Special playgrounds in Israel

Special playgrounds in Israel

  • 10/23/2011
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    Just because you're in a wheelchair doesn't mean you have to miss out on Israel's many nature parks and picnic areas. You don't even have to forfeit a turn on the playground swing, thanks to a host of projects in recent years to make all these experiences available to people of all ages with impaired vision, hearing and mobility.
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    Special playgrounds in Israel Special playgrounds in Israel Copyright: Photo courtesy KKL-JNF
    Special playground at Haruvit Forest (Photo courtesy KKL-JNF)
     
    The crown jewel is Friendship Park (Park Chaverim), the first accessible, integrated park for children in Israel. Opened in 2005, this nine-acre area within Ra'anana City Park was planned out by a committee of professionals from Beit Issie Shapiro, an organization that develops and provides services for Israelis with developmental disabilities, with input from the National Insurance  Institute, community social workers, parents of children with special needs and people with various disabilities.

    Friendship Park, Ra'anana
    (Photo courtesy Beit Issie Shapiro)​
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    Friendship Park offers play equipment designed for children in wheelchairs and with hearing and vision impairments. The pathways, surface materials and height of the base underneath each plaything were all taken into account. Accommodations were even made for motor-disabled parents or grandparents accompanying able-bodied children at the park, says occupational therapist Michele Shapiro, a specialist in sensory design at Beit Issie Shapiro. "I was responsible for leading the design team, but the physical and social part of the park go together strongly, and both are essential to the success of the park," says Shapiro.

     

    ​Families with special needs children often avoid playgrounds where their kids might experience social exclusion, so Friendship Park is the setting for municipally sponsored educational activities and festivals for children and families to foster friendship and inclusivity. Sivan, a wheelchair-bound  character from Israel's version of Sesame Street, appears on signs at the park to promote this message.​

     

    The park has served as a model for newer ones in the cities of Beersheva, Kfar Saba, Afula and Karmiel. Others under development include a Sensory Park planned in Haifa.
     
    In July, Ecuador's wheelchair-bound vice president Lenin Moreno Garces visited Friendship Park and was so impressed that he has asked Beit Issie Shapiro to help plan some 200 accessible and inclusive parks throughout Ecuador.
     
     
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  • Accessible picnic areas, nature parks

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    ​About 60 special-access picnic areas are available all over Israel, from Metullah in the north to Eilat in the south, says Oren Less of Accessibility Solutions in Hod Hasharon, and a consultant to Access Israel. "This means they have at least two [handicap-designated] parking spots and an accessible path to an area with at least two tables that are specially designed for wheelchair users and the walking disabled," he says.
     
    In 2008, Access Israel inaugurated an accessible nature area for people with disabilities, with the assistance of Coca-Cola Israel, at Tel Afek National Park near Rosh Ha'Ayin. The project includes wheelchair-accessible paths, parking for the disabled, adaptations for people with visual and walking disabilities and special benches made by Shacham-Arica, a leading Israeli outdoor furniture firm.

    Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) is involved in many accessible park projects throughout Israel, incorporating everything from wheelchair-friendly paths to explanatory signs in Braille.
     
    In cooperation with Hadassah Women and the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Disabled Veterans Organization, KKL-JNF built the IDF Disabled Veterans Park in the Haruvit Forest near Beit Shemesh. The 75-acre Warriors Park in the heart of the forest has adapted picnic sites, restrooms, paths and barbeque areas, plus fitness equipment, target shooting, swings and slides for people with disabilities. Warriors Park's walking route for the visually impaired features aromatic vegetation and divides into two parts: the Visual Path, featuring mask sculptures placed for easy viewing by the wheelchair-bound; and the Sound Path, incorporating sculptures that produce pleasant noises.
     
    Inside the 20,000-acre Menashe Forests Park in the Carmel, KKL-JNF designed a trail for the disabled along the Shofet riverbank. This trail is to be expanded, and a wooden path is being constructed along the river with benches and resting spots. The archeological park at Shimshit Forest has a paved trail adapted for the physically challenged; there's a special handicapped-access path at the Hula Lake Bird Observatory; and Ben Shemen Forest, the largest park in Israel, has a section especially adapted for the visually impaired.
     
    In late August, the Israeli government approved a plan to establish a horseback riding and bicycle sports park in the Lower Galilee that is to include activities for the special-needs population.