Playground visits rare for disabled children

More than half of parents of disabled children rarely take them to playgrounds, a study has found.

About 60 per cent said they seldom took their children out to play.

The parents said their children could not use the equipment and they were unable to carry them and their wheelchairs up flights of steps to playgrounds.

Playright Children's Playground Association found that only four per cent of 230 pieces of play equipment in eight parks and public estates were 'truly accessible' for the disabled.

Association spokeswoman Clara Yip Sui-yee said: 'Some disabled children have to live in such small flats they do not have room to move their wheelchairs.

'Physical obstacles need to be removed for these children.' The study showed only five per cent of parents of disabled children said they would always take them to playgrounds.

The questionnaire examined the accessibility of public playgrounds for some of the SAR's estimated 2,182 physically handicapped children between four and 11.

Ronnie Yu Kwok-tung, chief executive of the Hong Kong Sports Association for the Physically Disabled, said there were not enough accessible playgrounds.