COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 13, 2023

QUESTION NO. 6

QUESTION: Councillor L.Guéret

To ask the Chief Executive what facilities are currently provided in Playgrounds and SDCC Community Centres for children with sensory needs?

REPLY:

Since 2015 South Dublin County Council has built over 40 new play areas which are physically accessible, provide a range of universally accessible equipment and accommodate the needs of children with ADHD, sensory issues, speech and language difficulties and intellectual disabilities.

The Council uses the 7 principles of Universal Design: Equitable Use, Flexibility in Use, Simple and Intuitive Use, Perceptible Information, Tolerance for Error, Low Physical Effort, Size and Space for Approach and Use. Through extensive consultation and research, we learned that physical access was only part of making a play area accessible, so we targeted interventions to better accommodate children with ADHD and a range of other disabilities. This was achieved by maximising contact with nature, creating more free play areas with less rules to understand, providing both bright and shady spaces, providing quiet spaces and providing sensory rich environments using plants and natural materials. The playspaces are very natural in character, these environments are proven to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of all children but can be especially important to children with additional needs. The recent provision of Communications boards is another part of this design philosophy. The Council has worked closely with the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design and our work on natural and inclusive playspaces is regarded as best practice in this regard. SDCC co-operated with the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists to develop a board with the Irish sign language as well as English and Irish text.  We also design each board specifically for each playground to maximise its value to playspace users.

The following video was made to get feedback on our communications boards before we rolled them out to the rest of our larger playgrounds around the county, and to date we have Communications Boards in 16 playgrounds. link  

The relevant action in that regard for the Local Government Sector is: 

• To make playgrounds inclusive, enjoyable, and accessible for all children, including Autistic children, we will expand the installation of Communication Boards in public playgrounds across all Local Authorities.

The efforts of SDCC in the creation of inclusive and supporting playspaces has recently been acknowledged by our natural playspace programme being shortlisted for the Europe-wide Access City Awards. It is now in the last 5 projects across Europe in the running for this award.