environment to play with minimal risk of injury. We offer several surfacing options other than standard loose fill. Included in our surface options are the following:
Rubber mixed with resin and poured in place
Interlocking rubber tiles added to your playground’s foundation
A specialized artificial turf surface that provides a flexible, seamless surface
The non-slip, accessible surface will prioritize safety. Each of these surfaces is visually appealing and will attract kids of all ages to the play area. When you select one of our surface options at InqilaPlay, we will ensure kids’ safety, keeping families coming back for more.
Accessibility Standards
Your inclusive playground must comply strictly with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards and universal design principles. To ensure your system is working effectively and the equipment is fully accessible, check the ramp grades and transfer stations during each playground audit.
A major concern for business owners who are considering a commercial playground is the impact the layout will have on flow and usability. You can expect to carefully map out the spacing between structures. Fortunately, your system will easily accommodate wheelchairs and mobility devices if planned correctly. You may also want to consider the effect the layout may have on parents’ line of sight. In most cases, these strategic layouts are simple and effective.
Seasonal Maintenance
When fall ends, your inclusive playground equipment should be inspected for winter readiness to withstand weather changes. This ensures the structural integrity won’t be compromised during the winter. The process for winterizing your system is similar to that for any outdoor park structure. All you need is a maintenance team to complete the short task of securing moving parts and ensuring your playground will be ready when the warmer seasons come around again.
You may also need to remove specific sensory attachments and store them, check all protective coatings, and sweep the unitary surfacing. Your equipment will also come with specific instructions for seasonal maintenance. When you’re ready to open your playground fully in spring, you’ll simply reverse the process. When opening your system, inspect and perform any necessary maintenance on moving parts and equipment.
Additionally, you may want to consider where your shade structures will be located, such as over metal slides or sensitive seating areas. This is essential to consider so you know from where you will maintain and protect your system.
Funding and Financing
How much your inclusive playground will cost depends on the specifics of your project. Many business owners are concerned about the upfront cost of an inclusive playground, which is why we suggest exploring grants, public-private partnerships, and fundraising to attract families now and fund it responsibly.
Financing shouldn’t stand in the way of getting you the commercial inclusive playground you want. As such, you can seek special community grants and lease-purchase programs in the U.S. Along with financing options, we offer competitive prices so you can enjoy the benefits of an inclusive playground on your commercial property today. When you choose creative funding solutions, you can:
Update an older recreational area
Get your inclusive playground as soon as possible
Improve cash flow when you spread out the cost
Enjoy community goodwill from successful fundraising campaigns
Purchase the exact play equipment you want with affordable backing, including high-quality materials and safer features
You may also be able to fund your inclusive playground through a bank loan or crowdfunding. But working with us will allow you to conveniently purchase your play area from a single trusted source. If you are interested in comprehensive planning solutions, we can guide you through each step and provide the support you need.
How to Develop Inclusive Playground Equipment
When an inclusive playground is properly designed and installed, you will save money and time on operational costs and long-term maintenance. Your business will also have the flexibility to upgrade or expand your accessible play solution when you choose. If you want an inclusive playground installed on your commercial property, follow the steps below.
1. Analyze the Site
Your first step is to analyze your site, ensure the design complies with best construction practices and local building codes, and conduct environmental and feasibility studies. A commercial playground project engineer can handle the pre-planning, scheduling, resource forecasting, and any other technical evaluations needed for your inclusive playground. You can also give your project engineer the reins to handle communications with your landscape architects, accessible designers, and playground installers.
With an experienced playground project engineer on your side, you can ensure your inclusive playground installation stays on schedule and is completed as planned.
2. Evaluate Feasibility
After you complete the groundwork for your inclusive playground project, you can evaluate the factors relevant to its success. Make the following considerations:
What you should expect for site grading and preparation
Where will your playground’s main access points come from
What is your total budget for the project, including maintenance and installation
The type of surfacing system you need and what the best solution will be for your inclusive playground
3. Engage Stakeholders
Next, you may want to collect feedback from local residents and organizations to determine how well your plans for an inclusive playground align with your community’s wants, needs, and priorities. How successful your inclusive playground will be depends on this community feedback. By doing the research ahead of time, you can say goodbye to guesswork and move forward with your accessible play project with confidence.
When gathering feedback from the community and stakeholders, consider the following:
Whether you want to consider specific sensory zones
Whether you want to consider implementing quiet retreat areas
What impact will the inclusive playground have on its surroundings
Whether your playground will be targeted at a certain age group
Whether you will be incorporating a local or community theme into your play area
What the community wants in an inclusive playground, such as adaptive swings or a wide ramped structure
4. Prepare Designs
To develop a visual representation of your inclusive playground’s required components, prepare detailed plans and layouts of your project. These drawings should illustrate your playground’s overall layout, the placement of each accessible play feature, the fall zones, the pathway schematics, and the transfer station heights for every feature.
The details in your project drawings will help you streamline the planning, development, and manufacturing processes and reduce risks associated with your playground’s implementation. An engineer or architect can ensure that the specs for your inclusive playground meet requirements and considerations, such as properly sloping pathways and accounting for accessible turning radii.
5. Obtain Permits
To ensure you understand the ADA and building code requirements for implementing a commercial inclusive playground, consult the local building authority to confirm compliance. When you apply for permits, engaging with the local authority early will save you time and money and shorten the approval process.
You should also identify the state and city building permits required for the installation phase of your inclusive playground. There are likely parameters set for a commercial playground’s structural footings and fall height requirements. If so, it’s essential that your surfacing and structural readings stay within the set range. Systems must be balanced, and hardware must not break or get loose, so these should be checked regularly.
6. Hire Professionals
One of the final steps of the process is manufacturing and construction. After you have planned and analyzed all the matters related to your inclusive playground project, you can hire playground designers and contractors to break ground on your accessible play area. We will handle everything from laying the rubberized floor to installing the play features.
Our trained professionals can install the system quickly, so you can get to opening day soon and enjoy the latest addition to your commercial property. Speak with one of our representatives to learn more about the financing solutions we offer and our construction process.
7. Celebrate Opening Day
You’ve reached opening day! During this final step of the process, you can host a community event to launch the playground for community members and kids of all ages and abilities. Expect a big turnout — everyone will be curious about how your inclusive playground turned out and the fun it can offer. At this point, you can sit back and watch your accessible play project be a blast for kids and parents alike for years to come.
Choose Us for Your Inclusive Playground Equipment
At Inqila, we provide play equipment to entertainment centers, museums, churches, retail centers, trampoline parks, health and fitness centers, amusement parks, and more to attract families and keep them coming back again and again. We have more than 30 years of experience, making us the oldest provider of contained playground equipment in the world, so we know how to design play that works for kids of all abilities, parents, and businesses.
We can customize our play products to all budgets, available space, and ages. Ready to add commercial inclusive playground equipment to your business’s experience? Request a quote from us at InqilaPlay today or contact us for more information.
