Making Urban Services Inclusive: Voices from the IncluCITY Webinar Series
In a world where cities are rapidly expanding, the question of who gets to fully participate in urban life is more urgent than ever. For persons with disabilities, access to essential services—such as healthcare, transport, education, and sanitation—remains a daily challenge. The third webinar in the IncluCITY series, hosted by the Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub), tackled this issue with clarity and conviction. Titled “Making Services Inclusive,” the session brought together global experts, advocates, and individuals with lived experience to explore how cities can be designed to serve everyone.
Shivani Gupta, from GDI Hub’s Inclusive Design Team, opened the session with a powerful reminder:
“We often rate cities based on the services they offer to citizens. Ensuring these services are inclusive is a cornerstone of making cities inclusive.”
The webinar drew on a four-year research programme conducted across six cities as part of the UK Aid-funded AT2030 initiative. Using participatory methods such as photo diaries, journey mapping, interviews, and co-design workshops, the study engaged over 100 people with disabilities and 90 urban stakeholders. The findings are captured in two key publications—the Global Comparison Report and the Global Action Report—which offer practical guidance for city leaders and planners.
A short video from the Global Disability Summit in Berlin set the tone, featuring reflections from individuals on how their cities shape their daily lives. These personal stories laid the foundation for a rich and thought-provoking panel discussion.
Uncovering Inequities in Urban Systems
Meenakshi Balasubramanian, Senior Associate at the Centre for Inclusive Policy in India, highlighted the deep inequities that persist even within urban areas.
“What we often miss is the lens of inequity from the perspective of persons with disabilities,” she said. “Be it urban transport, health, sanitation, or housing, people with disabilities experience barriers in accessing and using these services on an equal basis with others.”
She emphasized the financial burden placed on families, noting:
“When families can’t afford personal assistance or accessibility upgrades, people with disabilities end up institutionalised within their own homes.”
Meenakshi called for increased budget allocations, better training for service providers, and the inclusion of persons with disabilities in planning processes.
“There are no services for tactile interpreters, for example. And universal design continues to be an afterthought.”
The Case for Inclusion: Economic, Moral, and Legal
Dagnachew Wakene, a human rights lawyer and co-founder of ThisAbility Consulting in Ethiopia, presented a compelling framework for disability inclusion.
“The exclusion of persons with disabilities from services and employment costs countries between 3 and 7 percent of their GDP,” he explained. “That is a significant number by any economic standard.”
He also spoke to the moral imperative:
“Disability is a lived reality for some, but a possibility for all. It is a common human experience.”
Dagnachew addressed the issue of ableism—the systemic devaluing of people based on perceived normality and productivity.
“Ableism leads societies to decide who is valuable and worthy. This must be challenged at the policy level.”
Designing with, Not Just for, People with Disabilities
Atif Sheikh, Executive Director of STEP in Pakistan, brought over 27 years of advocacy experience to the discussion.
“We are still fighting for accessible environments because discrimination against people with disabilities is a common practice.”
He stressed the importance of co-creation:
“Accessibility must be understood as a holistic approach. It’s not just ramps—it’s about communication, transport, education, and every aspect of society.”
Atif shared a telling example from Pakistan:
“The State Bank of Pakistan mandated that all banks become accessible, and ramps were built. But they were not actually usable—they were just symbolic. Why? Because OPDs were not involved in the design.”
He called for accessibility to be integrated into academic and professional training:
“Accessibility must be taught in architecture, engineering, and policy schools. If the next generation of designers doesn’t understand it, we’ll continue to repeat these mistakes.”
Innovation in Practice: The Wayfinding Centre
Kevin Kelly, Head of Policy at Vision Ireland and Second Vice President of the European Blind Union, introduced the Wayfinding Centre in Dublin—the world’s first pan-disability training and mobility centre.
“All our training is co-designed and co-delivered by people with disabilities,” he said. “That is what makes it impactful. When people with lived experience lead the process, real change happens.”
The centre features life-sized transport modules and realistic streetscapes to help individuals gain confidence in navigating public spaces. But Kevin also pointed out a major challenge:
“We don’t have a national standard for accessibility in the built environment in Ireland. As a result, local authorities interpret guidelines differently, and we end up with fragmented, often inaccessible, outcomes.”
He emphasized the need for a shared design standard across both public and private sectors.
From Ideas to Action
Throughout the webinar, a common theme emerged: making services inclusive requires systemic change, not isolated fixes. The panelists emphasized the need to embed inclusive design in all services—both digital and physical—train service staff in disability inclusion, remove cost barriers through subsidies and incentives, and ensure that persons with disabilities are involved in every stage of service design, delivery, and evaluation.
These strategies are outlined in detail in GDI Hub’s Global Action Report, which presents ten guiding principles and sixteen action areas for inclusive urban development.
Reflecting on the session, Shivani Gupta offered a poignant conclusion:
“Inclusive service delivery is the tipping point between theoretical accessibility and lived participation.”
As cities continue to grow, they must do so with intention—centering the experiences and needs of those most often excluded. Making services inclusive is not just a technical challenge; it is a moral, economic, and human rights imperative.
Join Us for the Final IncluCITY Webinar
The IncluCITY series concludes with a final session on climate resilience and innovation for inclusive cities, scheduled for July 23rd at 10 AM BST. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the conversation shaping the future of inclusive urban development.