Inventive, accessible? That's what Spiral Garden is all about

By Louise Kinross

Many of you are familiar with Spiral Garden, Holland Bloorview's artist-run garden that brings children with and without disabilities together under a canopy of trees to tend an accessible garden, sculpt clay, work wood, make puppets and tell stories.

This past summer staff designed and built this innovative, accessible wash-up station for children to use to prepare food and clean up after cooking.

"In this solution, there's a plexi-glass shield to deflect water off the legs of those who use wheelchairs or who are standing," says Shannon Crossman, creative coordinator. "The length of the pipe allows for many children to use it at the same time. A course of split bamboo troughs transports the water to a rocky area for drainage."

Isn't that cool?