qchron.com<\/a>].<\/p>\n\u201cThis playground has a history,\u201d Richards said. \u201cThis playground is one of the most important places in the country in terms of inclusion. He Playground for all Children was the first playground in the United States to be built for able-bodied and disabled children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The borough president said his grandmother had a disabled child in a time when parents were encouraged to send them away.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it was very forward-thinking, a park like this,\u201d he said. \u201cIn this park, kids in wheelchairs and walkers have the same ability to play as kids running around.<\/p>\n
Thomas-Henry, who joined the Council in January, said the Playground for All Children was one of her earliest priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery parent wants to see their child run, make friends, build confidence and experience the joy of being a kid,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is why this project matters … To put this into perspective, the Americans with Disabilities Act did not become law until 1990 \u2014 six years after this playground opened. Long before accessibility became a legal requirement, this became the model.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was and remains a personal matter for Assemblywoman Larinda Hooks (D-Corona).<\/p>\n
\u201cI am the mother of a disabled daughter,\u201d Hooks said. \u201cThis park has meant so much to me. I have five children. My other kids could go places where she could not play. This is all our kids\u2019 park, so it meant a lot for me to be here today.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter is now 30 years old. So I am fighting for everyone\u2019s children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilman Ty Hankerson (D-Jamaica) serves as chairman of the Parks Committee.<\/p>\n
His interest Thursday also was more than professional.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to say, as someone with a disability as a child, this means a lot to me,\u201d Hankerson said. \u201cAnd I know it means a lot to families who have a child with a disability. As we say in our committee, parks are for everyone. No child should feel left out of the fun because the equipment surfaces or overall layout does not benefit them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacqueline Langsam, the Queens borough parks commissioner, said it was a bit early to forecast a timeline, saying the department would engage in an extensive outreach effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to see what the community wants,\u201d Langsam said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and City Councilmember Shanel Thomas-Henry (D-Corona) have had it with people just talking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3945,2100,609,9,24,63,10649,122,124,123,18411],"class_list":["post-315856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-donovan-richards","tag-flushing-meadows-corona-park","tag-government","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-parks","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-shanel-thomas-henry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}