FEATURED ARTICLE
Universal Design in Developing Countries by Lindsay Perry
Lindsay Perry is the director of Lindsay Perry Access and has over 20 years experience as an access consultant both within Australia and at the international level. Having worked on projects for the United Nations in both Ethiopia and Kenya, she has developed a keen interest in accessibility in developing countries. She is currently undertaking a PhD candidature at the University of Newcastle on this subject.
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he United Nations (UN) Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (The Agenda) was adopted in 2015 (UNDESA, 2015). It identifies global targets aimed at stimulating action over fifteen years in the area of sustainable development advocating that equitable and universal access play a key role in reaching these visions in relation to the built environment (UNDESA, 2015). The Agenda provides seventeen sustainable development goals with one-hundred and sixty-nine targets to be attained by 2030 by all member countries (United Nations, 2015). At the conceptual level, sustainable development is the link between environmental problems and socio-economic issues from a human centered perspective (Hopwood, 2005). There are three main areas in which sustainable development can be defined in the context of UN Policies being environmental; economic; and social (Kadir & Jamludin, 2013). Social sustainability can be considered as the way in which sustainable development affects the quality of life for individuals that offers inclusion, extending to the provision of a built environment that promotes participation.
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Traditionally, themes of social sustainability have focused on poverty and unemployment but there is currently a shift to themes of sense of place; participation; and happiness (Kadir & Jamludin, 2013). As a result, social sustainability is being measured by factors like well-being; safety; and access to facilities and services. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) has stated there is a widespread lack of accessibility to the built environment – including roads, housing, public buildings and urban spaces – within developing countries (UNDESA, n.d,). This in turn affects access to basic services such as sanitation, clean water, education, transport and disaster relief measures. The Agenda recognizes that accessibility aims, which include building resilient infrastructure with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all, are challenging in the least developed countries. Particularly African countries, land-locked countries, small island developing states, and countries in conflict (UNDESA, 2015). It does not however offer strategies to tackle this issue. Marginalization of people with disabilities through inaccessible environments contradicts UN policy and The Agenda which are aimed at inclusion.
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