Dog exercise areas (DEAs)

Equal access
Requirements for the integration of equal access for all users
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) defines ‘premises’ as the whole of the built environment and includes existing buildings, new or proposed buildings, transport systems, car parks, pathways, and public parks and gardens.
Note: Consult an access consultant accredited by the Association of Consultants in Access Australia (ACAA).
Elements required for equal access
- Embellishments must be designed in accordance with AS 1428 Design for access and mobility.
- Ensure that DEAs are connected to a ‘continuous accessible path of travel’ to enable equal access for people who use wheelchairs. Ensure that the path of travel is connected to an accessible car park space. Ensure all park embellishments are connected by pathways.
- Provide equal access to DEAs by installing embellishments at the recommended mounting and circulation heights to provide wheelchair access and reach heights (include equal access to dog drinking bowl taps).
- Provide facilities for people who are blind. When positioning embellishments, consider that guide dogs/assistance dogs are exercised at DEAs.
- Avoid finished height difference between a concrete slab and adjoining surfaces to prevent trip hazards and to prevent ‘tramlining’ of pram, bicycle and wheelchair wheels.
- Consider provision of Braille and tactile signs to entry area.
- Install embellishments at a minimum 500 mm offset from the edge of a pathway, to provide safe clearance for pedestrians and cyclists.
- Install wheelchair accessible gates and latches.
- Install a hardstand entry through a dual access gate sufficiently wide for wheelchair entry and allowing adequate circulation between gates.
See the following for further guidance:
- Figure 15: Typical dog drinking bowl
- LIM Fences and gates
- LIM Taps.
Visual/sensory wayfinding
- For people with a vision impairment, provide a minimum 30% luminance contrast between objects and the background they are viewed against, for ease of identification.
- Where luminance contrast may not be achieved (such as grey aluminium furniture on grey concrete), luminance contrast can be addressed by introducing colour into the ground surface providing a minimum 30% luminance contrast with the embellishment base, resulting in the embellishment being more visible for people who have low vision.
- Consider designing nodes with a contrasting coloured concrete, or a variation in surface texture, to enable people with a disability to identify the location of embellishments along a pathway.
Figure 15: Typical dog drinking bowl

This component is currently in development