Inclusive play in urban cities : a pilot study of the inclusive playgrounds in Hong Kong

Abstract

Public play spaces are designed for children to develop their social and physical abilities and enrich their experience. Through play, children can learn various cognitive skills in a relaxing environment. All children should have the same right to play in play spaces. However, many existing playgrounds lack inclusive facilities to facilitate the needs of the disabled children. This paper takes Hong Kong as a case study. In our preliminary observation there is no disabled children playing or even appeared in nearly all of the play spaces. The current design of the playgrounds also does not take the needs of children's care takers into consideration. This results in misusing playground facilities by the care takers. In order to address the issue of inclusive play for children and the care takers, the paper reviews the playgrounds in Hong Kong in terms of the accessibility and availability and identifies the inclusive issues in playgrounds of the densely populated city. It also highlights the current strategies that the government has developed to deal with the problem. The paper argues that in a populous city such as Hong Kong it is inevitable to encounter difficulties in building inclusive play spaces and promoting inclusive play, and specific strategies of using spaces creatively is a must to ensure an effective design for children's play in needs.