Public parks play a crucial role in community building by strengthening neighborhoods and fostering positive change. The National Park Service’s Accessibility Task Force introduced inclusivity strategies in 2012, followed by state-level policies supporting park accessibility. This research develops a taxonomy of these policies based on measurable characteristics and their alignment with the ADA Outdoor Guidelines. It further expands on this taxonomy by conducting a comparative case study on policy implementation in rural and urban parks, addressing the gap in rural park research (Veitch et al., 2013). Findings aim to guide community development practitioners in advancing inclusive, accessible strategies.
