Chad Kennedy Speaks at TEDx Modesto
Chad Kennedy, Director of Landscape Architecture, spoke at the TEDx Modesto event. TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading,” usually through brief, passionate, and moving talks from industry leaders. To further ignite discussion on these important ideas, TED created the TEDx program to support local, independently organized events that bring communities together and provide a similar experience to TED. The TEDx Modesto event combined TEDTalks videos and live presentations by local thinker-doers for an evening of enticing and eye-opening conversations.
This year, the event theme was “What makes your life more colorful?” We can think of no one better served to speak on this topic than a pioneer in the field of socially inclusive play. Chad advocates for and designs recreational spaces that are created specifically to enrich the lives of all those who visit them. Opportunities for increased recreation and play definitely make life more colorful.
His speech began by sharing the history of Central Park. Central Park was the first public park in the United States. It was a revolutionary public open space that encouraged citizens to recreate, relax, and escape urban life, regardless of their economic status, age, occupation, ethnicity, or gender. This park inspired the world to create more recreational spaces. However, as far as we have come in the 161 years since Central Park opened, we still have a long way to go in designing spaces that are equitable and fair to all. A large demographic of our society is blocked from access to these amazing facilities and is still hoping for someone to address their needs in recreation design.
The demographic who Chad was referring to are people with disabilities, individuals on the autism spectrum, and those with sensory processing disorders. Many of these disabilities impact individual lives to the point where they are unable to enjoy basic activities, such as visiting a local park. In addition, caretakers, spouses, siblings, parents, extended family members, and friends of these individuals are often unable to enjoy parks and playgrounds as they are too busy providing care.
The good news is these barriers to access and play can be removed. Through social inclusion and sensory integration, we can get families and friends playing together.
One of those spaces is the planned Awesome Spot Playground at Beyer Park in Modesto. Since 2015, community advocates, including Rachel Loredo, a mother of a child with physical disabilities, Kelly Gloria, a Clinical Director with the Central Valley Autism Project, the City of Modesto, local design professionals, and others, have been developing this playground as a socially inclusive and sensory integrated play environment unlike any other. The park is our opportunity to welcome everyone to a place where differences don’t matter by creating our own revolutionary and 21st-century version of Central Park right here in Modesto.
To watch Chad’s Tedx Modesto talk click here.
To learn more about TEDx Modesto, click here
To learn more about The Awesome Spot Playground click here.
