Research on the accessibility of urban spaces

This project is part of the research phase as part of the creation of the ‘’Barrier-free Solutions Album‘’. The album is being created within the initiative of First Lady Olena Zelenska ‘Without Barriers”.
The developers of the “Barrier-Free Solutions Album” are Big City Lab in cooperation with the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, the NGO ‘Bezbariernist’ with the support of the project ‘Integrated Urban Development in Ukraine II’, implemented by the German government company ‘Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH’ funded by the Governments of Germany and Switzerland.
Analytical and technical support for the research phase is provided by the NGO “Urbanyna”.
The project partner is the NGO Pro.UD.

‍

The purpose of the study is to identify the main problems of accessibility of the city and to provide regulatory documents that describe specific solutions.

‍

Urban spaces are inaccessible, uncomfortable, and often dangerous to use, not only for people with low mobility, but for all citizens. In this study, we focused on identifying accessibility issues faced by people with low mobility, as they are the most affected by barriers in urban spaces. If we remove barriers for people with low mobility, cities will become accessible to everyone. We studied state regulations to learn how to address these issues and identify those that remain unresolved.

‍

‍

Who is this study for: those who influence accessibility in cities but do not know where to start.

‍

Many professionals from various fields influence the accessibility of urban spaces: employees of municipalities, public services, owners of public buildings and housing, architects, designers, builders, and others. However, they are not always fully aware of the scale of city accessibility problems and how to solve them. To help these people take the first steps, we have described groups of people with low mobility, their challenges, and the regulations that offer specific solutions.

‍

Methodology

‍

To gain an objective view and comprehensively analyse the issue, we referred to several sources of knowledge and applied several methods to obtain it. In particular, we conducted qualitative research, namely, focus groups with representatives of low-mobility groups.

‍

Among them were:

• People with children
• Elderly people
• People with partial or complete hearing loss
• People with partial or complete vision loss
• People with prosthetic limbs
• People with musculoskeletal disorders
• People with autism spectrum disorders
• Cyclists

‍

Research results

Based on the results of the focus groups and expert interviews, we have prepared a list of problems and divided them into four categories: entrances and courtyards of residential buildings, streets, public spaces, and entrance groups of public buildings.

Why does this or that problem exist? Are there no standards for design and construction, or are they simply not being met?

To determine this, we analysed state construction standards and other regulatory documents that influence or directly regulate the creation of barrier-free spaces. Analyzing the state construction standards helped us understand that they contain answers to almost every problem. However, despite a fairly broad regulatory framework, this is not enough to create a comfortable city for everyone. Why?

‍

We asked accessibility experts and leading architects and received the following answers:

‍

• Regulatory documents are structured according to the types of objects, and each of them has accessibility standards. And to design urban space, you need to use different regulatory documents.
• Sometimes the norms provide generalised parameters for solutions, and sometimes they are very detailed. In some cases, designers interpret them independently and do not always create optimal design solutions in terms of accessibility.
• Regulatory documents do not always correlate with each other and have different solutions.
• Most existing buildings and infrastructure were constructed under the standards in force at the time, and their owners are not obliged to bring these facilities up to current accessibility standards.
• There is a lack of a generalised guide to clearly describe and illustrate typical accessibility solutions.

‍

Most common accessibility issues: entrances and courtyards

‍

‍

Most common accessibility issues: streets

‍

‍

Most common accessibility issues: public spaces

‍

‍

Most common accessibility issues: public buildings

‍

‍

There are many more problems

There are many groups of people with low mobility, not all of which we have described. Likewise, the problems we have collected do not represent all the gaps in the accessibility of urban spaces that create difficulties for all residents.

This study is one of our first steps in understanding and mainstreaming accessibility issues in Ukrainian cities.

“Barrier-Free Solutions Album”

The study found that solutions to many problems are contained in various regulatory documents that are not always clear to specialists involved in creating accessible spaces.

That is why the “Barrier-Free Solutions Album” was developed, which describes and illustrates approaches to creating an accessible environment.

{{book-7="/en/book-banners"}}

‍

‍Team

Project manager: Victoria Titova

Architects: Maksym Holovko, Sofia Brem, Olena Melnyk

Researchers: Myroslava Savisko, Andriy Altunyan

Designer: Olena Varzar

Illustrator: oshelesh

Editors: Yulia Patlan, Anton Yanchenko, Ivanna Ukhal

We express our gratitude to

the participants of the focus groups and respondents who took part in the survey; NGO “Vidchuy”, CF ‘Zhyttelyub’, NGO ‘IUS’, Association ‘Child.ua’, Museum in the Dark ‘Three after midnight’ and the community ‘Parent and Baby Friendly Kyiv’ for their help in finding participants and consulting on the format of the focus groups.

Specialists and activists who participated in the study

We interviewed specialists and activists involved in the design of urban spaces about the current problems in the planning and implementation of accessible urban spaces:

Hanna Aksyonova, Dmytro Baglayev, Yevhen Borysenko, Olena Ivanova, Anna Davydenko, Maksym Kravchuk, Maksym Kotsiuba, Bohdan Lepyavko, Yurii Lozovenko, Olha Myrtsalo, Mariia Nikitina, Anton Oliinyk, Yurii Ponkin, Vitalii Pcholkin, Roman Savka, and Oleh Shmid.

‍