AGING IN PLACE

UNIVERSAL ACCESS DESIGNS

I was gratified to join David Haight and Laura Streed this week to open the 2024 Florida Planning Conference in Tampa.

More than 1,000 professional planners attended the American Planning Association’s statewide event.

Our Aging in Place: Universal Access Designs presentation drew a standing room only crowd and much applause.

Florida’s population is aging.

By 2050, Florida is forecasted to grow by 5.4 million persons.

Federal studies show that one in four people will experience disability in their lifetime.

When neighborhoods are welcoming and comfortable for a wheelchair user, they function for people of all ages.

Ninety percent of retirees want to age in place, however less than one percent of all housing contains any universal design elements.

Over a million disabled people over 65 live in inaccessible homes.

We presented examples of neighborhood and housing designs that ensure people of all ages and abilities can thrive in their community.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR DIVERSE POPULATIONS

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MEANINGFUL INPUT FROM MARGINALIZED PEOPLE

Sue Popkin, co-director of the Disability Equity Policy Initiative at The Urban Institute, has Sjogren’s Disease and uses a cane for mobility.

Popkin frames the paternalistic attitude that too many planners and designers have toward disability inclusion and implementation.

“Our work has a community advisory board with a diverse range of disabilities. It enriches what that data shows,” she said.

“The planning community doesn’t realize that they must include people with disabilities.

They don’t know that the census results in a huge undercount of people with disabilities because it doesn’t count incarcerated, institutionalized or homeless people.

It leaves out people with psychiatric disabilities and many with intermittent conditions.”

Involve people with disabilities in the design and planning processes from the outset, including research design.

 

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR DIVERSE POPULATIONS

AVOID THE SINS OF THE PAST BY GETTING 

MEANINGFUL INPUT FROM MARGINALIZED PEOPLE

Sue Popkin, co-director of the Disability Equity Policy Initiative at The Urban Institute, has Sjogren’s Disease and uses a cane for mobility.

“Our research revealed that more than 18 million people with disabilities face significant barriers to stable and quality housing that is affordable, accessible, and inclusive of people’s support needs,”

Popkin said of a survey conducted with The Kelsey, a San Francisco–based nonprofit that co-develops affordable disability-forward multifamily housing for people with and without disabilities.

“The Kelsey is working with people with disabilities to design affordable housing — rather than working with an architect who thinks about what accessibility should be,” she said, noting that a tiny fraction of architecture firms truly understands accessible housing.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR DIVERSE POPULATIONS

AVOID THE SINS OF THE PAST BY GETTING 

MEANINGFUL INPUT FROM MARGINALIZED PEOPLE

Anna Zivarts, program director, Disability Mobility Initiative at Disability Rights Washington, is author of the Island Press book “When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency.”

“My advice for people working in the industry is to recognize this is expertise you do not have,” she said, encouraging planning agencies and firms to hire people with disabilities.

Antiquated hiring requirements block millions of people with disabilities from planning jobs.

Most jobs require a driver’s license, even if it is not an essential part of the work.

Many require the ability to lift 30 or more pounds — excluding people with physical disabilities — even though performing the job never requires it.

She also noted that universities with planning, urban design and transportation degree programs need to do a much better job of recruiting students with disabilities.

 

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR DIVERSE POPULATIONS

AVOID THE SINS OF THE PAST BY GETTING 

MEANINGFUL INPUT FROM MARGINALIZED PEOPLE

Anna Zivarts, program director, Disability Mobility Initiative at Disability Rights Washington, is author of the Island Press book “When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency.”

She noted that public transit is great for people with disabilities — but not if the new light rail station requires them to cross multiple lanes of speeding traffic that don’t even have a red light to protect their journey.

“Planning has to be proactive.

Ask paratransit riders about their experience.

Go to a bus or train stop to interview diverse people — and give them a free bus pass in return for their time,” she advised.

“Ease of mobility without depending on driving impacts more than the person with a disability.

Caregivers need to have access to transit to reach the people they are caring for.”

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR DIVERSE POPULATIONS

AVOID THE SINS OF THE PAST BY GETTING 

MEANINGFUL INPUT FROM MARGINALIZED PEOPLE 

A group of disabled community members and Disability Rights Washington DC staff at a public hearing in Seattle about sidewalk maintenance.

Anna Zivarts, program director, Disability Mobility Initiative at Disability Rights Washington, is author of the Island Press book “When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency.”

Zivarts said public engagement aimed at people with various disabilities is not a courtesy, it is an essential.

She cautions planners from undercounting people with disabilities, noting that a built environment might be so filled with barriers that it keeps people with disabilities off the streets and sidewalks.

For instance, as a low-vision person, Zivarts cannot read street signs with tiny fonts. Having better signage for pedestrian routes for people with disabilities would benefit all people in a city, especially visitors.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR DIVERSE POPULATIONS

AVOID THE SINS OF THE PAST BY GETTING 

MEANINGFUL INPUT FROM MARGINALIZED PEOPLE

Anna Zivarts, program director, Disability Mobility Initiative at Disability Rights Washington, is author of the Island Press book “When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency.”

Zivarts, a low-vision mom and nondriver who was born with the neurological condition nystagmus, cautions planners from using “check the box” disability inclusion — inviting one person with a disability and assuming that meets all needs.

“If you know someone in a wheelchair, that doesn’t mean you know what a low-vision person needs or what a neurodiverse needs,” she said.

“If a low-income blind person can’t afford Uber or Lyft, you are going to have a very different context than someone who is blind but works in tech and can afford Uber/Lyft to commute to work.”