An Accessible Birthday Party

A few years ago, we attempted our first big birthday party for the J-Rex.  It was, of course, a dinosaur theme, and we had all the typical activities you tend to have in birthday parties.  There was one little problem, though: the J-Rex didn't enjoy the activities as much as her guests because several, such as the coloring station and the dino egg hunt, did not account for her low vision.  Granted, the J-Rex is always a good sport about these things and was more interested in her friends having a good time than her own access to the activities, but it did make me, as her parent, think about how I might have done things differently.  

Last year's birthday wasn't an issue because she didn't really have any friends to invite to a party, being newly moved and newly homeschooled. This year, however, she has a lot of kids she spends time with that she wanted to invite to a big party for her 8th birthday.  I like entertaining, so I'm only too happy to oblige, but I certainly wanted to put into practice some of the reflections I had after the last party and make this one accessible to the J-Rex and all of her friends, many of whom have varying degrees of visual impairment. 

How often does the visually impaired child get invited to a birthday party where they actually can participate equally in all of the activities? As Ghandi said, "be the change you wish to see in the world." I like the idea of the change starting with us and, besides, we want the party to be fun for everyone!

So, this year, the theme the J-Rex chose for her party was "Woodland Fairy-Tale."  We searched around and found an excellent park to have the party at that has a waterfall, an old Spring House with a moat that looks just like a fairy castle, picnic tables, and a nice, flat trail that will be easy to navigate for her friends that use white canes.  The great thing about having an outdoor party is that the environment itself can provide most of the entertainment (especially at this age, when imaginative play is peaking).  

We opted for a short party time to reduce the number of formal activities we needed to come up with while leaving ourselves open to letting it go on longer than expected.  In the end, we decided to provide some bubbles in the favor bags (we're calling them "party bags," though, and providing them at the beginning of the party to be used at the park) and to create a scavenger hunt that will get the kids to explore the wonderful features of the park.  From there, we hope their imaginations will do the rest!

We made the invitations and food signs accessible by using a 16-18 pt Arial font and leaving off all the clip art that might make things look cuter but would add visual clutter.  Instead, we made them colorful by choosing a rainbow colored theme (leaving out yellow since it is too low contrast when on a white background). Going along with that rainbow theme, we have coordinated simple colored plates and cups in contrasting colors to the plain colored tablecloths.  With the visually impaired, visual clutter is a serious concern, as is contrast, so we want to make sure we keep things simple and none of the items blend in to each other too much.  

While we were able to have the invitations for the J-Rex's two fully blind friends brailled for us, we couldn't do the same with all of the food signs, so we are having to make some compromises with the understanding that the other kids' parents will be there to help out.

Making a scavenger hunt that would get everyone exploring and was equally accessible was our biggest challenge but, after scoping out the park with all of the senses in mind, it wasn't all that difficult after all! For the fully sighted and low-vision kids at the party, they will be receiving this large-print, multi-sensory scavenger hunt:

  

Then, for the J-Rex's two friends with little to no usable vision, we slightly altered the scavenger hunt by replacing the visual clues with more touching, listening, and smelling.  They will be receiving their scavenger hunts in braille, while their parents will receive a copy in the same large print provided to everyone else (and will be reminded to keep an eye out for poison ivy, which can be treacherous for the blind at a park).  Here is the print version of our sight-free version of the scavenger hunt:

I'm sure I'll learn more about accessibility and birthday parties as the years progress, but I feel like our plans for this go-around are going to be good for making the whole event fun for everyone, no matter the degree of sight they possess.  

Final note: 

You may wonder how it has taken me until the J-Rex's 8th year to begin concerning myself with these things and I think my answer to that concern is an important one to be stated: 

In her early years, we avoided parties because we did not know how to make an accessible party for her, opting instead for experiences that occasionally might include one close friend.  This was what had been suggested to us by many of the professionals we worked with as a way of accommodating her sensory issues while giving her something equally meaningful.  When she did start associating with more "mainstream" kids, we were more concerned with making the party fun enough that the other kids wanted to come, especially knowing how well the J-Rex adapts and how important having friends over was to her.  

As a parent of a special needs child, you have so much that you have to be concerned with just to deal with the day-to-day that birthday parties are often the last thing you are worrying about. It has taken us eight years to adjust to all the subtleties of living with and accommodating a low-vision child (and we are by no means done with this process...just a lot more comfortable with it all at this point). Only now are we able to put the energy into making sure that her birthdays are as "normal" a life experience as possible. I think we're finally figuring out how to do that, and it is an exciting moment because, in a way, it means we're finally on to the small stuff!