Mackay Centre playground

This is the only time I’m going to write a review of a school’s playground. I’m making an exception here because this is the ONLY fully wheelchair accessible playground we’ve seen in all of Montreal. Granted, we haven’t been to all of them, but it’s close to 400 now and we’ve seen just a handful, and most of them have been in Ontario and Vermont.

I don’t even HAVE a child with reduced mobility and I find this so disappointing. 

So take this opportunity everyone and write to your local councillor and city and ask them to make playgrounds accessible and inclusive for all. Adaptive swings, ground level activity panels. Everyone can use them! And some children don’t have to sit on the outskirts of the playground not able to interact with the equipment or their friends. 🙁

Back to the park. We visited on a Sunday, and while it IS a school playground there were a few other families playing there. I would not visit during school hours (obviously).

The playground was built in 2004 and while it is awesome and well planned, it is showing signs of wear and some A$$hat has graffiti-ed some of the wall panels. Really, who does that?

The entire play structure from Little Tikes Commercial is set on a rubber base and is wheelchair accessible. It has activity panels including gears, mirrors, finger mazes, and the sign language alphabet on different levels; but a few are no longer working, like the gears and the Melody Maker musical chimes. You can also go up to the next level where there are tree-themed coverings from Miracle Recreation over the picnic tables, and a toddler-high wall panel where you can trace your fingers over the braille alphabet and numbers. On the other side of the wall are riddles where you can figure out the answers using braille.

There is also a small sand section with sand shovels that will accommodate a wheelchair. My little guy was puzzled as to why there was no seat! Adjacent is a chair height Clover Leaf Sandbox with multiple access points.

While it was nice to see this playground, it’s unfortunate that we can’t find a public park with the same accessible equipment. 

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