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OPENING THE DOOR TO A MORE ACCESSIBLE WORLD VIEW CONTRIBUTOR’S BIO
WeCanAccess is a community social enterprise built on creating and enabling a positive social shift towards “accessible and inclusive urban space” for people with disabilities.
SDGs
Accessibility is vital from both an economic and social standpoint. Every day we need to get clean, get dressed, move around, make and eat food, and communicate. To make these things accessible we choose certain products that suit us but we all have access issues at some point in our lives or we are likely to care for someone else who has. Maybe you are too short to ever reach items on the upper shelves in the supermarket, maybe you can’t read this text if you misplace your glasses, or maybe you can’t get a job because you get too anxious in interviews. When your access to education, healthcare and employment is impaired because of a physical or attitudinal barrier, you are more likely to be dependent on others, live in poverty and have poor health. Around 15% of the world’s population has a recognised disability but this figure does not count people who are not necessarily considered as having a disability but who do have access issues, like those mentioned above. The number of people with disabilities and additional needs is also growing due to improved healthcare and the impacts of ‘long COVID’. It is becoming increasingly clear that a social shift in attitudes is essential both socially and economically, a shift whereby inclusion and accessibility is the norm.
