Skate parks

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.
- Access requirements for new building works are outlined throughout various sections of the NCC (current edition), BCA Volume 1 (current edition)and these apply to car parking, external paths to buildings, building entrances and accessibility requirements within a building (such as accessible or ambulant toilets, stairs, ramps, exit signs).
- Ensure that skate parks 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.
- Consider a skate park design to include people who use wheelchairs in place of skate boards.
- Consider installing equal access seats for ‘passive surveillance’ of skate park users.
- Install embellishments a minimum 500 mm offset from the edge of connection pathways, to provide safe clearance for pedestrians and cyclists.
- 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.
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.
See Figure 2: Plan – ‘at grade’ skate park.
Figure 2: Plan – ‘at grade’ skate park

This component is currently in development