Author: Nicola Posteraro, Qualified Italian Lawyer, Post-Doctoral Research fellow in Administrative Law, University of Milan, Qualified as Associate Professor of Administrative Law
Social Structures
According to data compiled by the National Association of Workers with health conditions or impairments (ANMIL), there are cities in Italy where people with disabilities can live their life and exercise their free movement right on an equal basis with others, and other cities that are still very hostile. Accessibility interventions, when undertaken, are often inadequate. This is due to the lack or limitation of public funding available, and to the regulatory fragmentation, which certainly does not help those who have to apply the legal provisions on accessibility. Not all residents are able to have equal access to the services of the city, to participate in municipal decision-making processes and to benefit from the economic growth of the city. This is a problem that negatively impacts on the fundamental right to health of people with disabilities: in fact, being able to access places and public facilities allows mobility and amplifies the network of social relations. While the data above concerns Italy, a similar situation can be found in many other countries.
Urban accessibility must be considered as an investment, not as an expense; if truly guaranteed, it has a positive economic impact as it supports tourism, making it inclusive and competitive, capable of promoting economic, cultural, and social development throughout the territory. More generally, urban accessibility allows disabled residents -inhabitants of the territories- to fully develop their personality, as well as, contributing to the material or spiritual progress of society. Making cities accessible by means of practical interventions, but also through a reform of the norms that govern them, must be designed to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights of all people. The improvement of living conditions, in any part of the world, necessarily requires the improvement of the cities, because they are more densely populated. Only by doing this can be avoided for cities to be seen as a plastic representation of inequalities.
In order for people with disabilities to exercise their right to live autonomously in a city, accessibility issues must be more effectively integrated into general urban planning (and in all administrative procedures relating to the transformation of urban space). At the same time, it also seems that assessing the results of any urban intervention aimed at improving accessibility is vital. It is key that competent public administrations must carefully evaluate the actual improvements and the drawbacks of urban innovation. It is also essential that accessibility policies provide for correct information on the use, presence and destination of services dedicated to people with disabilities (and, more generally, accessible, and therefore usable spaces). Furthermore, legislation should introduce effective judicial protection, allowing people with disabilities to obtain effective protection where they believe they have been unjustly harmed by the failure to eliminate architectural barriers.
In particular, it seems important to list five key aspects that must be taken into account when working on urban accessibility in order to building an inclusive, accessible, and wellbeing-oriented city.
First of all, it is necessary that the institutions really work, taking into account the fact that as we can infer from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, disability is no longer a “disease” or a personal tragedy, but derives from external barriers, and people with disabilities must be recognized, accepted, included and valued by the whole society. This requires a series of “positive” actions.
Secondly, it is important that the issue of urban accessibility is considered as benefitting all people, rather than a group of people: disability includes all those who, for various reasons, face barriers in interacting with the environment (older people etc.).
Thirdly, it is necessary to design cities taking into account the fact that the barriers to be broken down are not only physical ones, but also societal and sensory ones. In that connection, with reference to the urban fabric, the wayfinding assumes a particular importance, a science that deals with the design of orientation signs (taking care of colour, lighting, graphic efficiency, comprehensibility and usability) to improve the ways in which information is conveyed: it proves particularly important in large railway stations, airports, shopping centres or equipped parks.
Finally, it is important that the criterion of Universal design is taken into account in the design of cities: the products and environments must be designed from the beginning so as to be immediately usable by everyone, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for subsequent adaptations or special aids.
Particular importance must also be given to the issue of training, on which it is necessary to invest. Architects, technicians, administrators, and politicians must be made aware of accessibility and rights of persons with disabilities. Training promotes, a better design quality of the solutions and, above all, correct application of the existing legislation that already include accessibility rights and standards.
Policy makers, when deciding about urban design and urban interventions, will have to ensure the participation of those who are directly concerned, and civil society at large (such as trade associations) in the decision-making process. People with disabilities can certainly bring to the table innovative proposals regarding goods and services that meet their needs.
Public administrations are a key player in a process of innovation. However, civil society should play its part and contribute to the development of inclusive and accessible cities, and ultimately to ensuring substantive equality.
Finally, it seems quite clear that accessibility must also be taken into account in designing the so-called smart cities (or smart communities), which represent the new paradigm of urban development. The concept of a smart city cannot in fact be limited only to digitization or linked exclusively to environmental issues. On the contrary, it implies a real revolution in how to conceive the relationship between Man, environment, and territory. In other words, it would be wrong to fully equate smartness and digitalization, without a real attention to accessibility in all its multifaceted aspects. In the construction of the new urban reality different elements are to be considered, including architectural elements. Smart cities must really create the conditions for governance, infrastructures, and technologies, to produce social innovation. Only if they are truly accessible and inclusive, the cities of the future can be defined as “smart”. These needs were also highlighted by the United Nations, which among the principles for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda adopted in 2016, specifying that “cities are for people”, also indicates that of “providing equal access for all to physical and social infrastructure and basic services”.
Technologies have to be used to facilitate inclusion within the social context, and consequently make urban contexts places of real “inclusive smart living” (for example, it will be possible to invest in cutting-edge technological interventions that allow people with disabilities to keep track of accessible routes by constantly updating information related to the accessibility of places). In this context, the active role of public authorities will be important and indispensable, and they will not need to limit themselves to granting public funding to promote the development of smart cities, but they will have to carry out a specific policy and planning activity, identifying, from the top (top-down), the measures to be taken to obtain a high degree of innovation, including a social one, too.