LEWISTON — Until five years ago, Ben Hayes never thought much about the many obstacles faced by people with disabilities. Never thought much about playgrounds, either.

That changed around 2007 when two things happened: Hayes suffered a severe spinal-cord injury after a freak accident in the snow. And his wife, Erin, gave birth to a girl named Isabel.

Now using a wheelchair full time, Hayes spoke Wednesday night of his gratitude for a handicapped-accessible playground coming soon to Marcotte Park.

“I’m not going to go climb the walls of the playground,” Hayes told a group at the Franco-American Heritage Center. “But I’m going to be out there interacting with Isabel.”

Exactly the point expressed by city leaders and the architects responsible for planning the inclusive playground: It’s not just children with physical or learning disabilities who will benefit from the park; it’s their parents, other children and the community as a whole.

“Kids with disabilities are not going to be confined to the sidelines of the playground,” said Stephanie Gelinas, executive director of Sandcastle Clinical and Educational Services in Lewiston. “But I think the benefit will be much more far-reaching. We benefit because our eyes are open wider. It doesn’t only open our minds, but it opens our hearts, and that’s always important.”

Plans call for building a playground at the Birch Street site with wheelchair-accessible paths and playground equipment and drawings, all themed with a nod to Lewiston’s riverfront.

The project is being paid for with a grant from California-based Shane’s Inspiration, a nonprofit that helps build playgrounds that are accessible to all children, regardless of their physical ability. The city entered a national contest last summer, posting a video about community and the need for such a playground to YouTube.com.

Lewiston was selected as a regional winner, receiving a $10,000 grant to buy accessible playground equipment and a $50,000 grant for project development and design services, and to create educational programming built around the playground.

During the planning phase, Community Relations Coordinator Dottie Perham-Whittier and Recreation Director Maggie Chisholm were in contact with architects from Shane’s Inspiration. Together, they worked out plans to the finest detail.

On Wednesday night, some of those details — the Riverfront Rock Wall, animal sculptures, Spinner Alley, Sensory Rock and the Slope Embankment of Fun, among them — were laid out for the first time as sketches, plans and photographs were unveiled for all to see.

It’s going to be great for children and their parents, but the people involved in its planning hope it will be something much more.

“This playground,” said Brad Thornton, of Shane’s Inspiration, “is a vehicle to eliminate bias against people with disabilities.”

According to figures released in an informational pamphlet at the meeting, the Lewiston School Department serves more than 4,990 children of whom 16 percent are special needs children limited to minimal play at traditional playgrounds.

Marcotte Park is the triangle plot east of the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, where Jefferson, Caron and Birch streets meet. The universally accessible playground planned for the site is said to be the first, not only in Lewiston, but in all of New England.

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Marcotte Park/Together We Play Packet