Introduction: According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child article 31 children have the right to engage in play, recreational activities and in cultural life.  Eberle defines play as “An ancient, voluntary, ‘emergent’ process driven by pleasure that yet strengthens our muscles, instructs our social skills, tempers and deepens our  positive emotions, and enables a state of balance that leaves us poised to play some more”. There are different factors causing the decrease of participation in outside play: urbanization, accessibility, more academic requirements, less access to nature areas. According to the EN1176 Playground equipment standard there are specific safety requirements and test methods for different equipment and “guidance for installation, inspection and maintenance operation.” But they do not mention guidelines for decor, accessibility and social inclusion. For the design of accessible, socially inclusive environments, products and communities the seven principles of universal design were published: equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive use, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort and size and space for approach and use.

Objective: Because of the lack of social inclusion in play spaces and the absence of guidelines for the design of these play spaces to become more socially inclusive, designed an Audit tool as a guideline for public play spaces and social inclusion. A common problem that was encountered during the first design of the audit tool, was a lack of available information about the design and construction of good outdoor public play spaces. This research attempts to make a contribution to this knowledge gap. The research question is: “What are the commonalities and differences between public play policy and public play spaces with references to social inclusion in the cities Cork and Nijmegen?”

Method: The research design that is used is a multiple case study. Therefore different data collection methods were used, namely: interviews, review of policies and audit of play spaces. Quantitative data were analyzed by visualizing data in tables and qualitative data were analyzed by framework method and content analysis.

Results: The quantitative data contains the city details (residents, square meters), the distribution of play spaces in Cork and Nijmegen and the number of equipment per play space in both cities. The results of the quantitative analysis are:

- The city of Nijmegen has 32 times more play spaces and has 1,4 times more residents than the city of Cork.

- The residents of Nijmegen have to share a play space with 440 residents while the residents of Cork has to share a play spaces with almost 10.000 residents.

- The residents of Nijmegen have to travel 150 meters while the residents of Cork have to travel more than 3 kilometers.

- The play spaces in Nijmegen contain on average more items of equipment than the play spaces in Cork.

The results of the qualitative analysis are categorized in five themes, which are: accessibility, play affordances, safety & maintenance, plans & future vision, stakeholders.

Accessibility

In Nijmegen the surfacing of play spaces exists out of sand and grass while in Cork the surfaces are all rubber tiles which makes it accessible for mobility device users.

Play affordances

In Nijmegen all play spaces provided creative use of nature elements, in Cork the play equipment was usable for children of different ages.

Safety & maintenance

In Nijmegen all play spaces were well maintained and in Cork all fall zones were rubber tiles which provide safety.

Plans and future visions

In both cities social inclusion is part of the future vision.

Stakeholders

In Nijmegen the residents are involved by planning, designing the play spaces in their neighborhood, while in Cork that is a future vision.

Conclusion: The cities Cork and Nijmegen are comparable on some aspects. Namely: both cities are located in West-European countries, the size of the cities and the number residents, the characteristics of the selected play spaces. Both cities are non-comparable on the field of the policies, culture elements and the level of social inclusion. Social inclusion of play spaces is affected by a large number of factors which are present at policy- and operational levels. Elements at policy level include explicit design elements respecting principles of universal design and play theory, citizen involvement in planning and feedback. Elements at operational level include reachability, weather, usability, seating, surfaces, accessibility for all mobility device users, a balance between cozy and open spaces, play affordances, opportunities for challenge, development and social  play.

Recommendations: We recommend that the use of seven principles of universal design  supports the process of designing and planning social inclusive public play spaces.

As this research is not generalizable, so a lack of knowledge on this subject still exists. More research about social inclusion in and around public play spaces is recommended to make the knowledge on this topic more generalizable.

To ensure knowledge transfer of our results we will be working towards a publication of this article in the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland (AOTI). We hope to enlighten others about the need of social inclusion on play spaces. Besides that we would like to inform other stakeholders by providing them this article individually, for example: De Speeltuin Bende - Ilse van der Putten, Richard and Henk (names are anonymized), who are planning a meeting in summer to exchange knowledge about social inclusion on play spaces of each city and Helen Lynch and Alice Moore to support their own research.

It is important in the education of our future occupational therapists that they have knowledge about social inclusion on public places to encourage a social inclusive society for the future.

Besides that we recommend occupational therapists working with children or county councils to do more lobbying for socially inclusive play spaces. So they can encourage children with disabilities and their parents to visit those socially inclusive public play spaces  and develop themselves in social play.

“Eindrapport van een praktijkgericht onderzoek in Semester 1 2017/2018 aan de Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, opleiding Ergotherapie. In opdracht van University College Cork en Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen.