The Journal of Public Space

Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities in Public Spaces: Welcomed or Shunned?

Elizabeth Nyabiage Ombati — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

This viewpoint discusses the role of inclusive and accessible public spaces in enabling enjoyment of human rights by persons with psychosocial disabilities. It acknowledges that in accessing public spaces, accessibility requirements for people with psychosocial disabilities often go unnoticed and are rarely taken into account while those of persons with more visible disabilities are often considered.
ThevViewpoint bases its propositions on the lived experiences of the author, and uses this foundation to discuss critical issues on how persons with psychosocial disabilities access (or do not) public spaces. Issues addressed include stigma, violence and human rights abuses as they face persons with psychosocial disabilities in public spaces; reflections on urban designs and whether this is done with the broader perspective of supporting inclusion of all persons with disabilities; accessibility as a key concept running throughout the paper; as well as the views on participation of persons with disabilities and industry in making public spaces accessible and inclusive of marginalized populations. A key theme that is also considered is how important attitude changes are necessary in ensuring persons with disabilities are accessing public spaces, and also thoughts around the roles of patience, kindness and empathy.
The propositions in the Viewpoint are based on human rights and development frameworks including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; the New Urban Agenda (2016), as well as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2016).
Finally, the viewpoint offers proposals on the way forward; proposing for example that governments at all levels, in particular local and regional governments, together with organisations of persons with disabilities must build the staff capacity of infrastructure service providers and urban practitioners in understanding the different accessibility requirements for all types of impairments when reflecting on inclusive urban designs.

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Disability Inclusion and Accessibility in Zimbabwe

Edwin Ndhlovu, Nyunyutai Mudzingwa — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

The viewpoint explores challenges and opportunities for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in accessing public institutions in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in Zimbabwe. The study is based on the social model of disability, reinforced by the human rights perspective, which seek to meaningfully address issues bedevilling PWDs in their quest to be accorded the rightful place in the society, particularly in their access to public spaces. It further explains attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers. Qualitative research method was used, coupled with a few key informant interviews. The target population for this study were first and foremost PWDs. The study also targeted councillors, urban planners as well as administrators. Two subcategories of visually and physically impaired persons were carefully selected. The study findings indicated that attitudes and inadequate knowledge on disability by some community members and duty bearers also contribute to exclusion of Persons With Disabilities in public spaces. The study also found out that there are unfriendly facilities available. Additionally, the negative attitudes of stakeholders and administrative complications have deprived Persons With Disabilities from obtaining the benefits of available entitlements. Inadequate legislation, policy and lack of political will have also been established to be some of the factors leading to the side-lining of PWDs. The research recommends for creation of specific services in public spaces to support the needs of this group, integration of new technologies, and the domestication of the UNCRPD as well as the implementation of the disability policy, including best practices in disability inclusion, Specific policies should be supported by the allocation of funds and rigorous monitoring.

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Universally Accessible Public Spaces for All

Hannes Juhlin Lagrelius, Luisa Bravo — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

At the occasion of the 10^th session of the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi (2020), the World Blind Union (WBU) and City Space Architecture committed to develop and publish a special issue of The Journal of Public Space with a specific focus on universally accessible public spaces. This voluntary commitment was included in the Forum’s outcome declaration, the Abu Dhabi Declared Actions (2021), intended to support accelerating the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and urban dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during the Decade of Action. In particular this Special Issue is contributing to Goal 17 - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development, and its outcomes are focusing on Goal 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Today, more than half of the world’s population live in cities, 15 per cent of them being persons with disabilities. By 2050, 70 per cent of the world’s population will live in urban communities including over two billion persons with disabilities and older persons requiring inclusive and accessible infrastructure and services to live independently and participate on an equal basis in all aspects of society. Local and regional governments, and other key urban stakeholders, face immense pressure to adapt strategies, policies, and urban planning and design practices to fully respond to the rights and needs of all persons with disabilities and intersecting social groups.

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What is Inclusive and Accessible Public Space?

Victor Santiago Pineda — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Public facilities play an important role in every city, and they should be able to accommodate persons of all ages and abilities. Disability rights advocates argue that facilities and spaces such as schools, parks, civic or community centers, public safety facilities, arts and cultural facilities, recreational facilities, and plazas should be accessible to all, and equitably distributed throughout the city. They should be designed by, with, and for people with disabilities and older persons, and by doing so would be safe, and accessible by design. For persons with disabilities and older persons, “public spaces play a central role in the creation of inclusive communities and more specifically, in the formation of a public culture and in enriching cultural diversity” (Ravazzoli & Torricelli, 2017)^[1]. Furthermore public spaces are spaces and hubs for mobility, economic activity and exchange and should be accessible to all regardless of impairment type.
By denying or restricting access to train stations, airports, bus stops, micro-mobility infrastructure like shared bikes, and scooters, and other intermodal terminals we are denying and restricting our own economic and social development. Accessibility barriers in essence make these streets, sidewalks and bike lanes spaces of exclusion and congestion, or as social theorist Marion Iris Young would argue, public spaces of “oppression.” In the urban environment, realizing the politics of difference means building spaces that do not create barriers or prevent participation and rather promote and defend the access of all groups. A city that does not prioritize the access and inclusion of people with disabilities has decided that disabled people do not have the same value or citizenship worth as those without disabilities.

^[1] Ravazzoli, E., Torricelli, G. P. (2017). Urban mobility and public space. A challenge for the sustainable liveable city of the future. The Journal of Public Space, 2(2), 37-50. DOI: 10.5204/jps.v2i2.9

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Learning from Older Adults’ Use of Urban Parks in Hong Kong’s Low-income Areas

Caterina Villani, Kin Wai Michael Siu, Zi Yang — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Spatial justice, specifically accessibility, Universal Design and the fulfilment of human rights for vulnerable groups are increasingly important issues in urban research and city-level agendas concerning public spaces. Although the development of older adult–friendly urban environments is part of the agenda to promote healthy ageing societies, public spaces (e.g., urban parks) often exclude those in the advanced age group in the community. This article aims to clarify the everyday activities of older adults in urban parks by focusing on the extreme case of Sham Shui Po. Sham Shui Po is a low-income, high-density and public space–scarce neighbourhood in Hong Kong, a city characterised by a rapidly ageing population and high socio-spatial inequality. Through on-site observations and notetaking, two small urban parks, namely the Nam Cheong Street Park (NCSA) and Tai Hung Tang Park (THTP), were studied. NCSA, located in a congested vehicular street median, is predominantly for social activities. It forms a part of the daily route of residents and inhabitants from different ethnicities. Unaccompanied older adults, with limited mobilities, regularly use NCSA to navigate the neighbourhood. THTP is a site for older adults to engage in physical activities and also accommodates large groups and caregivers. Defensive architecture and design layout may affect the group size in the parks, while sittable edges may directly contribute to the park use by older adults with physical impairment, particularly near street crossings. The findings from this extreme neighbourhood highlight the critical role of landscape infrastructure for healthy ageing societies.

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Getting on Track: Accessibility Policy and the Design of the Mumbai Metro

Sara Rotenberg, Irfan Nooruddin — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

In 1995, India passed the Persons with Disabilities Act to legislate the principles and requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities. As part of this, the Government of India boldly committed to achieving universal design in its public transit systems. Despite legal provisions for ensuring accessibility of public transport and strong harmonized guidelines, Mumbai’s suburban rail network lacks adequate considerations for people with disabilities. From limited elevators and ramps to uneven surfaces and unmarked pathways, the suburban rail system is notoriously dangerous for people with disabilities, and a recent audit suggests that fewer than 40% of railway stations are compliant with accessibility standards. However, inaccessibility is not limited to decades-old transit systems: even the recently constructed Mumbai Monorail and Metro Line One enact only some, not all of the required accessibility standards. With its Metro currently under construction, Mumbai has the opportunity to prioritize universal design, which is a cost-effective, inclusive method, and avoid previous accessibility mistakes, which are exclusionary and inefficient. This paper reviews the current state of transport accessibility across Mumbai’s existing networks in the context of established best practices around the world to suggest ways to strengthen accessibility in constructing the new Metro. It argues that in order to achieve the government’s publicly stated commitment to universal accessibility in this next generation of rail, the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority should host consultations with people with disabilities, use architects with universal design training, and implement the guidelines for barrier-free built spaces outlined by the Central Ministry of Urban Development. These steps must also be complemented by applying the same principles in concerted effort to tackle the issue of inaccessibility on Mumbai’s streets and existing rail lines to achieve universal accessibility and greater opportunities for people with disabilities.

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Pedestrians with Disabilities and Town and City Streets: From Shared to Inclusive Space?

Anna Lawson, Ieva Eskytė, Maria Orchard, Dick Houtzager, Edwin Luitzen De Vos — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

This article highlights the importance of ensuring that accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities, as required by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is fully embedded in efforts to reduce the dominance of cars in city streets and promote more active modes of travel (including walking, wheeling and cycling) in line with global agendas. Drawing on emerging findings from the Inclusive Public Space research project, we present and critically reflect on types of difficulty associated with streets in which what is commonly known as a ‘shared space’ design operates, and those in which all or part of the available space is designated as primarily for pedestrian use. The data on which this analysis is based is qualitative, deriving from 83 semi-structured interviews about the experiences of our participants (a substantial majority of whom identified as having a disability) in two large UK cities and their wider metropolitan areas. The types of exclusionary experience described by our participants are organised into two broad overlapping categories – first, difficulties associated with navigating environments in which kerbs have been removed; and second, difficulties associated with interacting with vehicles (including bicycles) within and at the boundaries of shared or pedestrian spaces. Our findings are in line with those of previous projects that challenge and complicate claims that ‘shared space’ design, with its removal of kerbs and controlled crossings, enhances safety and mobility for all. Further, they demonstrate that many of the concerns associated with ‘shared space’ environments are also applicable to other types of street environment intended primarily for pedestrians. As well as highlighting and raising awareness of potential types of exclusion against which action should be taken, we draw attention to measures that could reduce the risk of such exclusionary barriers arising and persisting.

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Visions of a City for All

Lilian Müller, Stina Ericsson, Per-Olof Hedvall — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Despite laws, policies, and visions to create cities and societies for all, barriers still exclude persons with disabilities from using buildings and public places. Our study aimed to identify choices made during the urban development process, which include or exclude users in the built environment; how and when these arise during the process; and what is needed to implement Universal Design (UD) as a strategy and tool to secure all users equal opportunities in the built environment.
The study involved employees and private actors in city development processes. The participants were asked to identify impediments and support of UD in completed building projects to shed light on choices made during the process and on conditions needed to implement UD along the process. Four workshops were followed by qualitative interviews with key players. The analysis was based on qualitative data from workshops and interviews.
Aspects impeding and supporting UD and conflicting visions and goals were identified in all phases, and the need for tools to implement UD. Findings show that accessibility for all users is dealt with (too) late in the process, often causing special solutions. Urban trends like densification and high exploitation can cause exclusion of some users, and an unbalanced view on sustainable development prioritising ecological aspects put high demands on users’ abilities. Findings also show how UD appeared more clearly in remodelling projects than in the new constructions. A strong vision from the start to build for all users clearly supported UD throughout the process. Other factors such as pre-studies which include human diversity, allocation of resources and experts’ early opinions also showed to be clear drivers for UD.
Overall, the findings show a demand for solutions to maintain early visions and goals throughout the processes. We conclude by providing seven recommendations for addressing these challenges.

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Public Open Spaces: Enabling or Impeding Inclusive Evacuation during Disasters

Andrea Pacheco Barzallo, José Fariña, Eva Álvarez de Andrés — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

During disasters the death of persons with disabilities is higher than that of the rest of the population. This problem has many causes, and one of them has to do with the conditions of the physical environments which are not accessible for all, implying that people with disabilities require more time and effort to try to escape from dangerous places, protect themselves, and reach safety areas such as public spaces where people can gather, help each other, and remain safe at least during the first hours of an emergency. Thus, identifying the main problems that could prevent public spaces from becoming risk handling and inclusion resources during a disaster within social production settings is the main purpose of this research. The methodology used includes literature review, spatial audits based on inclusion and risk reduction standards within all public spaces of three neighborhoods of the city of Quito in Ecuador, and focus groups with the neighbors, persons with disabilities and their families. The three case studies selected are Atucucho, Carapungo and Auqui de Monjas, all present high disaster risk levels and have characteristics of social production of their territories. The results show that the conditions that need attention to enable public spaces become risk handling and inclusion resources during disasters have to do with three different dimensions; the first one refers to their physical characteristics and informational elements which must comply with universal accessibility requirements that provide autonomy and safety to all; the second dimension has to do with their connectivity, both on their ability to generate a network close to the community as well as to multi-modal mobility; the third dimension has to do with social and cultural aspects as persons with disabilities often feel that public spaces are not friendly for them because these are being occupied by other groups such as young people or that they are privatized in some way.

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Co-creating Inclusive Public Spaces: Learnings from Four Global Case Studies on inclusive Cities

Mikaela Patrick, Iain McKinnon — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

This paper presents some of the findings from a global research study on inclusive infrastructure and city design and will focus on inclusive public spaces. Persons with disabilities can experience multi-dimensional exclusion from urban life, including but not limited to physical, attitudinal and social barriers. Public spaces, including recreational and social spaces, are often not prioritised. Inclusive public spaces are fundamental to participation and inclusive in society. Including persons with disabilities in the design and planning of the built environment supports equal rights and helps identify people’s aspirations for inclusive environments.
Four city case studies will be discussed in this paper: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Varanasi, India; Surakarta, Indonesia; and Nairobi, Kenya. Research participants and objectives are organised by three stakeholder groups:

People - first-hand experiences of persons with disabilities living in the city and their aspirations for a more inclusive city
Policy - the awareness and understanding of inclusive design among policy-makers
Practice - the awareness and understanding of inclusive design among practitioners including barriers to implementation, opportunities and the relationship with assistive technology

Methods include document reviews, interviews, photo diaries and co-design workshops with participatory and inclusive engagement of persons with disabilities throughout. Findings on public spaces are discussed in three ways:

The types of public spaces valued by participants in each of the four cities.
The barriers and challenges experienced by persons with disabilities in the public realm.
Aspirations for more inclusive public spaces and opportunities for inclusive design

The paper concludes by discussing how the targeted stakeholder groups of people, policy and practice also help represent three essential dimensions of inclusive city design and forming a framework for successful implementation and delivery and supporting targets set out through the UNCRPD and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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Inclusive Rural Spaces in Architecture Education

Gabriel Fries-Briggs — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Pedagogies of building systems in architectural education are traditionally framed as the technical knowledge guiding construction, material applications, structures, and mechanical building services. This paper provides a framework and a case study for centering inclusive and universal design principles in the teaching of building systems with a focus on designing public spaces for rural and aging populations. It proposes methods for integrating design accountability, sustainable environmental practices, and cultural contexts into architectural design and education.
Public spaces, services, and resources are spread thinly outside of cities and denser communities, creating barriers to access for aging populations among others. This pedagogical framework for inclusive rural architecture focuses on post offices as one of the few public institutions in rural communities and a vital conduit to essential services (particularly during health crises). In the speculative space of architecture curriculum, students conceived of additional services and programs to rethink the role of post offices in communities. These programs targeted accessibility barriers by providing digital resource centers, transportation hubs, and community gathering spaces.
The flexibility, adaptability, and comfort at the core of universal design principles provide a lens for understanding sustainable environmental techniques. Adaptable buildings constructed with replaceable and reusable parts allow for repair and resiliency over time. Material and structural systems designed for intuitive use and presentation of information promote accessible communication. Passive systems design enables comfort in dialog with the environment and a reduction in required energy. However as passive systems often require building operability, inclusive design principles call for building systems to be operable by diverse users. Post office projects in this case study integrated universal design principles to achieve energy efficient buildings that respond to changing climates and rural cultural contexts.
Replacing minimum standards for accessibility within curricula with inclusive design criteria is also enacted through methodologies. While educational institutions are clustered in urban areas, many students come from or have ties to rural communities. The focus on rural public spaces and aging populations is a means for students to bring their own diverse backgrounds, places of origin, and histories into their academic studies. In combining methods of engaged research with a universal design-focused pedagogy for building systems, students expand technical knowledge of architectural design with the objective of creating equitable and inclusive public spaces.

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“We should all feel welcome to the park”

Gus Wendel, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Claire Nelischer, Gibson Bastar — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

This article investigates the potential for intergenerational public space in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Through a series of site observations, focus groups, interviews, thick mapping, and participatory design exercises, we work with 43 youth and 38 older adults (over 65), all residents of Westlake, to examine their public space use, experiences, and desires, and identify where the two groups’ interests intersect or diverge. We explore the potential for complementary approaches to creating intergenerational public space using the principles of Universal Design. In doing so, we emphasize the importance of taking an intersectional approach to designing public space that considers the multiple, often overlapping identities of residents of historically marginalized communities predicated by disability and age, in addition to race, class, and gender. Our findings yield insights for creating more inclusive and accessible public spaces in disinvested urban neighborhoods as well as opportunities for allyship between groups whose public space interests have been marginalized by mainstream design standards.

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Vol. 7 n. 2 | 2022 | FULL ISSUE

Luisa Bravo — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Universally Accesible Public Spaces for All
Editors: Hannes Juhlin Lagrelius, Luisa Bravo
Guest Editor: Victor S. Pineda

DISCLAIMER: The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this journal do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or regarding its economic system or degree of development. The analysis, conclusions and recommendations of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Reference in this journal of any specific commercial products, brand names, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favouring by UN-Habitat or its officers, nor does such reference constitute an endorsement of UN-Habitat.

Te Pua Keith Park – Nau mai, Haere mai Let’s Play Together

Elise Copeland, Jennice Stringer, Vivian Naylor, Sue Rim Lee — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Te Pua/Keith Park playground employed an innovative early program of co-design with an All Abilities Project Group (AAPG), representing disability organisations and key stakeholders from the community. Through ongoing engagement with disabled people as experts, the outcome was an inclusive and welcoming play space for a diverse range of children, young people and their caregivers.
Play equipment included a range of vestibular, visual, and auditory pieces as well as a customised 2m high wheelchair accessible play tower for inclusive play experiences. Caregivers were enabled to play with their children through smooth and step-free surfaces as well as specific play equipment such as an adult and child swing. Children and young people of different ages and abilities were encouraged to sit/lie/stand in the basket swing and see-saw together. Unique to this playground, communication boards were innovatively and collaboratively designed with visual images representing various features of the playground and QR codes linking to online videos with New Zealand Sign Language.
In addition to play equipment, the AAPG identified that the toilet facilities were crucial to ensuring accessibility to many families, including those with bigger children or teens with access needs who were often faced with the reality of needing to be changed in unsanitary and unsafe ways without the appropriate facilities being available. Keith Park worked with a leading toilet manufacturer to co-design a bespoke double toilet block with enhanced accessibility features including an adult-sized change table.
Every aspect of the park was carefully selected and designed including fencing, furniture, plants and colours. Colour enhanced accessibility by guiding children with low vision and created a play circuit to assist the neurodiverse community. The resultant playground is one that welcomes all to play, which is a core tenet of child development, socialisation and participation.

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Re-framing Built Environment Practice: Towards an Accessible City

Nicole Mechkaroff, Saumya Kaushik, Mary Ann Jackson — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

As practising architects in Victoria, Australia, we have observed significant, systemic industry failure, impeding the development of accessible and inclusive cities. Contemporary built environment design practice and design values push ‘accessible design’ to the margins, often considered as an after-thought and only in terms of technical and regulatory compliance. Built environment practice needs to be challenged into deeper ways of thinking – ones that stimulate professional discourse and heighten industry awareness of both its control over built environment accessibility outcomes and, critically, its accountability in serving the public good.
Cities invariably comprise neighbourhoods. To begin to understand built environment inaccessibility at the neighbourhood scale, the built environment mindset must change to properly engage with complex, socio-ecological, public-realm (public space) built environments. Design practice must improve its neighbourhood site analysis approach, going beyond private, contractual site boundaries and immediate physical surrounds, to understanding end-user experiences, neighbourhood journeys, and the broader scale of (in)accessibility. Industry attitudes, practice approaches and the way disability is positioned by industry must change to embrace processes that necessitate diverse actors working together across multiple disciplines and sectors with people with disability being core actors in decision-making.
We believe that opportunities exist in building industry interest and capacity. Research-informed built environment practice embracing systems-thinking, human rights-based approaches, and transdisciplinarity can be effective for aggravating industry change and the way industry positions disability. This paper adopts an analytical, collaborative autoethnographic approach, examining case studies of neighbourhood-scale accessibility assessment, outputs from activities questioning why built environment practitioners believe inaccessibility exists, and self-reflection on 10 to 35+ years of working in architectural practice. Importantly, this paper argues that in working towards achieving universally accessible public spaces for all, built environment practitioners, and architects in particular, must accept accountability for the impact of their actions on people with disabilities’ lived experiences.

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Understanding Inclusive Placemaking Processes through the Case of Klostergata56 in Norway

Ursula Sokolaj — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Public participation and the placemaking approach are receiving continuously increasing attention and are therefore likely to become, in a near future, the norm of shaping our cities. They are instruments of local democracy, enabling citizens to stake a claim and exercise their influence on the city, repositioning them from recipients to active participants in this shaping. Research has shown that these democratic processes are the best way to ensure better physical environments, while also bringing social development. However, this attempt to shift from government to governance by power redistribution can at times pose a challenge to democracy, by repeating existing power relations between participating actors. If representation is not done right and communities are not equally engaged, the social benefits are at stake and issues of inclusion and exclusion arise. The need for assessment in this field is therefore highly relevant, but little progress has been done in developing measurable evaluation tools.
This article is based on action research, following as a case study the process of co-designing Klostergata56, a small, underutilized public space in the Norwegian city of Trondheim. It presents a new framework of evaluating a participatory process, applied to the project to investigate its level of inclusion.
Results of the study showed that the process had significant limitations to being inclusive to the expense of marginalized groups, due to unequal participation of stakeholders and differences in levels of nurtured social capital and civic trust. The challenges highlighted by the research make it possible to identify lessons for further processes to be more inclusive. Until such challenges are addressed, participatory placemaking will continue to be a trial-and-error process, therefore bound to repeat, at least to some extent, the inequality patterns present in a society.

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The Accessibility Chain: a Challenge and an Opportunity for Cities and People with Disabilities

Alba Mestres Petit, Sergi Morera, Laura Trujjillo Parra, Meritxell Valladares — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Barcelona has been working to become a completely accessible city where the rights of people with disabilities are fully guaranteed for over 40 years. Helping the city to achieve this is the Municipal Institute for People with Disabilities, an independent body that works with every area of the City Council to promote accessibility and inclusion in the city’s public policies. In 2008, following its initial Accessibility Plan (1997-2006) which focused on accessibility in the city’s streets and public spaces, the City Council reaffirmed its commitment to guaranteeing the rights set out in the United Nations’ Convention. More recently (in 2017) it approved a Government Measure for drafting the 2018-2026 Universal Accessibility Plan for Barcelona (PAUB in Catalan), which will deal with improving physical, communication and cognitive accessibility in a wide range of venues and facilities.
The Government Measure, inspired by Sustainable Development Goal 11 “Sustainable cities and communities” and targets 11.2 and 11.3 of the 2030 Agenda, established a three-phase implementation of the new Accessibility Plan: a first phase diagnosing the degree of accessibility of the various public spaces and services; a second, participatory phase, aimed at reaching consensus on the best accessibility solutions to be implemented in the city, and third and final phase, where the Plan will be implemented with the requisite budget.

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What Do the Students Want?

Vanesha Manuturi, Nina Asterina, Febpry Ghara Utama — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Many public spaces in Indonesian cities are inaccessible to vulnerable groups such as children, elderlies, and persons with disabilities (PwDs), partly due to a lack of infrastructure and limited understanding by citizens and government agencies. The design and planning of these spaces are typically conducted in a top-down approach, with little participation of citizens. Regulation by the Indonesian Transportation Ministry1 stipulates that school areas with heavy traffic and high risk of accidents should have a Safe School Zone (Zona Selamat Sekolah, in Indonesian). The regulation details a technical guideline for the Safe School Zone, i.e., traffic signs, crossroads, speed bumps, but its implementation does not yet consider inclusive principles and universal design. To build a more inclusive and accessible city for all in accordance with the UN-HABITAT New Urban Agenda, a participatory design process with multiple stakeholders—teachers, local government, and most importantly, students—plays a vital role in ensuring inclusive planning in cities. This abstract reflects on the experience of Kota Kita and the Banjarmasin City Transportation Agency implementing a participatory Safe and Inclusive School Zone pilot project in Banjarmasin, Indonesia, to promote inclusive city planning and build the community’s capacity to improve their living spaces.

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On the Road Together

Claudia de Laaf — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Internationally, various elements within the realm of equality and inclusion such as gender, race and religion have been the center of heated debate. While these issues also still require close attention, it is striking that the theme of inclusion of people with disabilities seems to enjoy a position that is lower on the international agenda. This article advocates for rights of people with disabilities by addressing the theme of accessibility of the public space. The article critically assesses the accessibility of the Dutch Metropole area, and underscores the obstacles and opportunities for people with disabilities to participle in the public space in an equal manner. It dissects a case study called Samen op Pad (On the Road Together), an initiative that deploys geographic information systems to enhance the independent navigation of people with disabilities through the urban public space. The article evaluates the lack of accessibility in the current design of the urban space and calls for a localized approach for inclusive governance and service delivery for people with disabilities. Additionally, it explores the added value of the case study of integral and interdisciplinary cooperation across local government entities, GIS specialists, and people with lived experience to improve accessibility of the urban area through smart use of data. Lastly, the article calls for international knowledge exchange to increase awareness to join forces to normalize a public space that is user friendly and accessible to all.

The Right to Play: Snakes and Ladders

Nadia Rene Odlum, Morwenna Collett — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

This case-study will present learnings from the public art project ‘Snakes and Ladders’, a fifty metre, ground plane mural in Sydney Olympic Park, in Sydney’s western suburbs. This was a collaboration between Digby Webster, an artist with Down syndrome, and Nadia Odlum, an artist without disability who specialises in playful, large-scale public art. Snakes and Ladders was commissioned by the Sydney Olympic Parks Authority (SOPA) as a result of a community consultation and co-design process, and was supported by Accessible Arts, the peak body for advancing the rights of New South Wales artists who have disability and/or who are d/Deaf. The result was a public artwork that functions as an inclusive playspace, supporting the right to play for all people who visit or live in Sydney Olympic Park.
The key achievements of this project were the meaningful inclusion of an artist with disability in a significant public art project, and the creation of an accessible and inclusive opportunity for play in public space. This case-study focuses on process, including the community consultation process that led to the commission; the role of peak body Accessible Arts in facilitating and guiding the commission; the methods used to ensure accessibility in the artwork design; and the collaborative process between Digby and Nadia, including the steps taken to support Digby’s access requirements and ensure his full participation in the commission from concept to delivery.

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