Access for All

Anyone involved with land development and site design in Massachusetts is likely aware of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines and the more stringent Massachusetts Architectural Access Board regulations included in the state Building Code. While these guidelines and regulations pertain to public spaces and the accommodation of persons with disabilities, it is important to bear them in mind throughout the design of any space. Accessibility should consider not only those in wheelchairs, but also persons who are blind, deaf, or lacking motor skills.   

While a student at UMass, I was fortunate enough to visit the award-winning Access for All Garden at Sea World Ohio while researching a thesis project. This garden was a unique space designed to respond to the needs of persons with disabilities.  Unfortunately, the park and garden are no longer, and I’ve yet to visit the similarly designed Enabling Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  Presented here are images and design elements that could be included in any landscape, public or private, to create valuable spaces for all users.    

Key features of a fully accessible garden include raised planting beds that allow room for people in wheelchairs to touch the plantings, and paths graded so that the gradient of slope is never excessive. 

Vertical wall planters provide areas for vast numbers of plants to be easily accessible while taking up very little space. Hanging baskets allow people to lower pots of plants to a workable height and raise them back up when they are done working with them.    

Curbs might be replaced by a change in paving material.

Crushed stone next to unit pavers allows blind visitors to know they are at the edge of the path and thus minimizes the risk of tripping or falling.    

Signage might have raised letters instead of Braille characters because less than ten percent of the blind population reads Braille.

The water wall was a huge success with all visitors to the park. Some ran through to escape the heat while others sat opposite on a bench watching the activity and listening to the sounds of water and laughter.

More elaborate accessible design elements include water walls, which allowed people in wheelchairs access to a waterfall, and the raised lawn, elevated to seating height to allow ease in maneuvering from a wheelchair onto grass.   

Sea World of Ohio, utilizing the skills of its landscape horticulture department, was determined to make the park barrier-free. The department’s goals included making the public aware of what changes can be made to a space so that the activities of those with special needs are not different from those of other users. They hoped to show park visitors that accommodations for the disabled can be made easily and inexpensively, and thus demonstrate the ability to accommodate all people at any location.

According to the park’s facilities horticulturist, Rob McCartney, doing so was important because, “anyone, at any time, could become a person with a disability.”  

To accommodate users in wheelchairs,the AFA included a raised lawn which allows for easy transfer to and from a seated position.