5 short talks covering disability inclusivity in cities with speakers from Colombia, Indian, Indonsia and Mongolia. Part of the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions summit of 13 Sep 2023 held by the Global Disability Hub.
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.
This webinar, hosted by Global Disability Innovation (GDI) hub, brings together a diverse panel of experts to discuss what inclusive design looks like in practice for them, who benefits and how it can offer methods to build a more accessible world that benefits all of us.
Speakers presentations were:
What inclusive design means to GDI Hub and why it matters, drawing on our experience working in both the UK and globally
An overview of inclusive design of the built environment in the UK and Kenya, including the role of access panels to embed the views of disabled people in planning and decision-making
An introduction to GDI Hub’s AT2030 programme including our Inclusive Infrastructure research sub-programme that is conducting six global case studies in LMIC cities around the world over the next 2-3 years.
The challenges and opportunities for an accessible Mongolia and the importance of Disabled People’s Organisations (DPO) engagement in decision-making
The importance of inclusive planning processes for accessible cities in Indonesia
The Inclusive Infrastructure sub-programme of the AT2030 programme began in March 2020, right out the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over three years this part of the AT2030 programme will be conducting case studies in six cities on the current state of accessibility and inclusion of the built environment in each of those places.
The first case study took place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In March 2020, research was about to begin, Mongolia closed its border as the Coronavirus pandemic escalated. This meant to travel to Ulaanbaatar to conduct research was not possible and new ways of working remotely had to be adopted.
Research was carried out by collaborating with a local team based in Ulaanbaatar: AIFO, an Italian NGO that has been working in Mongolia since 1993 and two Disabled Persons’ Organisations: ‘Universal Progress’ Independent Living Center and Tegsh Niigem.
Perspectives on working together, collaborating remotely and why this research is relevant to the country are shared.
This case study on inclusive infrastructure in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia is the first part of a series of six global case studies. The series is being developed to understand global priorities for inclusive design within the Inclusive Infrastructure work of the AT2030 programme; to build evidence on the awareness, understanding, acceptance, application and experience of Inclusive Design and accessible environments globally, particularly in lower and middle-income countries
Purpose: The main objective of this paper was to assess environmental accessibility for people with vision, hearing and speech disabilities in Mongolia, with particular focus on public buildings and public transportation.
Methods: A standardised internationally-used questionnaire, consisting of 29 questions, was used for the accessibility of public buildings assessment. The questionnaire results were grouped into categories and descriptive statistics were obtained. To determine quality and accessibility to public transportation a standardised sheet, consisting of 51 questions from the internationally accepted SERVQUAL, was used. This model is commonly used for measurement of the discrepancies between actual performance and customer expectations.
Result: Assessment of public buildings in Mongolia revealed that they were moderately accessible for people with vision, hearing and speech disabilities. The assessment of public transportation found that the discrepancy between actual performance and customer expectation is the highest across all indicators for people with hearing and speech impairments.
Conclusion: The research findings indicated a strong need to pay closer attention to the current environmental unfriendliness and inaccessibility faced by people with vision, hearing and speech disabilities.
