LEXINGTON, Ky. — A group of Lexington moms is hoping to make local parks more inclusive, and it started at Wednesday afternoon’s Lexington Park Advisory Board meeting. Lex Get Inclusive is raising awareness of barriers parks in Lexington pose to children with physical and mental disabilities.
Mickaylyn Howard Conrad has two sons, a four- and nine-year-old. Her four-year-old has cerebral palsy and severe autism, making navigating parks difficult.
“True accessibility is making it entirely accessible, instead of, especially children in wheelchairs, they deserve to be able to move freely as much as other children without disabilities too. They shouldn’t have to stick to one path,” Conrad said.
It’s why she founded Lex Get Inclusive; a group of moms, most of whom have a child with a disability. She brought it to light after Lexington voters approved a new tax to fund improvements at city parks. They hope to bring awareness about accessibility at Lexington parks.
“Most people don’t think about the things that we think about, they don’t think about their child eating a woodchip, their child knows not to run to a body of water, our children don’t,” Conrad said.
According to Conrad, first responders are trained to look in the water first when a child with autism runs off.
Conrad said some playgrounds like Jacobson Park have a few accessible items but don’t always account for children with developmental disabilities. She and Myriad Norris, another mom with a disabled child, hope to see more rubberized surfaces, ramps and better fencing.
“They kind of have a good idea going. It’s just a lot of the gravel or the woodchips; those kind of need to be minimized at least a little bit,” Norris said.
Lexington has over 100 parks. Michelle Kosieniak is the planning and design superintendent at Lexington Parks and Recreation. She said all parks comply with guidelines set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Americans with Disabilities Act but strive to meet specific needs.
“For each playground we design we do community engagement, so we meet with the neighborhoods or have town hall meetings,” Kosieniak said. “If it is brought to our attention that there is anyone in that community that has a specific need, then we try to include provisions for that in the design.”
Kosieniak said woodchips at parks are designed for wheelchairs to roll over but understands limitations still exist for some kids. She said the city is transitioning to using and implementing when possible, more rubberized surfaces.
“The only reason we haven’t used that more is simply because it is very expensive. We are very excited about moving forward in the future with more of that in our playgrounds if not all of that in our playgrounds,” Kosieniak said.
For moms of children with disabilities, they just want to be heard and have a voice at the table.
“The reality is that we are here and our children are here and we are obviously making every effort that we can to make our public spaces more inclusive, but we can only do that with public support,” Norris said.
Kosieniak says there is a plan to add more partial fencing at more city playgrounds after additional revenue from the park improvement tax. She said locked fencing around playground is not feasible as pet owners could use it as a place to let their pets roam leashless and would lead to pet waste.
Lex Get Inclusive said they plan on advocating at city council and park advisory board meetings in the future.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Myriad Norris' name. The error has been corrected. (Nov. 20, 2024)