Families with children with disabilities demand inclusive parks from the municipalities

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  • They remind the town councils that the game is a right of childhood and they dislike that they entrust these spaces to participatory budgets

  • In the city of Barcelona, ​​only 56 of the 900 children’s play areas incorporate accessibility and inclusiveness criteria

This Friday, May 6, is the day ‘Streets for Kids’a European initiative that aims to raise awareness of the need to have friendlier and greener cities that incorporate childhood look in the urban policies and mobility. Within the framework of this day, the families with children with disabilities take the opportunity to vindicate the group of municipalities of Catalonia that those kind municipalities guarantee the right to play inclusive. “Not doing so is a violation of rights,” he warns. ECOMwhich adds that “it is a legal and moral obligation that city councils should not leave in the hands of participatory budgets or in the claiming capacity of families.”

put it another way Naomi Font, mother of a girl with spina bifida and successful promoter of adapted ‘curses’ (27 since last August) and who is now immersed in the battle to achieve inclusive parks. “It’s about opening the eyes of society. Just as feminism is not just a women’s thing, but the whole of society, having inclusive parks shouldn’t just be a thing for families with children with disabilities. It’s everyone’s thing There are games that include everyone,” he says.

To give visibility to this need, families have organized for this Saturday from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. in Plaça de Sant Jaume in Barcelona a playful-demanding day in which all children will be able to share games in what should be the usual in Catalan parks.

The lack of accessible, safe spaces with inclusive games in many Catalan municipalities means that many families have to travel kilometers every day so that their children can do something as basic as going to the park to play and socialize. The right to play is recognized both in the Convention on the Rights of the Child as in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The latter establishes that public administrations must ensure that children with disabilities have the same access as the rest to participate in playful, recreational, leisure and sports activities. “This is important not only for a playful theme, but because these activities help to arouse curiosity, create confidence, improve self-knowledge and learn to socialize,” says Ecom, an entity that has been working for an inclusive society for 50 years.

That is why it calls on the municipalities to calm down the streets and school environments “be truly accessible and inclusive and take into account children with disabilities, seeing them as another active agent in the community.” The entity also urges the Government to approve the accessibility decree for Catalonia, which will mean progress in promoting accessible and inclusive gaming spaces throughout the territory.

slow forward

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The progress to achieve inclusive parks is excessively slow. In Barcelona, several families have been denouncing the lack of accessibility of the parks since 2016. The Síndic de Greuges then revealed that only 10 of the 900 children’s play areas had elements of inclusive play. As of June 2021, according to Barcelona City Council, there were 56 areas that incorporate accessibility and inclusivity “criteria” and three are fully accessible. Insufficient figures in the opinion of the families. “The situation of discrimination continues to be perpetuated despite having a game plan“Ecom denounces.

In Vilassar de Mar, Noemí Font has promoted a battle to claim inclusive parks in the municipality. There are none. “Just a swing in one of the parks.” Font says that his goal is to “open the eyes” of people. “Not do it by myself, but have a whole town do it.” She has managed to involve the four public primary schools (Pérez Sala, Escola del Mar, Vaixell Burriac and Els Alocs) so that they work on the problem of lack of accessibility and the right of all boys and girls to play in the classrooms. At the end of this work, the students will address letters to the mayor, Damià del Clot (ERC), asking him for inclusive parks. The Escola del Mar did it last February.



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