HONORED TO BE PRESENTING INCLUSIVE MOBILITY BEST PRACTICES

AT THE AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION 2022 NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Teaming with Deborah Myerson to present "Mobility Matters: Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make."

Creating an inclusive and accessible environment requires more than adhering to basic ADA requirements, avoiding ableist terminology, or providing closed captioning for city meetings.

These actions are important, but local governments must be dedicated to widespread accessibility and mobility.

Otherwise, micromobility for some — like scooters — creates outright travel hazards for more vulnerable pathway users.

Examine these and other common mistakes in planning for accessibility and learn how local governments can adopt a more comprehensive approach to accessible transportation and mobility for people with disabilities.

Speakers highlight opportunities and examples of how to:

Involve disabled people in decisions about transportation design, construction, maintenance, and operations.

Seek meaningful input and share decision-making power.

Establish an equitable process based on transparency, inclusiveness, respect, and building trusted relationships with the community.

Prioritize safety and ensure access in sidewalk design, roads, public rights of way, and other transportation facilities to reduce risk for the most vulnerable users.

Adopt ongoing evaluation and assessment to improve equitable outcomes.

PROUD TO BE PRESENTING UNIVERSAL DESIGN BEST PRACTICES

AT THE AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION 2022 NATIONAL CONFERENCE

My topic is No Person Left Behind: Truly Inclusive Design. The course will cover:

People with limited abilities are often "designed out" of places, events, and activities.

Three decades after adoption of the ADA, the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need for planning for inclusion and equitable access and accepting the challenges of safely separating users and uses. 

COVID’s silver lining may be renewed emphasis on safer pedestrian travel, transit, and more open outdoor-recreation spaces.

Mobility remains a sometimes-insurmountable challenge for people with disabilities.

Scooters, bikes, and utilities often block wheelchair users and trip blind people. 

Transit access depends on compliant sidewalks with clear paths to accessible stops.

Ride-share, mobility, and other first mile/last mile “solutions” are not accessible to wheelchair users and many other disabled folks.