Most of all, accessibility requires providers to put the user first.
To determine in detail the factors that must be in place to allow access, it is sometimes easier to consider the factors that can prevent accessibility. Let us take a service such as shopping as an initial example. We can only have access to a shop if we know it exists and if we know enough about the goods it stocks to know if it is likely to have the items we want (knowledge). If the shop offers an on-line home delivery service we can only access the shop via that service if we know it exists, we have a computer and we know the web address of the shop. We must also have the money for the items we want to purchase and a credit card or account with the shop (financial means).
If we wish to purchase our items by visiting the shop, we need the mobility to reach the shop from wherever we happen to be. This mobility will probably involve travel by a powered mode (automobile, bus, taxi, train) plus a linking access stage on foot or in a wheelchair (ability). The use of the powered mode will involve many factors such as car availability, licence holding, availability of parking and fear of driving in congested traffic for the car driver; availability of service, knowledge of the services and timetable, and the fear of waiting at a stop or station for the bus or train; cost and the fear of unlicensed operators for the taxi. Many of these factors are already considered by transport planners, along with the time and cost of travelling, as relevant items when predicting the transport mode that people will choose to use.
The pedestrian access link can be made difficult or impossible by distance or gradient, by weather, by pavement conditions (particularly for people with visual impairments or using a wheelchair), by lack of street lighting or by fear in a dangerous part of town. Finally, for a person in a wheelchair, access to the shop itself can be prevented by a step, a door with a stiff spring, or insufficient space within the shop. Once we are in the shop, access to the item we wish to purchase can be prevented by an unhelpful shop assistant.
All of this makes the process of daily living sound an almost impossible challenge, which must overstate the position for most of us. The point I am trying to illustrate is that for one of the commonest activities of daily life, many of the factors that can inhibit access have nothing to do with the design of vehicles or the provision of ’accessible’ services, necessary as these are. It is also important to appreciate that only one of the factors listed needs to be wrong to prevent access. It is essential for the complete chain of information (knowledge), money (financial means), confidence, accessible vehicle, appropriate infrastructure (ability) and helpful staff to exist before access becomes possible. In practise, lack of information of what services are available may well be a more common barrier than the physical design of vehicles or infrastructure.
Where there are barriers of any kind (knowledge, financial means, ability), they can often be reduced or overcome by ’human’ means. Advisory services, well trained and helpful staff in transport companies, physical help to use otherwise inaccessible vehicles and assistance with the cost of travel can provide access to technically inaccessible systems or services. Disabled people travelling in lower income countries report that readily available help often makes up for physically inaccessible vehicles and infrastructure.
Accessibility means much more that making it possible to move about. It is a fundamental requirement for an inclusive society. By taking the trouble to discover what different people need to be able to participate in an activity, and then providing those features, we are showing that we treat everyone as equal and are determined that no one will be excluded.