As human beings we plan our time and space for our activities. These activities we can globally separate in 8 life domains:
- Housing/living
- Education
- Employment
- Spare time spending
- Production and consumption
- Care
- Mobility
- Politics
In all these life domains accessibility improvement is necessary.
Accessibility is all about the relationship between human beings and their environment. If accessibility is secured, then this relationship is good. Are barriers present, however, then this relationship is bad. All human beings observe their environment (with their senses), process their observations (with their brains) and move (with their arms and legs). For all of us a general wellbeing is important. For this observing, understanding, moving and wellbeing accessibility is required. Inaccessibility limits a part of society permanently (for example because of wheelchair use), a bigger part temporaly (for example because of a broken leg), and all of us situationally (for example because of luggage or a pram).
When dealing with (in)accessibility it is important to pay attention to intersections, with which in this case a combination of different forms of disadvantage is meant like disadvantage because of gender, because of age, because of culture, because of sexual orientation.
For accessibility improvement sensibilisation is necessary. Interaction with mental and physical diversity helps to sensitise. For such interaction a presence of mental and physical diversity is demanded. For this presence accessibility is a prerequisite. This makes the circle round.
In accessibility six aspects play a part: 1. personal capacities and disabilities and 2. the physical environment and the facilities in it need to match well. If however barriers and obstacles occur 3. a helping hand/assistance can offer a solution. About above mentioned aspects 4. extensive information needs to be available, so that people know where they stand. 5. people need to be able to communicate: customer service, user feedback, reporting and handling of complaints. Is 6. representativeness required in the sense that experiential knowledge of mental/physical diversity must be involved in designing and organising inclusive solutions and innovations. With all 6 aspects sensibilisation of mental and physical diversity, standardisation for accessibility and legislation help.
The research of this academic workshop focuses on above mentioned elements with the aim to bring awareness, ambition, organisation and innovation for accessibility improvement to a higher level. In this research the UvA, the VU, the RUG, the UMC Utrecht, the TU Delft, Hanze University and Disability Studies NL play their part.
Globally, studies focus on following research issues:
Sensibilisation
- How could awareness of mental and physical diversity be measured?
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How can students and experience experts create new knowledge in co-creation?
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Which consequences have verdicts of the College Mensenrechten (Netherlands Institute for Human Rights) on the municipal level?
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How do inaccessibility and stress relate and what are the consequences of this stress?
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What do other countries do to establish an inclusive education system in which diverse pupils/students are in classes following the same education and also learning from each other?
Ambition
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Which ambitions have other countries/(capital) cities formulated for accessibility?
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How could the level of accessibility in different countries and cities be measured (like the level of happiness is also compared)?
- In what way do other countries and cities use legislation and policy try to secure inclusive housing and diverse and complete neighbourhoods?
Organisation
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How is accessibility improvement organised elsewhere (for example in municipal offices and national agencies)?
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What are good examples of inclusive employment and what do they deliver for organisations?
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How can the living worlds and the (municipal) system world be better connected?
Innovations
With inclusive and accessible city-making the following innovations can help:
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Serious game for sensibilisation of inclusive city-making
- Information platform for accessibility
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Digital platform for help on the way
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Time banking with time credit as means of transaction
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Proximity and collectiveness in the city
- Intrapreneurship, bottom-up entrepreneurship internally in organisations
Climate adaptation and accessibility improvement
- How can we make climate adaptation inclusive in such a way that climate adaptation does not only reach selective groups?
- How can urban development be executed in such a way that vulnerable groups get more protection for consequences of climate change, like excess mortality during heat waves?
- In what way can we execute climate adaptations and accessibility improvements as often as possible at the same time?
Students and teachers with ideas for research that could be connected to questions above can contact: g.a.adriannoviar@vu.nl.
