Beyond tokenism in accessible design:

As an athlete, I particularly value the health benefits of active travel. For other disabled people too, being active has positive impacts on physical and mental well-being.

But often, despite good intentions, London’s active travel routes and public spaces are not very accessible. While every city is different, we can learn a lot by observing what other places do. Rotterdam, for example, is one of my favourite destinations because it’s very accessible for a wheelchair user. That’s partly due to the flat terrain, but equally important are the wide footways, well-designed crossings and accessible trams. I can wheel around the city with relative ease ‒ with little or no pre-planning. If I need to jump on a tram, I can do that independently. And it feels good to be doing my bit for a cleaner environment too.

In London, such a joined up, functional approach to accessible active and public transport is rare. Of course, the city’s hills and historic narrow streets create challenges. But many barriers to active travel for disabled people in London are the result of accessibility being treated as a bolt-on rather than an integral aspect of the design.

The result? Dropped kerbs with too steep a gradient, or no dropped kerbs at all, resulting in long detours for wheelchair users. Public spaces that may be uncomfortable for neurodiverse people. Poorly laid out street furniture that creates inaccessible pinch points. Cycle routes that are not wide enough for adapted cycles.

These are just some of the many ways in which the public realm can be inaccessible to disabled people. So how can we move beyond a tokenistic, fragmented approach to accessible design to create places that are genuinely inclusive in the way they function?

There’s no simple formula, but real improvements can result from changing how we approach accessible design in five key ways.

1. Embracing accessibility and inclusivity from the outset of the design process rather than testing for it once the design is completed.
2. Consulting users early, ensuring their voices are heard and that designers properly understand their accessibility needs.
3. Considering sequences of movement and connectivity – getting to, as well as using, an active travel route ‒ and assessing the individual connecting elements of the journey.
4. Thinking about the users of a space in a more nuanced way. Pedestrians include ambulant disabled people using mobility aids. They may be blind or partially sighted. Cyclists include wheelchair users employing an adaptive cycle. Any pedestrian, wheeler or cyclist may have a non-visible disability.
5. Focusing on functionality. A blue badge bay without direct access to a footway may tick a box, but it’s impractical for wheelchair users.

Sometimes site and project constraints will make it impossible to meet everyone’s needs. But planning and designing for accessibility in a holistic, joined-up and practical way should ensure everyone has genuine and attractive choices about how they travel and use the public realm. No-one should feel a sense of dread about what they may encounter.

Gobi Ranganathan is a principal engineer at NRP, specialising in accessible and inclusive design. A wheelchair user himself, he has years of experience – complemented by extensive training ‒ in working with people with many different accessibility needs across the built environment.

Gobi draws on his lived experience to identify problems, while using his engineering problem-solving skills to find pragmatic, functional solutions. A well-travelled international para badminton player and keen football supporter, he has experienced the best and worst of active and public transport systems, public spaces and buildings worldwide. This broad perspective feeds into the projects NRP are delivering.