Texture:
Lamb's Ears have soft, soft, fuzzy leaves in a silvery green color , just wonderful to the touch.
People used to use them like band-aids, a good thing to experiment with.

Chocolate mint:
When you brush your fingers across it, it smells just like a York Peppermint Patty.

Both these plants are easy to grow, thrive in full sun, & spread readily, so you'll soon have some to share.

(I like it when kids can take a plant home with some sort of reasonable chance of having it survive!)

Herbs are good, too:
Rosemary is sort-of pine-scented.
It likes full sun, excellent drainage, & dry-ish soil.

Culinary sage smells wonderful, like a kitchen at the holidays! It has an interesting texture, too.

Rosemary is evergreen, & I think the sage is, too.

For summer color in big, easy-to-see "blobs", you can't beat hibiscus & cannas.
Look for dwarf cannas to put the color at a child's level.

People talk bad about mimosa trees, but I think they're the perfect child's tree:
I used to climb ours when I was about 3!
and the flowers are silky & smell wonderful!
I used to call them ballerina flowers.
A friend told me she called 'em tickle tickle flowers.

If your soil is acidic, gardenias have the most glorious fragrance, & they also have glossy dark green leaves & luminous white flowers with a luscious texture.

Stevia a a good herb to chew on.
It tastes just like sugar, but there's no sugar in it!
People use it in lemonade & so forth.

In zone 9, maybe the kids could pick their own lemons or limes & add stevia & water for lemonade!

It sounds like a really fun project:
Best luck, & enjoy!

The few that come to mind are sunflowers and zinnias. They are so easy to grow.

The San Antonio botanical garden has a garden for the blind. Also the signs are in brail. Maybe they also have access ideas.
Try contacting them for info.

Here is a link that might be useful: San Antonio Botanical Gardens

following up on sylvia's suggestion of providing plants "kids can take a plant home with some sort of reasonable chance of having it survive!", i would suggest a
kalanchoe laetivirens 'mexican hat'.

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as you can see, this plant produces its own babies (roots and all) and kids can simply pluck them off and drop on top of the dirt. they require little water and will survive much abuse....an excellent plant for kids to start with.

HTH,
Jo
ps - love the idea of lambs ears and mimosa!!!

Okra might be interesting. I grows straight and tall so you don't have to get on the ground, and it has edible and ornamental seed pods that can be dried for wreaths.

French Hollyhock is a good instant gratification flower. It reseeds readily several times a season. Seeds can be collected from the finished flowers.

Plants like Rock Rose that open and close with changing light could be interesting.

Did you check the American Horticultural Therapyhref> website?

Pull up the Moody Gardens website too, they have a whole program on accessible gardens. And they give tours.

You will need to do raised beds for your kids in wheelchairs and those with more limited mobility.

Wrap the handles of garden tools with thick foam padding to help them grip the tools.

Root beer plant smells like root beer, it's piper something my brain is dead right now. Grows great in zone 9, makes a good background planting and the kids love it, it can also be used in cooking.

Clerodendrum t.... peanut butter tree is another great plant, makes a small tree.

Lemon grass-cooking and great smelling.

Heavily textured or fragrant plants for the blind kids. Chinese silk plant has a great textured leaf, scented geraniums, roses for the silky petals, the peanut butter tree, root beer and lemon grass for fragrance.

Spider or airplane plants are another good choice for the kids to take home as are morning glories, zinnia, periwinkles, beans. You can make a bean or morning glory vine teepee.

Good luck! If you need cuttings or starts or seeds let us know and we will all pitch in.
Tally HO!

Radishes grow very quickly. For kids, that's important. Fast results.