Inclusion of Individuals with Disabilities
Caroline County Recreation and Parks encourages individuals
with disabilities to participate in recreation programs. These
programs include, but are not limited to, sports, outdoors,
special events, trips and general recreation programs. CCRP
is pleased to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) regulations. Reasonable accommodations for participation
are made on an individual basis. The term "INCLUSION" means
that individuals with disabilities are "included" in our
recreation programs and summer camps.
When a child or adult with a disability is registered for a
program and requests special accommodations, the recreation
specialist and inclusion coordinator follow several steps to
ensure successful integration. These steps include insuring
that reasonable accommodations are made, such as accessibility,
adaptive equipment, camp specific training, interpreters and
companions. In order to implement its inclusion effort,
Caroline County Recreation and Parks will:
- Train Department staff
- Foster community awareness
- Increase resources for program operation
- Develop a outreach program
"Integration does not mean individuals with disabilities will
become normal, but rather they will be given every opportunity
to fit into society to the greatest extent possible and that
society will be more accepting of them."
Scout Lee Gunn & Carol Ann Peterson, Therapeutic
Recreation Program Design: Principles and Procedures.
(Prentice-Hal, Inc., 1978), p.42.
Goals of Inclusion
- To provide equal recreation opportunities.
- To focus on the preference of individuals rather
than on the disability.
- To eliminate the philosophy of isolation and
segregation as an end in itself.
- To provide alternatives in recreation by increasing
the opportunities of choice
- To support individuals being included by providing
reasonable accommodations that will enhance the
recreation experience.
- To encourage individuals to participate in recreation
activities at their maximum level even if that means
only partial participation.
- To decrease dependency by encouraging skill and confidence
building experiences
- To promote recreation activities for individuals
appropriate to their chronological age.
Reasonable Accommodations
Caroline County Recreation and Parks will provide reasonable
accommodations to people with disabilities upon request. The
department asks that you notify the department office of
your/program participants needs at the time of registration
and or at least 2 weeks in advance of the program start date.
Certain accommodations, such as the provision of a program
companion, require at least 4 weeks.
Examples of accommodations we will provide include:
- Allowing service animals in programs;
- Changing the rules of games/activities - as long as
it does not fundamentally alter the purpose of the
game/activity;
- Moving the program/activity from a non-accessible
location to an accessible location;
- Providing accessible transportation within a program;
- Providing qualified sign language interpreters and or
assisted listening devices;
- Providing information in large print, Braille, on disc,
or readers; and
- Providing additional staff.
This is not an exhaustive list of the accommodations the
Department will provide. When an accommodation is requested, we
will work with you to enable you or your program participant's
successful participation.
Personal & Invasive Services Policies
Services we do not provide include those that are personal in
nature such as feeding, toileting, or the changing of clothes.
We also do not provide services that are invasive in nature
such as injections, catheterization, g-tube feeding. However,
we will allow the person who requires such services to bring
their own personal care attendant, at no charge, to enable their
participation.
