How It Started

In Fall 2019, the Survivor team was approached with an idea to build a one-of-a-kind, inclusive playground in Livingston County. The high school Survivor team immediately started looking for places to build this playground. Genoa Township was excited to partner with us and in Fall 2020 a plan was made to begin a multi-year fundraiser for this exciting project. 

Once the location was set, we connected with Michigan Recreational Construction, a playground company headquartered in Howell,  to begin work on potential designs for an inclusive playground. The goal of our playground is to provide a safe place where children can play together in an environment that meets a variety of needs and abilities. A plan was developed to create a one-of-a-kind nature-inspired inclusive playscape to complement the existing traditional manufactured equipment playground located next to the pavilion further up the main walkway. 

Our fundraising efforts for Survivor Playscape began with the Class of 2021 and concluded with the Class of 2022. In addition to the 32 senior survivors from these two classes, 32 fifth grade “junior survivors” and 23 eighth grade “middle survivors” also raised money to contribute to Survivor Playscape. 

How It Was Designed

The core philosophic goal for Survivor Playscape was to create a highly inclusive facility without looking like one. Most people think that “accessible” and “inclusive” are interchangeable. While they are similar, there are important differences. Accessibility is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and primarily addresses mobility, hearing and vision impairments. Access is achieved primarily by a barrier free route of travel. Accessible surfaces found at Survivor Playscape include concrete, concrete pavers, compacted gravel, poured-in-place rubber, and engineered wood fiber.

Inclusion, as a concept, is less understood and not required by law. Every design decision for Survivor Playscape has been guided by inclusive design principles. Fundamental to this, is the understanding that the community is composed of individuals with varying abilities and developmental needs. There is no “perfect” playscape. Within every community, people have different abilities and needs, making perfection impossible to achieve. The goal is to provide access to meaningful and relevant play opportunities by providing a variety of challenges, from easy to difficult. Individuals can then choose what is appropriate. We chose to focus on abilities and offer opportunities for everyone to challenge themselves as they deem appropriate. Users can decide what they would like to try and can go as far as their ability and/or desire allows.

Balancing physical play with sensory, social, and cognitive play is also important. A playscape can be chaotic and overwhelming, sometimes a quieter, out of the way spot is needed, so passive play spaces are incorporated. Opportunities for social interaction among children with varying abilities is also one of the key goals for inclusive play spaces. The highest degree of inclusion is achieved when users of varying abilities can play together on the same element. A variety of challenge levels, from low to high, are carefully integrated into the design so that users can interact and play together if they choose. 

So, if you think our playscape does not look inclusive then we were successful in that regard. The accessible gravel pathway, at less than 5% grade, provides a moderately challenging route as it winds its way to the top of the playscape mound. This functions like the ramps found on many manufactured play structures but those are usually at a steeper 8% grade. As they explore their way along the playscape pathway, users come upon interactive features of various challenge levels. They are encouraged to engage in activities that interest them and are appropriate for their developmental level.

Every element of Survivor Playscape is part of the nature-inspired play structure.  While playground equipment manufacturers use metals and plastics to create their play structures in a factory, we used materials found in nature to create and form the playscape.

Take a tour of the playscape here, to learn how the playscape elements encourage various activities and how inclusion is fostered.