Creating a truly inclusive park means thinking beyond accessible playground equipment.

Variety KC (Kansas City), led by CEO Marc Harrell, is putting that idea into action across Kansas City through a growing network of inclusive playgrounds and parks.

We sat down with Marc to learn what goes into creating these spaces, which accessibility features are often overlooked, why universal changing tables are an important part of inclusion and what other communities can learn from Variety KC’s approach.

What is Variety KC? 

Variety KC is a part of Variety International, a non-profit global organization that is dedicated to helping children who are sick, disadvantaged, or living with disabilities.

About 20 years ago, our work focused heavily on providing mobility equipment, medical devices, communication devices and therapies to children under age 21 when insurance denied coverage. We provided braces, adaptive bikes and trikes, sports wheelchairs and communication devices that could allow a child to tell their parents, "I love you," for the first time.

How did Variety KC become involved in creating inclusive playgrounds? 

Once we gave children the equipment to move through society and a voice to communicate with society, we looked around Kansas City and realized there weren’t enough accessible spaces for them to visit.

That realization led us to build our first park and playground.

How has Variety KC’s inclusive playground work grown since that first park?

What started with one has grown to about two dozen today, with three more preparing to open this fall. 

We also received a transformational commitment from the Peter and Veronica Mallouk Family Foundation, which pledged $30 million to fund more than 80% of the next 10 parks and playgrounds in Kansas City.

By the end of that project, we want to be able to say that no child is more than 10 miles from a fully accessible and inclusive playground or park.

What does a truly inclusive playground look like to Variety KC?

Our goal is to make our playgrounds 100% accessible. In our view, if a child arrives and there is even one piece of equipment they can’t use, it reminds the child and family of that limitation. 

We evaluate every piece of equipment to ensure someone using a mobility device can participate. Every structure should have a ramp, and the ramp should be wide enough for two wheelchair users to pass or travel side by side instead of one having to wait.

The playground we’re designing in Riverside, which opens this fall, is two stories. People often assume you can’t create height because of the ramps and cost, but that isn’t true. We used the topography behind the structure to help children reach the top. If a child gets tired or loses energy, there is also a level path out the back, so they don’t have to travel all the way down. 

Read more: Inclusive Playgrounds: Designing Parks for Everyone

What are some accessibility features people might not immediately think about?

We consider many features for children with autism.

• We create calm, covered spaces where someone can experience rocking, motion, or movement while feeling secure. We place those spaces within the play environment so the child is never removed from the actual play.

• We require fencing around all our playgrounds. We know some children with autism are elopers—or, as I prefer to call them, professional escape artists. A fully enclosed playground is safer and allows a caregiver to sit down, read a book or rest. That relief is important, and it’s only possible when the caregiver isn’t afraid the child will run away.
• We also incorporate sensory experiences through different smells, textures, water, sand and natural elements. Even something as simple as pushing a button deserves consideration. If pushing a button creates an effect, is there another way to create that same effect for a child who can’t push it? Could there be a foot pedal or another way to activate it?

We even consider color blindness, evaluating colors and sensory elements for people with different types of color vision. We try to look at every component through the lens of every disability.

Why are universal changing tables an important part of creating a truly inclusive park?

Every Variety park has them. Families have told us they won’t travel more than about two and a half hours from home unless they know there is a safe place to change their child—not a dirty bathroom floor or the back of an SUV.

At every attraction we work with, we fight very hard to ensure there is a universal restroom. That need became especially clear during the Super Bowl parade in Kansas City in 2024.

A family called and said they wanted to attend the parade but asked whether there would be an accessible restroom. I confidently said yes because I was naive and didn’t realize that no such mobile restroom existed. I had to go back and apologize, but I promised that by the next year we would have one.

We built the country’s first mobile, fully accessible restroom (MAR) with a universal changing table. The trailer is on a hydraulic lift that lowers all the way to the ground. It includes a shower, universal changing table, accessible sink, accessible toilet, heating and air conditioning—everything someone needs. It is like a portable restroom, but with all the necessary equipment.

If you want a space to be truly inclusive, accessibility has to extend beyond the playground itself.

Read more: Kansas City's First Mobile Accessible Restroom Sets a New Standard for Inclusion

What has it been like to see families and children experience these spaces?

People come from across the city. A family in Liberty, in the northeast corner of the metro, may travel all the way to the southwest corner because these opportunities aren’t available everywhere. These are destination playgrounds. After I explained the thought we put into them, one family from Chicago said, "We’ll be at your first opening." Inclusion simply isn’t being done at this level or at this scale in many places. 

You see smiles, laughter and children using equipment that people didn’t think they would ever experience. It is also wonderful to watch able-bodied children and children with disabilities play together. The purpose is for everyone to interact and play together—to stop focusing on disability and recognize that every child is a child, and every child deserves to play.

Watching a child using a mobility device, a child with autism wearing headphones, and an able-bodied child all laughing together on a zero-entry merry-go-round—that’s what we want. That’s what makes society more beautiful.

What do you hope people take away from Variety KC’s work?

At the end of the day, every child deserves the right to be a child—whether that means playing outside, attending a concert, seeing a show or going to a game. Variety exists to break down those barriers so children and families can move through life more easily.

These families spend their lives fighting for inclusion and opportunities. If we can ease that burden even a little and create safe spaces where they can have fun, be a family and play together, that’s what we’re here for.

To learn more about Variety KC and the Ten Parks Project, visit https://varietykc.org