The Accessible Playgrounds for Parents with Disabilities Project

Public parks and playgrounds serve as vital hubs for parent-child play, social inclusion, and community participation. Despite their importance, these recreational areas often remain inaccessible and unusable for individuals with disabilities. In addition, information about features like the location of accessible bathrooms, seating, available shelter and shade, and transportation access is often difficult to find for neighborhood (non-destination) parks.

To address this gap, TLG has created the Accessible Playgrounds for Parents with Disabilities Project. Supported by OT capstone students and community OT practitioners, this project aims to:

1. Collect data on community playgrounds, focusing on barriers faced by adult caregivers with physical and vision disabilities and impairments. Data is collected using a modified version of the PARCs (Parks for Activities and Recreation in our Communities) “Evaluation Tool for Assessing the Usability of Community Parks and Playgrounds” (Perry et al., 2018; mod. Gipson Showalter).
2. Create a searchable, publicly available database of playgrounds using the mPARCs.
3. Provide the community with information about park and playground accessibility and usability to support advocacy and universal and accessible design approaches to playground design.

Playground Design PSAs – these videos created by San José State University OTD student Nathan Burke-Tan highlight common playground accessibility features and barriers.

• Playground Accessibility: Surfacing and play structures
• Playground Accessibility: Approaches, paths, and shade

State and National Conference Posters:

• AOTA Parks Poster (PDF)
• AOTA Parks Poster 2025 (PDF)

OT Practice Article:

Gipson Showalter, L., Paulo, J., & Frauwirth, S. (September, 2025). Shaping equitable play spaces for parents with disabilities: Occupational therapy’s role.

https://www.aota.org/publications/ot-practice/ot-practice-issues/2025/shaping-equitable-play-spaces-for-parents-with-disabilities-occupational-therapys-role

Congratulations and Thank You to our Amazing OTD Capstone Students!

2026

Molly Hargon – Dominican University of California

2025

Serenity Hope Edwards – University of the Pacific

Lauren Ruff – Methodist University

Nathan Burke-Tan – San José State University

Alyanna Paulino – California State University, Dominguez Hills

2024

Janae Paulo – University of St. Augustine, San Marcos

2022

Lena Gipson Showalter – Methodist University

Want to Participate? We are accepting OTD capstone students and looking for individual therapists to contribute.

Contact us here.