Skip to content
Toole Design
  • About Us
  • Expertise
  • People
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Search
Back to articles

Our Resource Guide for Engaging People with Disabilities

07 / 28 / 202007 / 28 / 2020
News, Publications

Cover of Toole Design's "Engaging People with Disabilities in Street Planning and Design" resource guide.On Sunday, July 26th, the Americans with Disabilities Act turned 30 years old. The ADA was a landmark civil rights law that made it illegal to discriminate against people because of disability, and it has set the standard for what the United States’s transportation system must provide ever since.

Despite this legislation, people with disabilities are among the many who are routinely still   left out of street planning and design processes. Even with clear mandates to ensure access, countless streets and public spaces still fall short of actually providing a safe and comfortable experience for people with disabilities—even if they do meet the letter of the law, standards, or relevant guidelines. As our own Katie Knapp de Orvañanos wrote earlier this year in her post about ensuring that transit properly serves people with disabilities and older adults, if we aren’t proactive about understanding the different needs, experiences, and abilities of all users, we will inevitably ignore them.

If we want plans and designs that are truly accessible, we need to meaningfully engage people with disabilities from the start of every project through its completion and evaluation.

If we incorporate real engagement with people with disabilities into our work—and this means people with all types of different disabilities—we will start to see a built environment that reflects their needs and serves them fully.

Our mission at Toole Design is to support communities in building a transportation network that serves everyone, and we know that won’t happen if we don’t get this piece of the puzzle right. This new resource guide is a compilation of the most important lessons we’ve learned about engaging people with disabilities. Inside, you’ll find the following:

  • A clear overview of why it’s so important to engage people with disabilities in street planning and design processes
  • Eleven practical tips for engaging people with disabilities

Download the Engaging People with Disabilities in Street Planning and Design Resource Guide to read all 11 tips—and so we can all move one step closer to a system that welcomes all of us.

SHARE
See All Articles Next Article

Recent Insights

  • Aligning Projects and Passions: Dustin DeKoekkoek on Leading the Seattle Team

    Talk to Dustin DeKoekkoek for five minutes and you will wish he were your boss. From office bike rides to…

    01 / 31 / 2023
  • Toole Design at TRB 2023

    We are excited to attend the 2023 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, which showcases the latest transportation research, project evaluation, and…

    01 / 06 / 2023
  • Happy New Year from Toole Design

    celebrating 20 Years of connecting people and places Happy New Year from Toole Design! We are celebrating not only a…

    01 / 02 / 202301 / 03 / 2023
Connect with us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Subscribe to Our NewsletterSubscribe to
Our Newsletter

Join Our Newsletter

  • About Us
  • Expertise
  • People
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • Contact
Affiliates Non-Discrimination
©2023 Toole Design Group, LLC