“The concept is it’s an all-inclusive’ park, where not only people with disabilities but children that don’t have any disabilities could all join together,” said city Solicitor Richard Tonetta. “For example, it might have a swing set that would hook up to a wheelchair.
“It’s really a really cool thing,” Tonetta said recently. “Now, we’re taking it a little bit further. We are including not only for children, but for adults. Because you can have someone that’s developmentally disabled, they have the body of a 25-year-old but the mind of a younger child. And so, there was really nothing for any of those people to enjoy.”
Another Jake’s Place playground for special needs people is coming to New Jersey. The new one is planned for Vineland.
Jake’s Place playgrounds are named in honor of Jacob Myles Cummings-Nasto who died at 2 years old from a rare heart condition, a condition that prevented him from using typical playgrounds. The first one opened in Cherry Hill in 2011 and there is also one in Delran. New Jersey even passed Jake’s Law which offers incentives to counties and municipalities to build more inclusive playgrounds.
On the group’s website, their mission is described as:
To provide all-inclusive play opportunities for children and adults with special needs through advocacy, awareness building, programming, building playgrounds, and sharing our expertise with likeminded individuals and organizations. We are dedicated to bringing all-inclusive play to New Jersey.