MRPA Foundation Announces Access to Recreation Webinar Series

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Access to Recreation grant program has provided $15 million in funding to 36 recreation projects in four Midwestern states over the last three years. Projects were selected based on their concepts for embracing universal design, opportunity to facilitate inclusion of people of all abilities and opportunity to serve as an exemplar of universal design to community planners, recreation practitioners and advocates.

Join the National Center on Accessibility for a summer webinar series as we look at some of these innovative projects. The free 90-minute sessions will present an overview of the project concepts, the planning process, design decisions, construction issues and fundraising. Participants will have the opportunity to view some of the project details online and ask questions of the project managers. This is an excellent opportunity for professionals seeking the latest information on universal design trends specific to parks and recreation. The series is sponsored by the Michigan Recreation and Park Association Foundation.

The series, entitled 'Access to Recreation: Webinar Series on Exemplar Universal Design Projects,' includes three webinars covering playgrounds, boating and fishing access sites and interpretive trails. The playground and boating/fishing webinars were held June 25 and July 30. If you missed the webinars, archives and transcripts of the sessions will be made available online. 

To view the playground webinar archive, click here.

To view the boating and fishing webinar archive, click here.

Details about the final session, registration and system requirements are provided below.

Interpretive Trails

August 27, 2009

2-3:30 p.m. (Eastern)

During this session the project teams will discuss plans to makeover one existing park and build another while creating a multi-sensory trail experience and using technology for visitor orientation. Featured projects:

• Pondview Park, Kettering (OH) - Joe Baldasare, Dayton Community Foundation; Mary Beth Thaman, Kettering Parks and Recreation; and Todd Wales, Vivian Llambi & Associates
  

• Southwind Park, Springfield (IL) - Diane Mathis, Springfield Park District

About the Webinars

This series will be presented using Adobe Acrobat Connect. System requirements for Windows XP users include Internet connection with a minimum bandwidth 56Kbps; Adobe Flash Player 8 or later; and one of the following web browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7, Mozilla Firefox 1.x, 2.x, Mozilla 1.x or later or Netscape 7.x. For other operating systems check http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/systemreqs/. The audio portion of the webinars will have streamed real time captions. Participants will have an opportunity to submit questions to panelists.

Registration

Participation in the webinars is free. Individuals are requested to register in advance through www.ncaonline.org. Confirmation notices with the URL for each session will be e-mailed to participants on the Monday prior to each web event. For questions, send an e-mail to nca@indianda.edu or call the National Center on Accessibility at (812) 856-4422 (voice) or (812) 856-4421 (tty).