Rosstandart has approved the national norm GOST R 59010-2020 “Equipment and covering for playgrounds. Additional safety requirements and test methods for universal playground devices”. The adopted standard is the first Russian normative and technical document aimed at creating an "accessible environment" and providing so-called "universal" playgrounds where children with developmental disorders can play.
The equipment of those universal playgrounds offers a large number of different activities by providing tables for games, swings, seesaws, slides, carousels and other types of equipment so that they can be used by children with and without disabilities. The approval and implementation of the standard will make it possible to adopt a uniform technical guideline in the field of children's entertainment, which aims to improve the technical level and safety. Finally this should lead to an improvement of the quality of equipment and flooring for such sites, in order to reach a high level of social protection for children and to realize the practical implementation of the principles of inclusion.
GOST R 59010-2020 defines uniform requirements for children's playground. The playground space and equipment should include an educational and developmental component and provide conditions for children with and without developmental disabilities to play together. The use of devices according to the new standard facilitates the development of:
- sensory stimulation (bouch, sound and color effects in devices, braille boards)
- sense of balance, motor activity (swing “nest”, hammocks swinging in different directions, equipment for balancing, climbing, turning, sliding)
- children’s sensation about the relative position of body parts and their movements (seesaws on rigid springs, jumping devices).
Among the main requirements for devices specified by the standard are:
- easy accessibility for all children, including children with disabilities
- the use of ramps, platforms and safety structures to develop physical abilities and remove restrictions on movement;
- the use of cognitive types of equipment - games of developmental panels, visual prompts, traumatic figures made of rubber crumbs in the form of animals.
The draft took into account the best international and foreign experiences and documents such as the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the guide “Accessible Playgrounds. A brief guide to the application of the rules for accessibility of playgrounds and the requirements of the European standard EN 1176 Safety of playgrounds and play equipment.
GOST R 59010-2020 has been developed within the Technical Committee for Standardization No. 455 “Equipment for children’s playgrounds” by a working group under the leadership of STANDARDINFORM and comes into force on May 1, 2021.
As a reminder: in the Eurasian Economic Union the technical regulation TR EAEU 042/2017 On safety of playgrounds came into force on November 17, 2018. Due to Corona, the transition period is probably extended until December 1, 2021.
