Frontline ·
Barriers everywhere
Indian cities structurally exclude persons with disabilities from public life.
What does it mean to be able? One may have a physical or sensory capacity, but whether that capacity translates into ability depends on the environment. Ability is not intrinsic—it emerges through relationships between bodies, environments, and the worlds they inhabit—and is an idea consistent with the biopsychosocial model of disability.
To overcome bodily limitations, humans formed relationships, developed technology, built environments and infrastructure to expand their lives. We tamed horses, built cars, made air travel possible (for those who can afford it), and each time, redesigned the urban environment and laws to accommodate those changes. Yet, Indian cities continue to be egregiously inaccessible for people with impairments. They are disabling to people with impairments.
Everyone has the capacity to participate in and contribute to public life, but uneven environments distribute that capacity unevenly. Addressing this requires shifting attention from what an individual is unable to do to what a city can do to make it possible for everyone to live well and participate fully on an equitable basis.
Like feminist urbanism, universal accessibility is at once a political goal and a material, environmental, and design project. Universal design begins from a simple, holistic principle: design environments that are usable by everyone, as much as possible. Disability manifests in different forms—physical, sensory, intellectual, psychosocial, and developmental—coexisting within entrenched hierarchies of sex, caste, religion, poverty, age, and other socio-economic factors, producing vastly different experiences and needs.
For instance, inaccessibility renders women with disabilities unsafe, dependent, and vulnerable to harassment or sexual violence. Promoting autonomy requires systemic changes to built, material, social, attitudinal, and institutional environments. Access to cities therefore requires physical provisions (such as ramps, accessible toilets, tactile markers, clear signage, information and communication technologies, transport), affordable or free public spaces (places to rest, meet, hang out, and enjoy the city safely and independently) as well as social and institutional support (inclusive childcare, medical and rehabilitative support, access to training and capacity building, resources and personnel). Critically, this requires enforcing reservation to ensure the direct participation of persons with disabilities in shared social worlds and leadership positions.
Indian cities structurally exclude persons with disabilities from public life. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, mandates accessibility across the physical environment, transportation, information and communication technologies, and public facilities and services, covering government and private establishments. Courts recognise accessibility as a precondition for constitutional rights and citizenship, tied to equality, dignity, autonomy, and participation. Yet poor implementation reveals institutional bottlenecks in how cities are planned, funded, constructed, and governed. Accessibility standards must be incorporated into design and reflected in procurement processes and documents. Municipal officials must be sensitised and trained, while cities need to build in-house capacity for accessible design, accountability, data collection, and monitoring, backed by sufficient funding.
Feminist and disability-centred approaches begin from affirming the equal dignity of all people as a matter of right, rather than charity, while recognising that there is no singular experience of being gendered or disabled. They link reform at the individual and structural scale simultaneously. While both approaches attempt to transform the built environment and urban life, they are expansive, political visions: to build urban worlds in which care and autonomy are central, where anyone can move freely and participate under conditions that allow belonging and flourishing.
Sneha Visakha is pursuing doctoral studies in sociocultural anthropology and has a background in legal and policy research.