Ian Neumaier explained the idea behind the Traveling Accessible Playground in his application:

On the playground, what do inclusive groups of children, with and without disabilities, have to build together, throw at one another, and fight over? Often nothing.

Ian’s organization, Find Some Flow, believes play and playfulness is for the masses. That attitude won them an Awesome grant in our June pitch competition. If their pursuit of integrated play experiences hadn’t won the crowd over, the toys they brought to help the audience understand sure did. Find Some Flow offers unique experiences like a large “comic strip” created by an adaptive graphic novelist that provides instruction to inspire children to use American Sign Language to ask questions like “Want to Play?” Or imagine a “Learn to Read Braille” board provided by the Blind and Vision Rehabilitation Center of Pittsburgh, along with a tactile map of the contents of the locker.

(Photo credit: Alex Caprara/Post-Gazette)

Find Some Flow created an Accessible Playground Locker that is portable, accessibly designed and built, and filled with inclusive games and equipment like the ones described above. Designed collaboratively with the Pittsburgh disability community and dozens of other partners, the locker contains kinetic games and inclusive materials that Find Some Flow has been developing since its founding. The Awesome Pittsburgh grant allows them to place these lockers at locations all around the city for the summer. Awesome Pittsburgh trustee, Lauri Fink, was not only won over by Ian’s creativity and passion, but also by his strong personal commitment and that of his group of volunteers.

Find Some Flow can be found at festivals, Open Streets days… if there are people gathering, Ian and his group are there facilitating integrated play. You really have to see the cool activities they have to engage kids.