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Inclusive Design and Accessibility of the Built Environment in Nairobi, Kenya

PATRICK, M
MULDOWNEY, A
KILIMANJARO BLIND TRUST AFRICA
TANUI, G
BUKACHI, V
CAMPBELL CLAUSE, J
McKINNON, I
October 2022

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Prepared by the Global Disability Innovation Hub and partners for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

This case study, funded through UK aid AT2030 programme, explores the current situation of inclusive and accessible environments for people with disabilities living in Nairobi. The research findings detailed in this report describe the current challenges and opportunities for embedding inclusive design in Nairobi’s future, providing priority recommendations and forward-thinking next steps.

The research took place in three phases between July 2021 and January 2022, combining both virtual and face to face approaches. Phase 1 focused on understanding the current state of accessibility through desk research and interviews, phase 2 captured the lived experience of people with disabilities utilising interviews, photo diaries and co-design activities. Phase 3 then synthesised findings, running multiple workshops to create actions towards inclusive environments. Thematic analysis was applied to understand the research data, identifying key themes across three different stakeholder groups of People, Policy, and Practice.

The themes identified span across daily life, poverty, transport, housing, sanitation, public spaces and recreational activities. Quotes from participants are interwoven into this report, and strengthen the concluding actions towards inclusion.

 

Required to be creative. Everyday ways for dealing with inaccessibility

WÄSTERFORS, David
2020

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Today’s society promises that people with disabilities can access anything, but in practice there are numerous obstacles, and the ways in which people deal with them can be easily missed or taken for granted by policy makers. This article draws on a project in which researchers ‘go along’ people with disabilities in Sweden who demonstrate and recount accessibility troubles in urban and digital settings. They display a set of mundane methods for managing inaccessibility: (a) using others, (b) making deals and establishing routines, (c) mimicking or piggybacking conventions, (d) debunking others’ accounts and performing local politics. The employment of these shared but tailored methods shows the difficulties to be accepted that people with disabilities still face, as well as the wide-ranging tension that exists between the grand rhetoric of inclusion and modest results. The tension implies that people with disabilities are required to be creative.

  • Declarations and policies often say that people with disabilities should have access to anything, but in practice this is not the case.
  • This study investigates what people with disabilities actually do when they have trouble accessing various places or resources. The results show their common and practical ways, and these ways are often taken for granted, overlapping, and combined.
  • People with disabilities ask others to support them when they face troubles to access places or resources, they make deals with important actors and they develop routines. They also observe, imitate and follow others’ actions, to pick out precisely those ways that suit their needs.
  • When people with disabilities find their ways in today’s society they also act with words. They argue against other people’s excuses or justifications for not providing access.
  • The study has found a lot of frustration among people with disabilities who get blocked, excluded or delayed. This gives them motives to engage in politics.

Disability, mobility and transport in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A thematic review

KETT, Maria
COLE, Ellie
TURNER, Jeff
January 2020

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This paper discusses issues affecting the transport and mobility needs of people with disabilities in middle- and low-income countries and how disability intersects with a range of other factors to impact on transport needs, use and engagement. The paper is intended to stimulate discussion and identify areas for further research, and identifies a number of key issues that are salient to discussions around equitable and inclusive transport provision, including patterns of transport use, behaviour and experiences, solutions and policy directions, measuring access and inclusion, policies and intersectionality. The paper also identifies gaps in knowledge and provision, barriers to addressing these gaps, and some possible solutions to overcoming these barriers. These include shifting the focus from access to inclusion, reconceptualising how ‘special’ transport might be provided, and most importantly listening to the voices and experiences of adults and children with disabilities. Despite lack of transport often being cited as a reason for lack of inclusion of people with disabilities, there is surprisingly little evidence which either quantifies this or translates what this lack of access means to people with disabilities in their daily lives in low- and middle-income countries.

 

Sustainability 2020, 12(2), 589

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020589

Report on accessibility audit in Kathmandu, Nepal

December 2018

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In Nepal, the Accessible Physical Infrastructure and Communication Services directive for People with Disability 2013, is a key legal measure taken by the government for promoting accessibility. To supplement the government’s initiation in achieving the goal of making inclusive society for all, National Federation of the Disabled – Nepal (NFDN), in partnership with CBM, carried out accessibility audit of 150 public infrastructures as a model initiative. This included government buildings, public parks and open spaces, roads and streets, corporate sectors, commercial sectors and other infrastructures within Kathmandu valley and identified the remedial actions needed to make these sectors accessible for all including Persons with disabilities. To achieve this, a set of comprehensive audit tools and checklists were developed. The Kathmandu district, Lalitpur District and Bhaktapur District were assessed.

Wheelchair users, access and exclusion in South African higher education

CHIWANDIRE, Desire
VINCENT, Louise
2017

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Background: South Africa’s Constitution guarantees everyone, including persons with disabilities, the right to education. A variety of laws are in place obliging higher education institutions to provide appropriate physical access to education sites for all. In practice, however, many buildings remain inaccessible to people with physical disabilities.


Objectives: To describe what measures South African universities are taking to make their built environments more accessible to students with diverse types of disabilities, and to assess the adequacy of such measures.


Method: We conducted semi-structured in-depth face-to-face interviews with disability unit staff members (DUSMs) based at 10 different public universities in South Africa.


Results: Challenges with promoting higher education accessibility for wheelchair users include the preservation and heritage justification for failing to modify older buildings, ad hoc approaches to creating accessible environments and failure to address access to toilets, libraries and transport facilities for wheelchair users.


Conclusion: South African universities are still not places where all students are equally able to integrate socially. DUSMs know what ought to be done to make campuses more accessible and welcoming to students with disabilities and should be empowered to play a leading role in sensitising non-disabled members of universities, to create greater awareness of, and appreciation for, the multiple ways in which wheelchair user students continue to be excluded from full participation in university life. South African universities need to adopt a systemic approach to inclusion, which fosters an understanding of inclusion as a fundamental right rather than as a luxury.

Quantitative Exploratory Evaluation of the Frequency, Causes and Consequences of Rehabilitation Wheelchair Breakdowns delivered at a Paediatric Clinic in Mexico

TORO, M L
GARCIA, Y
OJEDA, A M
DAUSEY, D J
PEARLMAN, J
2012

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Purpose: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises assistive technology such as wheelchairs (WCs) as a tool for social inclusion for this population. In less resourced settings, organisations lack information about effective models of WC service provision. The goal of this study was to investigate the lifespan of WCs and whether they provided reliable mobility, at one clinic in Mexico.

 

Methods: Caregivers of children, who had requested replacements for their WCs from a clinic in Mexico, were interviewed in Spanish. Among others, the questions pertained to repairs/modifications, adverse events and WC usage characteristics. The owners exchanged their WCs for new ones at the clinic, and the maintenance status of each returned WC was evaluated using the WC Assessment Checklist (WAC).

 

Results: Twenty-three donated WCs, used by children aged 3 to 14 years for an average of 19 months, were evaluated. Brakes (n=18), seat and back-sling upholstery (n=11 and 7 respectively), and armrests (n=14) were the components that failed most frequently. A total of 26 adverse events due to WC failure were reported. Adverse events were significantly associated with poor WAC scores (rs=-0.544, p=0.007).

 

Conclusions: Poor WC reliability, associated with adverse events which could undermine social engagement, indicates the need for a stronger WC and for regular maintenance. For instance, brake failures which were most often associated with adjustment issues, could have been resolved with maintenance, while seat and back-sling upholstery and armrest failures suggest that the WC may not be appropriate for the environment. Future work should investigate the robustness of these WCs using standardised methods (ISO 7176), as well as the impact of maintenance interventions on WC reliability.

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