After Years of Planning, Sherman Oaks Opens a Special Park

The city unveiled a long-awaited universal access playground Thursday morning in the Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Park. The inspiration behind this kind of universal access park came from the parents of a child who died of muscular disease just a few weeks after his birth; their goal was to have playgrounds created with ramps that he could have used.

The founders of Shanes Inspiration, a non-profit organization which advocated for parks to include facilities for disabled children, Catherine Curry-Williams and Scott Williams spoke to an audience of families and community members before joining dozens of children for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting. City Council member Paul Krekorian also addressed the crowd.

“Children don’t see disabilities. They see other children,” said Krekorian. “When we bring those children together in one place….what we’re doing is building a foundation for a future that will be free of bigotry in all of its forms.”

District 6 Councilman Tony Cárdenas told a story about his first encounter with a universal access playground. He was standing next to a parent at the unveiling of a playground in his district, and he remarked to the man how the children with disabilities were playing with the children without disabilities. The parent told him it was the first time he was able to play with his child. The experience educated him, he said.

“It never occurred to me that there are families who don’t get to play with each other because these playgrounds did not exist,” he said.

The $444,967 playground is the last of 22 universal access parks to be built in the city of Los Angeles. The first one was built in 1998 at Griffith Park in conjunction with Shane’s Inspiration.
“Now over a decade after that partnership with Shane’s Inspiration was formed, the city of Los Angeles has successfully revolutionized the way that playgrounds are seen across the nation,” said Kevin Regan, Assistant General Manager for the Department of Recreation and Parks.

“The city of Los Angeles has become known as the most playable city in the world,” he said.

Catherine Curry-Williams and Scott Williams, thanked the city officials for their efforts.

“Today I have this amazing gift of hearing and seeing our mission come to reality,” said Curry-Williams.