That number is expected to triple to 3.5 billion by 2050, as people age and the rate of non-communicable diseases rises. While people with disabilities are one of the largest marginalized communities in the world, almost everyone will experience some form of disability in their lifetime. The way our cities are designed currently excludes many people with disabilities from streets and public spaces, denying a basic right to access the built environments. These barriers to access limit their autonomy and thus their participation, inclusion, and belonging in society. This harms our collective ability to thrive in cities and build social networks for well-being regardless of physical or mental ability. It is not the disability itself that limits people ultimately, but the environments we have created.

To identify key challenges, solutions and actions for creating universally accessible cities, ITDP and Transforming Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI) are working together to promote mobility access for people with disabilities, focusing on regions like Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This partnership aims to raise awareness about the challenges people with disabilities face and provide practical guidance for policymakers and planners to advance more inclusive transport. This year, ITDP and TUMI are releasing a series of resources and knowledge products aimed at advocating for inclusion and accessibility in urban mobility and other areas of city planning.

The recently released Cities for All Through Universal Accessibility policy brief builds on ITDP’s series of Access for All products and is complemented by an in-depth research report and video series (above) highlighting the perspectives and needs of people with disabilities worldwide. Access is the foundation for inclusion, but it alone is not enough to ensure accessibility. Even when transport options are available, many are often not made accessible to all. For example, sidewalks may often be too narrow or obstructed, street crossings may not have auditory cues or ramps, there may be poor infrastructure for safe cycling, or buses may be too crowded or difficult to board. Of course, the limitations in everyday urban life are expansive for those with any type of disability.

When we think of accessibility, we tend to think of the physical barriers found in infrastructure. But accessibility is more than that, and physical infrastructure change by itself is not enough. We also need to address social and economic accessibility elements as global inequities in climate, health, and income continue to grow. The concept of universal accessibility in both the public and private realms proposes that the design of environments, policies, programs, and services should ensure that they are usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. By putting universal accessibility at the center of both physical, social, and cultural improvements to our cities, planners and decision-makers can harness a multitude of long-term social, economic, and environmental benefits.

For the future resiliency and adaptability of urban life, universal accessibility needs to be embedded into how cities provide access, from the way we plan and design our transport systems and streets to how we operate services to how we communicate with users. Mobility systems are a crucial element of this. Cities that are also built around accessible, sustainable transport modes with mixed-use services and housing co-located near them can improve wellbeing, provides economic growth, and reduces vehicle emissions.

Currently, most decision-makers and designers use nondisabled people as the norm when they plan and design, even though one in six of us has a disability. Cities cannot afford to continue growing in ways that do not provide accessible, inclusive, and safe infrastructure. Every sector has a role to fill — policymakers, the transport community, disability advocates, and researchers — for the universal access agenda to be achievable. It is not only an imperative for people living with disabilities now, but also for all future generations of urban communities.