Playground for blind and low-vision children—improving access and play for children, parents and carers in cities

Outdoor spaces such as parks and playgrounds provide opportunities for play and intergenerational experiences between children and adults. Play is an essential part of childhood and outdoor play supports the development of physical skills such as strength, coordination, and balance as well as cognitive, social, and emotional skills. Children with blindness and low vision (BLV) have been observed to have developmental delays in social play behaviours due to a lack of opportunity for physical and social interactions with the environment and people. However, often playgrounds are not equipped for BLV access; retrofitting is highly desirable, but few strategies exist to date; and there exists little knowledge of what BLV users like or want. With input from early intervention specialists, BLV educators, touch access designers, architects, and interaction designers, this paper presents research into playgrounds, and how play, tactility and mobility for blind and low-vision children and their parents/carers in cities can be improved. Through analysis of the literature and precedents for accessible playgrounds, barriers to participation by BLV children were identified. To address these barriers, our research is investigating two pathways: firstly, a case study into touch access for descriptive or instructive support to support orientation and mobility; and secondly, parent and vision specialist teacher surveys on the school playground experience. Our initial results confirm known issues and gaps in lack of empirical evidence on the lived experience, needs and preferences of BLV children and their parents/carers, and point to future research grounded in participatory co-design with these communities.