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Tomas Lobo takes a behind-the-back shot during a pickup wheelchair basketball game at the West Gray Adaptive Recreation Center. Parks plans to add more adaptive recreation programs and continue making parks more accessible.

Story and photos by Dave Schafer

When other children ran and skipped through the playground, Michelle Colvard struggled to keep up. Her wheelchair tires sank in the pebbles, and the children would be enjoying another activity before she arrived at the last one.

“It was so exhausting to get from one place to another,” said Colvard, who was born with spinal bifida.

Sometimes, the pebbles or woodchips would be low, creating a ridge she couldn’t get over.

“When the park’s not accessible, you’re constantly trying to overcome barriers when you’re just trying to have fun,” she said.
Josh Franklin lost his legs at age 21.

“I think disabled people feel they’re not welcome because most parks aren’t accessible for them,” said Franklin, a member of the Team USA sitting volleyball team. “And they risk getting laughed at because they can’t push through the dirt. Well, if you put the picnic table or path on concrete, they could roll just fine.

“What I’d like to see is more accessibility for the disabled.”

Colvard and the Parks & Recreation Department want the same thing. For the past year, Colvard has been chairperson of the Houston Commission on Disabilities, which advises departments, City Council and the mayor on making the city friendlier to people with disabilities.

She is also part of the parks advisory committee that visits a different park every 30-60 days to examine accessibility within the park. The committee, comprised of members of the Commission on Disabilities and Parks representatives, suggests improvements.

As a result, several parks have already become more accessible.
And, in December, Parks hired Peggy Turner to oversee an adaptive recreations program at the newly renamed West Gray Adaptive Recreation Center. (See box.)

People with mobility impairments are at risk for secondary conditions, such as obesity and heart disease, that impact their quality of life more than their disability.

“It becomes a vicious downward cycle,” Turner said. “Healthy use of your free time would put you on the upward spiral of a fulfilling life.”

“There are so many barriers in fitness centers and gyms for people who have disabilities. There shouldn’t be barriers in our cities and parks,” Colvard said.

Exceeding expectations
“We offer programs to all citizens of Houston,” Parks Director Joe Turner said. “Just because you’re a person with disabilities, that doesn’t mean you don’t need exercise. You do, just like anybody else. And so we’re trying to meet a need, and we know it’s there.”

Colvard said city parks were pretty good about following the Americans with Disabilities Act. But more changes could be made. For example, the park might have appropriate parking, but the parking wasn’t connected to a trail.

The exception was Memorial Park, which didn’t meet ADA requirements, Colvard said. It also has a high percentage of users with disabilities.

Those users couldn’t get to the drinking fountains or into the restrooms, and there wasn’t adequate parking, she said.

After the committee brought those problems to the Parks Department, they were quickly fixed. Then the department went beyond ADA requirements, adding more accessible parking, picnic areas and a long trail from the parking lot to the bike loop so people with mobility impairments wouldn’t have to go into traffic.

“We look at the ADA as being minimal standards in our parks. We build on that,” Colvard said.

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