• A circular "window" in the hedge surrounding the garden offers an enticing glimpse, inviting all to enter.
  
  
• The garden is small enough for almost all visitors to experience the key elements during a single visit, not requiring visitors to travel great distances.

• Starting at the entrance gate, which displays tactile images of children, a dog, trees, and birds, all visitors are invited to view and touch the figures.

• The entrance wall incorporates decorative, tactile tiles, representing plants found within the garden. The top of the relief tiles is at approximately 60 inches to allow someone with low vision to get close enough to examine and also to touch. A person seated in a wheelchair assuming a side or parallel approach to the wall could reach the lower section of the tile relief.
  
  
• Braille labels identifying the plants are placed on the backside of the handrail along the entrance wall. A second, lower handrail is available for visitors who may be of shorter stature.

• The orientation board at the entrance provides information in Braille with text, a tactile map and push-button audio system. All text and map lines are presented so they contrast significantly with the background. The pedestal is recessed and the information board angled, from higher in the back to lower in front, so people in wheelchairs and scooters may approach, get close, and examine the information simultaneously with standing visitors.
  
  
• The angle at which the Braille labels are placed varies from the more conventional angle, which requires the reader to bend the wrist, to a less acute angle making the Braille easier to read.

• Strategically placed pillars with brightly colored ornaments and checkerboard patterns indicate pathways and aid in orientation.
  
  
• Starting at the entrance and continuing through the entire garden, a double row of flat, stainless steel bars have been embedded in the walking surface as a navigational guide. Larger textured areas of the same material mark locations to hear or read additional commentary.
  
  
• Surface material changes along the path identify different sections of the garden, giving additional navigational cues as the visitor moves from the entrance and between different sections of the garden.

• Periodically garden benches are placed in recessed alcoves out of the direct circulation path to allow visitors to pause and examine the flowers, lingering as long as desired. The alcoves are sufficiently wide, allowing a person to remain in his or her wheelchair and position themselves beside a person seated on the bench. The same space may be used to place a stroller or a child's wagon out of the circulation path.
  
  
• Raised plant beds, with levels ranging from 12 to 32 inches, allow direct access, minimizing the amount of stooping and bending required of a standing visitor and allows a seated visitor to get close.
  
  
• Flower color is consciously selected and often bold to provide interest for visitors with low vision.
  
  
• At intervals, the top of the walls forming the raised plant beds widens, creating additional opportunities for sitting. The height is at wheelchair seat height, allowing someone to make a transfer onto the wall for closer inspection of the flowers.

• Sculptures, set on pedestals, can be explored tactilely and easily by all visitors, including standing and seated people and people of short stature. Care has been exercised so sculptures do not constitute protruding objects. Tactile labels and audio commentary are provided for further identification.

• Seating alcoves, with a floor level below the surface of the water, project into the lake. Direct and intimate contact with water and aquatic plants living in the water is possible for children and other visitors, seated and standing.
  
  
• Pathway surfaces have no abrupt changes in level and are carefully laid so transitions are smooth even though surface materials change. All walking surface slopes are gradual, making travel easy by visitors with mobility disabilities.

 Principle 1: Equitable Use

All visitors use the same level entrance and route of travel, and are afforded the opportunity to have a sensory experience. The water element, the aquatic life, the tactile elements, and the sculpture all make a rich experience possible for people with vision disabilities, and enhance the experience for other visitors. The elevated plant beds and elevated pond place the experience within a range that can be experienced equally by standing and seated visitors and not require seated users or users with limited flexibility to bend and lean over.

 Principle 2: Flexibility in Use

Visitors may explore and examine features at their own pace. Sufficient numbers of sitting alcoves are available so users may linger as long as desired. The design of the alcoves allows visitors to interact with water from either the bench provided or a wheelchair or stand.

Principle 3: Simple and Intuitive Use

The garden is small and laid out with a single wide path, marked with pillars, and a strongly defined entrance, all useful for orientation. The metal guide rail embedded into the path also marks the path for both sighted and visually disabled visitors. Users also are informed of their location in the garden by different surface materials along the walk and paths.

Principle 4: Perceptible Information

Relief tiles, Braille text at the entrance and at each display, audio systems and text in both English and Japanese provide a variety of methods from which a visitor may choose to receive information. Wayfinding cues are plentiful and readily apparent, i.e., the pillars, changes in the texture and color-contrasting walking surfaces, the metal guide rail embedded in the path, and contrasting edges on the raised flowerbeds.

 Principle 6: Low Physical Effort

The path through the garden is short and generally flat, requiring little effort to traverse the route. Raised plant beds and ponds are easy to experience, allowing visitors to maintain a neutral body position and requiring little stooping or bending to approach and enjoy.

 Principles 7: Size and Space for Approach and Use

The benches, walkways, plant beds, and water elements have all been sized and positioned to accommodate multiple users simultaneously. Visitors, both standing and seated, as well as people of short stature may reach all components comfortably.

"People with disabilities and the elderly who have long been kept from access to public gardens, are now able to visit the Sensory Garden and share enjoyable times with others."

"Although aesthetic value and accessibility often appear to conflict with each other, I have succeeded in providing as much accessibility as possible by considering this as a mere design issue, as shown in the example of water access."