According to a Pew Research report, children with disabilities made up 15% of public school enrollment during the 2021-2022 school year. That’s roughly 7.3 million school-aged children with disabilities across the nation.

But despite their ranging abilities, exercise, play, and socialization are crucial elements of child development. For decades, playgrounds have helped provide a safe space for children to achieve all 3, but only when they’re designed with inclusivity in mind.

Discover some of the latest commercial playset solutions that our team recommends for designing playgrounds that invite and engage children of all ages and abilities.

Inclusive Playgrounds vs. Accessibility Playgrounds

If you’re a church, daycare, school, HOA, or property owner with a public commercial playground on-site, chances are you’re probably already familiar with ADA playset accessibility regulations.

However, ADA-accessible playground equipment and inclusive play structures are not the same. ADA rules are civil rights laws regulated by the government to ensure public areas are accessible to all people with disabilities, specifically those who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices.

Inclusive playground solutions, on the other hand, strive to produce an environment that goes beyond designing for just accessibility. Instead, these commercial playset solutions are designed to encourage socially inclusive play among children of all ages and abilities.

In other words, accessibility opens the door to children with disabilities to explore the playground, but inclusivity invites them to interact with the other children as they play.

Creating Commercial Playgrounds for All Abilities

Designing playgrounds for children of all ages and abilities can seem daunting at first, but don’t let that intimidate you from getting started. Using this 3-tier approach, we’ll help you break down the process of building a space that achieves social inclusion.

Visualize this approach as a pyramid. We’ll start at the bottom with the first question:

1. Is Your Playground Accessible?

At the bottom of the pyramid, the first step is to determine if your current playground — or the one you’re looking to buy — is accessible. Using our ADA playground checklist, you can evaluate your play area to ensure it meets all accessibility requirements.

If your playground passes the accessibility check, you can move on to phase 2. If not, make a list of the inaccessible areas and prioritize fixing those items first. You can only move up the pyramid after your play area meets all accessibility rules.

2. Is Your Playground Inclusive?

After confirming that your playset is accessible, the next phase is to make it inclusive. This means designing commercial playset solutions that go beyond what’s required by the ADA.

Start by thinking about what your community needs. If you have access to data about your community’s population, use it to help outline your next steps.

For instance, is there a high percentage of kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? If yes, invest in play elements that create a sensory-rich environment. Seeing a trend in children with immobility issues? Amp up your accessibility efforts with more ramps or transfer systems.

If you don’t have any statistics to help determine your community’s needs, consider adding diverse play equipment to increase the playground’s sensory experiences and accessibility efforts.

Regardless of what items you decide to add, make sure they follow PlayCore’s 7 Principles of Inclusive Playground Design®.

1. Be Fair — ensure your playground promotes fair use to children of all ages and abilities.
2. Be Included — accommodate every child’s right to play with access to a range of play equipment.
3. Be Smart — develop intuitive, achievable sensory experiences to build confidence through play.
4. Be Independent — enable individual exploration using sensory activities and accessible paths.
5. Be Safe — design a range of activities that challenge children, but safely.
6. Be Active — offer activities that encourage physical activity and cooperation among children of all abilities.
7. Be Comfortable — allow enough range of activities to make children with social, cognitive, or physical impairments safe.

3. Is Your Playground Universal?

At the very top of the pyramid is the final question: is your playground universal? The good news is if you’ve made it up to this point, the answer should be yes.

Universal design is defined as “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.”

So universally designed playgrounds are those that are those that embody the 7 Principles of Inclusive Playground Design®! When you’ve achieved universal design, you’ve successfully created a socially inclusive play space.

Why Are Socially Inclusive Play Spaces Important?

Creating commercial playset solutions that produce social inclusion matters for all children, not just those with disabilities.

As we mentioned earlier, social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development are formative parts of growing up. These experiences can help shape who the child will become.

When playgrounds can create a space for children of differing abilities to engage in play together, it teaches empathy and promotes a sense of belonging for all kids. Studies show that a sense of belonging is tied to higher self-esteem, increased school performance, and more meaningful relationships.

Landscape Structures® has a really great publication, The Outside Scoop, where they published quotes from children who spent the afternoon partnered with a disabled buddy on a playground.

Their quotes help demonstrate the impact of social inclusion better than any amount of professional research or explaining can:

From Colin, in 4th grade:

“I want people to know that you shouldn’t be afraid of someone who is disabled.”

From Kayleigh, in 5th grade:

“There is nothing wrong with people with disabilities. They’re just normal people just like you and me.”

From Alexis, in 6th grade:

“I learned that buddies can look different, but they are the same.”

(You can find the full magazine online if you’re interested in reading more!)

In the long term, socially inclusive commercial playset solutions set all children up for stronger social skills and endorse a more inclusive society.

Swing Kingdom’s Commercial Playset Solutions

If you’re looking to invest in a durable, barrier-free commercial playground, Swing Kingdom has an expansive collection. All of our commercial playsets are prebuilt to meet ADA requirements.

Plus, we offer design customizations, accessible surfacing materials, and other playground accessories and amenities to help our buyers achieve their universal design goals.

And our team of experts is happy to help you through every step of the way!