All-abilities playground opens in Del Valle

A new playtime opportunity for all children opened Tuesday at a park in Del Valle, according to Travis County.

DEL VALLE, Texas (KXAN) — A new playtime opportunity for all children opened Tuesday at a park in Del Valle, according to Travis County.

County leaders cut the ribbon on an all-abilities playground at Southeast Metropolitan Park on Highway 71.

According to the county, the playground was developed to meet "the physical, visual, sensory, auditory and mental needs of all children."

The playground has a mosasaur-theme, the county said, which is a prehistoric aquatic animal. The bones of one of the creatures were discovered in Onion Creek in the 1930s, according to the county.

That mosasaur fossil is now on display at newly renamed Texas Science & Natural History Museum at 2400 Trinity St. on the University of Texas at Austin campus. That museum reopened in September after undergoing extensive renovations.

In February, the City of Austin Parks Department identified the Springwood Neighborhood Park as the site for a potential play-for-all-abilities park.

Round Rock developed an all-abilities park in 2008, which it said created a space for all children, not only those with visible or well-known disabilities.