Looking to facilitate inclusive play on a playground? CDPP has a new tool for you!

By: Jumpstart Staff

July 21, 2023

Experts in childhood disability from the Canadian Disability Participation Project (CDPP) have released a brand new resource: The Quality Participation on Playgrounds Blueprint! This blueprint seeks to be a great tool for programmers or individuals concerned with developing more inclusive play environments.

The Quality Participation on Playgrounds Blueprint has been adapted from the Canadian Disability Participation Project’s “Blueprint for Building Quality Participation in Sport for Children, Youth, and Adults with a Disability.” It provides 20 evidence-based strategies to facilitate inclusive play and quality participation on playgrounds for children with disabilities.

These strategies fall within six categories: Autonomy, Belongingness, Meaning, Mastery, Engagement and Challenge and cover a range of considerations from safety to teamwork to skill development. All strategies seek to be used as building blocks to ultimately evolve and support quality participation and play. 

A one-page resource has also been developed, which can be used alongside the Blueprint: How You Can Foster Quality Participation in Play for Children with Disabilities on Playgrounds. Programmers can use this as a tool to select the appropriate strategies to help meet their desired play philosophy and guide the facilitation of quality participation in play for children with disabilities.

Jumpstart proudly supported the development of this important resource, which was led by Dr. Kelly Arbour-Nicitopoulos, an Associate Professor of Physical Activity and Disability at the University of Toronto, alongside assistance from community partners, research partners and knowledge users.

To view the resource, click here.