Lucas Camilo

We just sent a letter out to friends and neighbors asking for support in pressuring the good people at the parks department to make some fantastically accessible modifications to our neighborhood park.  (If you missed the previous post about this, see our May 28 post.)  We thought we’d share the letter here.  Of course many of you who read this aren’t in Seattle, so the first and third action items don’t really apply to you.  But action item number two —  learning and talking and helping spread the word about accessibility and inclusiveness — is important to us, and it will impact Lucas’s generation in wonderful ways.  Anyway, here’s that letter.

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Dear friends,

Thank you so much for your interest in helping make Seattle parks, and particularly Mt. Baker park, a more welcoming place to people with disabilities!  We’ve felt really loved and supported by the number of friends and neighbors who have come forward offering to help.  A lot of you have asked us how you can help encourage the Parks Department to make the planned renovations include the best possible access for Lucas and all the other park users who move in unique ways.  (If this is news to you, I can send you background.  The basics are this: the city has about $550,000 allocated to make renovations, some specifically about accessibility.  We’d like to see them make the park very accessible, not just minimally.)  Here are some things you can do!

(1) Write a letter to the parks department expressing your support for the most inclusive kinds of renovations possible to Mt Baker park. (More information and a sample letter is below.)  If they stick to the minimal accessibility renovations required by law, it is likely that Lucas and other wheelchair users will still not be able to play with peers at the park.  We’d like them to be creative and use their relatively large budget to make a few real changes, not just the minimum.

(2) Talk to friends and neighbors about the value of fully inclusive, accessible parks.  I know that before Lucas came into my life, I didn’t think a lot about the kinds of surfaces I was walking on.  Or even scoffed at paved surfaces in nature – gravel is more natural, I thought!  But for a wheelchair user with very low muscle tone, bumpy surfaces are extremely hard on the body.  And the addition of a couple ramps onto play equipment would mean that wheelchair users – and others who have trouble with stairs – could get up on equipment and play with friends or family or strangers.  There’s a good article about this from another parent in a recent NYT parenting blog.  And this inclusion is a benefit to all.  Young children are generally very open to difference.  It will benefit all of us if disabled and non-disabled children can play together starting from very little.  If you meet others who have disabilities or access issues that we can include in our ideas for the parks, please put them in touch with us.

(3) Come to the next Mt Baker Parks meeting to express your support for a fully inclusive park!  The meeting will be Thursday, August 7 at 6:30 pm.  http://www.seattle.gov/parks/projects/mt_baker/

And of course please be in touch with us if you have ideas for other ways to make the park welcoming to all people.  Our dream is to have awesome, welcoming public spaces for all people.  Disability is one consideration, but we don’t want to overlook other communities’ needs.

Thank you for reading this far!  Here is the information for crafting a letter of support.   If you have any questions, please be in touch.

Thanks,

Krista Hanson (in collaboration with Burke and Lucas!)

206-331-4425

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Send your emails or direct your calls to these two folks at the Seattle Parks Department:

 

* Mr Jeron Gates, Acting Planning and Development Specialist, (206) 684-0998 Jeron.Gates@seattle.gov

* Ms. Shwu-Jen Hwang, Landscape Architect, (206) 684-0805 shwu-jen.hwang@seattle.gov

(I would love a copy of the letter, but maybe use bcc or forward me a copy after you sent the email.  My email is kristaleehanson@gmail.com.)

 

Please craft a letter in your own language if you have time!  If you’re not a Mt Baker resident, change that to say “Seattle”.  Or if you or a family member have a disability and want to include that, great.  Or give another reason you have an interest in accessible parks in Seattle.  Here is a rough draft, with some talking points you might use:

 

Dear Mr. Gates and Ms. Hwang,

I am writing to express my support for the accessibility renovations to Mt. Baker Park.  I appreciate that the parks department is prioritizing making the park more accessible to users with disabilities.

As a resident of Mt. Baker, I would like to see the park be accessible to as many people as possible, going beyond basic ADA requirements.  Specifically, I would like to see:

–       Paved or hard-packed rubber pathways from sidewalks to all the play equipment;

–       Hard-packed rubber surfaces as at least part of the surface under play equipment (Seward Park play structure is an example of combined rubber and wood-chip surfacing).  Wood chips alone do not work for wheelchairs, walkers, canes, etc.;

–       Ramps up onto the play equipment so that people who cannot climb stairs can play with family, friends, and peers;

–       Accessible swings, including a yellow bucket swing (good for children with disabilities and fun for all children) and a drive-on swing for wheelchair users;

–       Components on the play structures that are designed specifically for wheelchair users and non-disabled children to play together.  One example of this is the sway-fun glider: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-S3p4h1poo.

–       Collaborate with local architects and designers who have made beautiful, accessible playgrounds in the Seattle area.  One example is Miner’s Corner in Bothell, the first universally accessible park in Snohomish County: http://snohomishcountywa.gov/Facilities/Facility/Details/Miners-Corner-57.  Another example is the Seattle Children’s Playgarden, http://www.childrensplaygarden.org/.

Can you please let me know what your plans are for the park?  Will the new design include these features?

Sincerely,

[your name and neighborhood/city]

Yesterday Lucas lost his first tooth! Krista was helping him brush in the morning and all of a sudden it wasn’t there any more.  It took a while to find it in the back of his mouth, but once we did, tales of the tooth fairy commenced.

As it happens, we’re up at Whidbey Island staying the week with Burke’s parents, and Lucas’s three cousins are also here. They were very excited to be part of this historic event, and helped build the suspense around the famous tooth fairy. Then Auntie Ash made a special-Lucas-tooth-pillow, which we put the tooth in before falling asleep last night. This morning Lucas found in its place a bobble-head turtle and he’s been talking about it ever since.

We’re off for another island adventure today – and speaking of fairies, we’ll be taking another ferry across to the Olympic peninsula to spend the day in Port Townsend. Summer rules.