Gender and Disability Inclusion in Urban Infrastructure - Accessibility Audit Toolkits for Urban Practitioners

The focus of the training is to enhance the skills and capacities of urban practitioners engaged at the city or local levels to develop and/or retrofit accessible urban infrastructure which can enable physical, social, as well as digital inclusion for all. The aim is to conduct a training-of-trainer session wherein the capacitated participants can utilize the skills, resources, and digital tools themselves for project implementation as well as facilitate similar training for other local stakeholders. This would lead to a snowball effect of emphasizing the need for provision of accessible urban infrastructure and services and expanding the circle of knowledge towards integrating components of inclusion in the full project cycle.

Conducting accessibility audits is one of several simultaneous local actions needed to shift the needle towards people-centric and inclusive urban planning. Through audits, local implementing entities can maintain urban infrastructure and services as well as identify actionable strategies to improve the existing facilities. With an array of digital tools and ‘smart’ technological applications available to address urban challenges, it is also imperative that these are developed through community consensus and can be easily adapted or replicated to cater to needs of diverse population groups.

Utilizing thematic e-modules and toolkits collaboratively developed by organizing partners, the session will adopt an interactive approach to equip participants with essential knowledge and technical insights on conducting holistic accessibility audits. The participants will navigate through international examples to embed universal design principles and gender-sensitive and disability-inclusive guidelines in planning, budgeting, implementing, and monitoring and evaluation of urban infrastructure projects. The training content is aligned with core principles of safety, accessibility, and inclusivity outlined in the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) vision of the New Urban Agenda and corresponds with specific targets of SDGs 4 and 11.