Barriers to playground use for children with disabilities: A case from Ankara-turkey

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the playgrounds in terms of the barriers causing restricted use by disabled children. The investigation is carried out through a questionnaire and site surveys in the district of Keçiören-Ankara. The questionnaire was completed by parents of children with disabilities relating to physical and as well as social barriers parents and children are facing using the playgrounds. It was applied to 667 disabled child parents who are residents of the district. The site survey was carried out in 355 playgrounds in the districts. Site surveys are done by the research group by means of photographs and a checklist completed for each playground. Qualitative data obtained from site surveys converted to quantative data by means of the criteria set by the research group. These two groups of data then combined to determine the barriers. All the statistical analyses for the surveys have been carried out by using SPSS 15.0 (SPSSFW, SPSS Inc., Chigago, Il., USA) and Stats Direct (whopharmacoeco-nomics, Ver 2, 2, 0, USA) programme and frequency distribution have been worked out. When compiling the answers and during the site surveys it appeared that not only physical but also social barriers restrict the disabled children to use the playgrounds to which social barriers will not be evaluated in the context of this paper. The results show that playgrounds are not usable for the children with disabilities. The inadequate planning of playgrounds to the needs of disabled children and lack of awareness of municipalities and planners constitutes a very important barrier. The barrier can only be removed by rising awareness and cooperation of planners and municipalities with the disabled groups. © 2010 Academic Journals.