Proposal for Playground Design

Some things I've learnt about children who are visually handicapped:

People who are visually handicapped can be partially sighted, have low vision, legally blind or totally blind. They can learn via Braille or other non-visual media. Vision loss of a person could be resulting from disease, trauma or a congenital or degenerative condition.

How to Help Them

To make these people feel more a home when communicating with us, we need to give these people support and interact with them. Treating them as one of us and making them feel welcome is the first step to getting them to open up to us. This will make them feel accepted, normal, more confident and just like any other normal children. This was the case of the way Jess treated Leslie as opposed to the way Wanda Kay treated Leslie.

Current State of Playgrounds

Playgrounds in Singapore are not sensitive to the visually impaired children. The materials used to make the playground is mostly metal. The visually impaired children may fall and be seriously injured by the metal. Some playgrounds also use sand to break the fall of the other children, however they do not take into consideration whether or not the sand will agggravate the condition of the visually impaired children. The facilities in the plaground also does not enable them to enjoy using the playground. ( No form of communication like Braille to warn them)They may fall easily as there are no railings to hold on to and to guide them.

How To Improve

We can make the playground more need-sensitive to the visually handicapped children by using a rubber floor. Hence, there is friction and they will not fall or hurt themselves. In addition, we can make the windows smaller so that there will not be any accidents.

Inspiration from the novel

From the novel, some ideas I would use in my playground are:

1. The imaginary kingdom which both Jess and Leslie created. Since most visually impaired children do not depend heavily on their sense of sight, we decided to stir their imagination. Thus, our theme of the playground is fantasy, a land where toys like teddy bears comes alive. thus it is easier for them to play as they go about their own fantasy storyline.


2. Leslie would share stories that she had read with Jess, stories like Hamlet and Moby Dick. Therefore, books that are of Braillie and words could be placed in one corner for both visually handicapped children and other people. Members of the public are welcome however they are advised to give way to the visually impaired counterparts.


3. Visually handicapped children tend not to fit in with other children, just like Jess and Leslie. They either isolate themselves from society or they are snubbed by people who think that they are different and are hence prejudiced (Les;ie was asked not to take part in the race as she is a girlwill avoid or make fun of them. Therefore, we should let them experience a totally new world where they are the rulers) and , we should also show that they rule their own destinies and should not let other people be their masters. The childen will not be snubbed as the other children has the same problems as them. The playground provides crowns for the children.


4. We can put some motivational banners(in braille and english) in the playground to encourage the visually impaired children to believe in themselves. This idea came from the part where Miss Edmunds encouraged Jess to draw more. And in the playground where Leslie asked Jess to draw a picture of the castle but Jess said he haven't got the feel of the place yet although he was itching to draw the castle out, and when Leslie was telling her stories. Some phrases we can put up is:
   'Climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow, till you find your dream ...'

Materials that we are using:( eco friendly?)
Plywood:
We are using plywood for the base of the 3D model. The plywood will be taken from the scrap wood from construction sites. This will ensure that the plywood is recycled and will be reused so the plywood won't go to waste.

Sponge:
The sponge will be used for holding the walls in place. The sponge will be used sponge that is taken from homes.

Ice-Cream Sticks:
The ice-cream sticks will be used for the consruction of the outer walls of the playground.The ice-cream sticks has been used from previous projects.


Contributed by: Group