Kids with disabilities are helping design inclusive playgrounds

For a few minutes on a recent glorious morning, 13-year-old John Buettner was a little kid again. Actually, as he sprawled upon the netting of an inclusive playground near Hastings that he’d helped design, he admitted that now is even better.

Born with cerebral palsy and relegated to the sidelines for much of his childhood, John helps a local company create spaces where other disabled kids can play.

“It feels amazing to be able to say, ‘I was a part of it all,’” John said of work that began two years ago at Glen Lake Elementary School in Minnetonka.

So, how does a kid get a gig trying out the accessibility of playground equipment? Living through years of being left out, it seems.

When teachers and students at Glen Lake started talking about replacing their old playground, someone in another class noticed a group of kids in wheelchairs “just kind of sitting on the sideline,” John said.

Most playgrounds aren’t wheelchair-friendly. So the teacher asked her students what they thought about replacing their non-accessible playground.

“Her kids said they wanted to do something about it,” John said.

And the project — including fundraising — started gaining steam.

Door-knocking at homes and cold-calling local businesses netted modest donations, he said. It was enough to install one piece of equipment. But an entire inclusive playground? That was going to cost a lot more.

“Then we started raising more money by doing, like, bake sales, coin drives, all that,” John said. “And then out of nowhere, we started getting calls from big businesses. We got a $50,000 donation from BMW, which was really surprising.”

Yet, just as the new playground was being installed, it was time for John to move on to middle school. You know the saying about planting a tree whose shade you’ll never enjoy? John Buettner gets it.

“It felt amazing to just be able to say, I was a part of this all, even though I never actually got to fully experience being on the playground,” he said. “But at least now I tell myself I still got to contribute to something.”

Landscape Structures, the Delano company that designed the Glen Lake playground, approached John and his project teammates with an idea: “They asked if I was interested in doing more stuff like this. Testing out new pieces of equipment.”

It turns out, company leaders say, that finding out what disabled kids want in a playground helps build a better playground for everybody. Designers and engineers watch kids play on prototypes and ask them what they like and don’t like.

Katie Swanson, a spokeswoman for Landscape Structures, said the junior play team visits the company’s facilities several times a year. It’s critical to their business, she said.

“The reality is, it’s a population that can change like that, right? Anyone can become a part of the disability community in a second, and it’s a growing population,” Swanson said.

“And there is such a wide range: It’s visual impairment, it’s hearing, it’s autism, cognitive disabilities. We’re trying to develop places where everyone can play together.”

“Seeing this project and seeing him become part of it was just awesome. And I know he’s just got a way with words, so I knew that he would do great things,” she said. “He came into the world with a bang. And it was terrifying, but we saw how strong he was, his will to live and survive. ...

“And he just has a way about him. We always called him our little old soul, because he’s so sensitive to the world and to people.”

John now works with a nonprofit, Minnesota Play For All, to build a playground at his middle school. And the work at Glen Lake has inspired a new children’s book called “A Swing for Samara,” by Minnesota author and illustrator Nancy Carlson.

Sitting in his wheelchair alongside a play structure that he helped test drive, John said he’s figured out some things about himself.

“Being able to tell myself that I helped with this, it’s just really important for me,” John said. “Not only to help me find more accessible things, but it’s also really important to know I can make a change for the better in the world.”