Community Accessibility Evaluation

COMMUNITY ACCESSIBILITY EVALUATION  1

COMMUNITY ACCESSIBILITY EVALUATION  6

Community Accessibility Evaluation  

Abdullrahman Alloughani

Gens420

Forest Park is a public facility located in the heart of the city of St. Louis in the United States. It is one of the largest public facility in the United States approximately a third bigger than the renowned New York City’s Central Park (Corrigan & Shanks, 2017). The park is owned and operated by the city of St. Louis under the jurisdiction of the department of forestry, Parks, and recreation. Besides, the park has various recreational activities like the St. Louis Art Museum, History Museum and the St. Louis Center and Planetarium among other facilities.

The management of Forest park encourages accessibility for all groups of people to the facility regardless of background, gender, origin, sex, health status whether a person is disabling or not. The park has many facilities that allow accessibility of both disable and non-disable visitors to the park. For instance, several ramps allow disabled visitors with wheelchairs to access different recreational facilities (Corrigan & Shanks, 2017). Nevertheless, the disable with complicated conditions such as hearing and visible problems have limited access to some of the services and facility of the part due to lack of support facilities. However, the Office on the Disable recently reported that there are ongoing operations to upgrade the facility as soon as possible to allow people with different disabilities to access all facilities within the park.

Even though accessibility of facility within the park is allowed to all people from different backgrounds, the non-disable people access more facilities than the disabled who cannot access facilities such swimming polls (Corrigan & Shanks, 2017). Additionally, disabled people with visual and hearing problem are limited to some areas without helpers. The main reason why the management creates restrictions to some areas is to reduce risk and injuries because full installation of support systems such as readable in Braille for the blind is available in the park.

Forest Park is the best recreational center in the United States with the best facilities. The quality of their services is advanced and fully satisfy the needs and expectation of most consumers. The Office on the Disable has reported many development projects awaiting launching to increase accessibility by the disabled people (Foursquare Lists, 2019). As such, to make all the facilities within the park more accessible, it is more appropriate to finish the installation of support systems such as elevators, signs readable in Braille and interpretation, audio cues, and curb cuts among other facilities to increase accessibility of all groups of the disabled to this public facility.

Besides, there is a need to employ and train specialists to assist the disabled who are visiting the facility to correctly use the supporting facilities to increase their satisfaction (Foursquare Lists, 2019). Implementing of the support facilities and engaging experts to give directions on how to use different facilities will not only provide support to disabled but also those with no disabilities but cannot follow the instructions correctly.

Forest Park has unique features that make the park more attractive and exciting than other recreation centers in the United States (Foursquare Lists, 2019). These features and qualities make accessibility of different services within the park more accessible. First, the golden gate has a well-furnished entrance which allows all people from different backgrounds including the disabled to access this place to see the exciting museum features in the park. It is handicap accessible unlike the speculating information found on the websites.

Secondly, the Saint Louis Science Center is another exciting part of the park with attractive facilities that encourage the accessibility of different groups of people (Foursquare Lists, 2019). The Science Center is where an exhibition of various innovation and creativity are demonstrated in this facility. It has well-designed paths, runways, and ramps to increase accessibility of all people including the disabled. Nonetheless, restrictions are created to some places especially where advanced scientific research and confirmation are done to visitors. Most of the unique feature found in this center are human-made which are achieved from scientific research and innovations.

The Saint Louis Zoo is one of the most visited features of the park. The free Zoo was opened in 1990 and is created from a collection of animals both wild and tamed animal. The variety of animals make the place the most exciting part of the park with the highest number of visitors yearly. Since it is one of the main contributors of the park source of income, the management has increased its accessibility to ensure that all groups of people include that disabled like the visual imparted persons get services of the Zoo (Peace, 2016). Support facilities such as walkways, curb cuts, and parking spots are well-structured to increase accessibility by people of different backgrounds.

Nevertheless, barriers to areas where dangerous animal are kept are created to avoid injuries of the visitors who can be attempted to interact with some endangered animals. The Zoo is human-made because the structures used to keep those animals are constructed to accommodate the animal in it.

Security details patrolling within the park

The golden gate of Forest Park

The recreational facility within the park

The Saint Louis Zoo

References

Corrigan, D. H., & Shanks, H. (2017). Forest Park. Accessed from https://www.forestparkforever.org/rules-safety-security.

Foursquare Lists. (2019). The 15 Best Places for Handicap Accessible in St Louis. Retrieved from https://foursquare.com/top-places/saint-louis/best-places-handicap-accessible

Peace, K. (2016). Forest Park is Named Best City Park in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Poll! Accessed from https://www.forestparkforever.org/blog/2016/usa-today-best-city-park