Parks in the Waitākere Ranges Local Board area now have a guide to becoming more accessible, following the adoption of key principles of accessible design in parks.

The Waitākere Ranges Local Board funded an assessment of 10 of the highest-profile parks in the area by accessibility experts Be. Lab, who developed a set of key principles for universal design in parks.

The principles are grouped around the three stages of a park visit:

• planning a visit
• arriving and getting into the park
• enjoying the park

These principles will now be incorporated into the design of future parks projects, as well as having the potential for the board to fund specific actions to address key concerns raised in the assessments.

Parrs Park (pictured) was one of the parks selected for audit.

Image: Auckland Council