UNIVERSAL DESIGN -- ACCESS FOR ALL

 SITE DESIGN MUST ELIMINATE ANY ABUSES 

THAT WILL BLOCK THE WHEELCHAIR-ACCESSIBLE PATHWAY

Planners, Urban Designers, Architects, Landscape Architects plus city Zoning and Building officials MUST be visionary when designing wheelchair/pedestrian access.

The sidewalk/only accessible way into this Miami luxury high rise has been blocked by valet parking.

This forces people with disabilities to use the driveway, where they can easily be run over by cars not expecting pedestrians in the roadway.

The site actually has accessible walkways on both sides of the drive. But both are blocked with dozens of valeted cars.

Planning has to consider that once the building is occupied, lazy and thoughtless valets will take up any paved space with the cars of VIPs.

Landscaping a few feet tall, or a decorative border wall between the walkway and driveway would prevent misuse of walkways as valet space.

Police will NEVER in 100 lifetimes go onto private property to ticket or tow to resolve an Americans with Disabilities Act violation.

Cities will not in one million lifetimes pull a certificate of occupancy or otherwise hold a development accountable for discriminating against the human rights of people with disabilities – violated by safe pedestrian pathway blockage.

So designers must anticipate these issues and design to prevent them from Day One.