Unexpected Benefits
Dan Mauney / UsabilityAs a father of 2 young children (ages 8 and 5), I receive the constant requests for toys that are meant for older kids. I do my best to delay and avoid, but sometimes I am out-flanked. One such case was with the request of a zip-line. Having heard about the numerous broken arms and injuries, I was successfully delaying and avoiding installing one of these until the grandparents saw an opportunity to offload one in their yard as a Christmas present.
Somewhat reluctantly, I installed the zip-line in my backyard. The zip-line consisted of a handle bar that the kids hold onto as they “zip down the line.” Right after I installed it, I immediately recognized it failed the prime directive of children’s toys, in my mind: children’s toys must wear out the children more than the parents. Any toy that fails this test does not last long in my house. While my 5 year old was strong enough to hold on to that handle bar, I was nervous thinking that she could easily loose her grip, if not at first, then later after a series of rides. So, being the protective and dutiful father, I ran down the zip-line with her, holding my hands just beside her waist so in the event that she lost her grip I could catch her. After 10 minutes of this ridiculous task, I was in desperate need of another idea.
I installed a swing on the zip-line so she could sit down and ride it. This worked great. She knows how to get on a swing already, can do it herself, and it is relatively safe and hard to fall off. She loved it! It felt like a long, straight swing ride through the trees, which was quite unique. However, despite the fact that she loved it, sat on it calmly and safely enjoyed every ride, I was not at all prepared for what my 8 year old son would do with it.
Despite the fact that I came up with this idea for my daughter as a method of providing accessibility to younger, weaker kids, my creative son turned this idea into a virtual circuit of hilariously fun activities. He would lay down on the swing, stick his arms up, and be superman flying through the trees. He would twist the swing at the top and play “round the world” as he unwrapped zipping down the line. He and his friends put on dog shows where they would have the dog follow them down the zip line as they flew over barriers and the dogs leapt over them. He even discovered a way to make getting the zip-line back up the hill fun. He would put his chest on the line, run up the hill and when the line got too tall for him to reach the ground, he would bounce his way back up, touching the ground in spurts and “moonwalking” to the top.
There are many, many stories of how creating accessible designs actually help the able-bodied. This is just one. By making the zip-line accessible for my smaller, younger, weaker daughter, I unexpectedly made it far more fun and a far more entertaining for my older son. He and his friends have spent countless hours playing on it. Sometimes you can just never predict how doing something to help one group can unexpectedly make it a hit with another.
The same can go true with installing safety devices. I installed an old tire at the end of the zip-line to prevent the kids from running into a bush, and once they discovered that hitting that tire at full speed would bounce them halfway back up the line, new games were invented. But that is a story for another blog…
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