ADVENTURE FOR EVERYONE

People who use wheelchairs can ride on the carousel. There are notes written in Braille on the jungle gym. There are table-high sandboxes for any child to build a sand castle. It aims to offer everything a special- needs guest wants to enjoy at a theme park.

Morgan’s Wonderland opened in 2010. Since then, more than 100,000 guests have visited the park. It is free for people with disabilities. Family members and friends who come with them pay $10. Everyone else pays $15. Three out of every four visitors do not have disabilities. The number of people who can visit the park is limited. That way, it never gets too loud, and the lines don’t get too long.

The park is the first of its kind in America. Gordon Hartman started Morgan’s Wonderland. He named the park after his 17-year-old daughter. She has some disabilities too.

Tifani Jackson and her 11-year-old son Jaylin visited the park from Austin, Texas. Jaylin proudly shows off his new hat from the gift shop. Then he asks his mom to go to the adventure ride. There, special jeeps for wheelchairs twist and turn through a short track.

“It’s so nice to have a place like this,” said Tifani.

The park has about 20 different activities. There’s a Butterfly Playground. There’s a train that goes through the park and around a lake. The Sitting Garden is a quiet place to take a rest. There’s a workshop inside Sensory Village. There are low tables with tools on them. Visitors can create different things using those tools.

Sandboxes with shovels and rakes are there for the children too. The garden tools can be used while sitting in a wheelchair. There is also a musical garden. Rides are wide enough for wheelchairs to fit.

Kriste is another visitor who visited the park in a wheelchair. Her father said, “she doesn’t talk but it is easy to understand that she really enjoyed it.”