Webinar: The Essentials of Accessibility: School and Community Gardens

Program Description

Recorded: June 16, 2020 – This webinar is being presented by the Maine AgrAbility Program, a project dedicated to providing education, assistance, and support to Maine farmers with disabilities engaged in production agriculture, helping them and their families maintain optimal production and experience an enhanced quality of life.

This presentation discusses planning for school and community gardens for all users including those of all ages and abilities. Information discusses how to go beyond the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards including design concepts that make a space diverse, welcoming, and comfortable for all. The presentation includes concepts on making the garden an enjoyable destination, creating opportunities for social connections, and a place that users will return to again and again. Assistive technology in the form of adaptive garden tools and products is featured.

Participants learn about:

• The key factors in making school gardens accessible.
• Safety issues need to be considered.
• Universal Design principles and how are they applied in garden settings.
• Various assistive technologies that can be used in the garden setting.

Presenters

Ketra S. Crosson, OTR/L

Ketra is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and is a licensed Occupational Therapist with over 30 years of experience in developing and providing independent living options for people with disabilities. She provides such services as access design consultation, independent living skills assessment and training, assistive technology consultation, job accommodation assessments, and on-farm assessments with farmers with disabilities.

Jill S. Johanning, AIA

Jill Johanning is a Maine Licensed Architect who specializes in accessible and universal design at Alpha One. As a part of the independent living center at Alpha One, Access Design has been a core service of Alpha One for more than 20 years, providing ADA technical assistance, training, and consulting on designing facilities for universal access. Before joining Alpha One, she was employed as a project designer for a large A/E firm in Maine. She has design and construction experience in public and private building projects, with a focus on educational and universal design campus facilities for users of all abilities. Her strong accessibility background developed from working with children and adults with disabilities while studying architecture in college.

Resources

• Handout for this event – MS Word

Links mentioned in this webinar

• Maine AgrAbility
• Alpha One
• New England ADA Center – The Universal Garden
• Sensory Trust – Sensory Trail Marker Kit
• Gates – Accessible ring latch
• Elevated Strawberries Roger’s Farm, Gainesville, FL 
• Creating A Sensory Garden – Ideas And Plants For Sensory Gardens
• ADA Checklist for Existing Facilities
• Children’s Garden Tools

Adaptive Tools – vendors

• Ergonomic and Adaptive Gardening Tools
• Garden Gate – Adaptive Tools for Gardeners
• Healthy Products for You
• Wright Stuff
• AbleMart

More information

• Garden Grants
• A Guide for Making Community Gardens Accessible for all Members – PDF
• Sensing Nature: Designing urban green space with sight impairment in mind – PDF
• Analysis of Therapeutic Gardens for Children with ASD

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Photo credit: Image licensed through Creative Commons by Local Food Initiative

Rev: 06/17/2020