New Study: Accessible Streetscapes for Disability Communities
The new survey, developed in partnership with Smart Growth America, the International Parking & Mobility Institute, and the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, aims to gather the experiences of people with disabilities as they navigate their cities. This information will help inform best practice guidelines that will be outlined in the upcoming Accessible Streetscapes Design Guide. The survey will be open until June 7, so share your experiences today.
Beyond Parking Meters: The Origins of the Accessible Streetscape Design Guide
In 2018, Benito Pérez, policy director for Transportation for America, helped launch the District’s Department of Transportation’s Red Top Meter Program while working as DDOT’s Curbside Operations Manager. Through the program, the Department of Transportation introduced highly visible red-top parking meters at curbside parking spaces with sidewalk access. These meters reserve parking spaces for people with disabilities and extend parking times. While programs like the Red Top Meter Program help improve sidewalk access, Pérez found that transportation practitioners need to consider the accessibility of the entire street. Projects to improve curb access only make sense if the street itself is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
What is the Accessible Streetscape Design Guide?
Smart Growth America, in partnership with the International Parking & Mobility Institute, the Accessible Parking Coalition, and the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, is developing a first-of-its-kind resource, the Accessible Streetscapes Design Guide, which aims to bring together recommendations and best practices for improving accessibility throughout our streets, including parks, plazas, sidewalks, and intersections.
Additionally, the guide seeks to include consideration of a wide range of physical and cognitive abilities that have not historically been covered by law. Thirty-three years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, marking a notable milestone in the history of federal civil rights law for people with disabilities. While the passage of this landmark law is cause for celebration, at the heart of the disability advocacy movement is the consensus that the ADA has always been a starting point, not an end goal. Last year, the Public Rights of Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG) were issued by the U.S. Access Board to address public rights-of-way accessibility requirements not covered by the ADA. While these two examples of legislation represent meaningful steps toward more accessible spaces, the ADA is limited in scope, PROWAG is limited in enforcement, and both are limited in inclusion of people with cognitive disabilities.
The upcoming design guide is intended to provide a starter resource that can support practitioners as they implement policies and projects to design streetscapes that work for everyone who uses our streets.
Accessible Streetscape Design Guide Survey
To create a design guide that reflects the needs of people who face challenges in an inaccessible world, we partnered with the International Parking & Mobility Institute and the Disability Rights Education and Advocacy Fund to survey streetscape users with disabilities. The responses to this survey were essential in designing recommendations to improve access for these communities and are at the core of the Accessible Streetscape Design Guide.
With feedback gathered from this survey, Smart Growth America and its partners will enhance the Accessible Streetscape Design Guide with direct user feedback. Creating a more equitable and accessible future requires that the perspectives of those most affected by current systems and future changes be incorporated into all decision-making processes, from design to implementation.
If you identify as part of the disability community, we would appreciate your participation in the survey, which can be accessed here.
If you are an organization, government agency, or interested in distributing this survey, please contact us using this Google form.