A scoping Review of Tools to Evaluate Existing Playgrounds for Inclusivity of Children with Disabilities.
Leah G Taylor, Mara Primucci, Leigh M Vanderloo and 4 others
PMID 36910877WHAT IT FOUND
No single tool captures playground inclusion well.
Most check physical access but miss social play and user input. Australian government tools covered the most criteria. Use these to audit spaces, but remember they are not validated and often ignore the child's experience.
Key findings
01All 14 identified tools assessed physical accessibility, but none had validated psychometric properties.
02Only six tools assessed features that foster inclusive play beyond basic access, and only one-third included users with disabilities in the audit process.
03Two Australian grey-literature tools evaluated 12 of 13 recommended inclusion features, outperforming most peer-reviewed academic tools.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The review is limited to English and French literature, potentially missing tools from other regions. No tool in the review had been validated for psychometric properties, meaning their reliability and accuracy are unknown. The review excluded studies that used qualitative methods to measure user experience, focusing only on objective audit tools. Grey literature inclusion relied on specific search strategies which may have introduced bias.
Declared interests
The research was supported by Western Research through a Research Mobilization, Creation, & Innovation Grant. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a playground passing a standard accessibility audit is truly inclusive for a child with disabilities. Most tools miss social and play-based barriers, and none are validated, so they may give a false sense of security about the environment's suitability.