Understanding urban accessibility: A community-engaged pilot study of entrance features

The accessibility of the built environment is an equity issue. Accessibility standards for buildings exist, but often apply to new buildings or major renovations. This renders historic neighborhoods inaccessible. Accessibility standards and related assessments rarely consider the experiences and priorities of people who experience disability. Partnered with local government and an accessibility advisory committee, we conducted a pilot study of urban accessibility in Edmonton Edmon, Alberta, Canada. We measured four indicators of entranceway accessibility along a popular, central commercial corridor and mapped the data with building age using QGIS. We found significant accessibility barriers. •We conducted a community-engaged urban accessibility methodological pilot.•We evaluated four indicators of entranceway accessibility of commercial places.•Only 4% of primary entrances met all four indicators.•We found significant accessibility barriers unrelated to building age.•Engaged scholarship provides an opportunity to promote equity in urban contexts.