Accessible features, such as barrier-free design, safe sidewalks and street crossings, and direct routes will help your community to be more physically active. This article offers many suggestions about improving accessibility in your community, plus several links to additional resources.
There is no magic solution to ensuring immediate, safe and equal accessibility for all people. It takes hard work and planning to make it happen in every community.
You can help. Everyone can play a role in making communities accessible and safe for all, including individuals, parents, community groups, schools, and all levels of government.
About Accessibility
Accessibility means removing barriers that prevent people from accessing opportunities. These barriers may be physical, economic, social or political.
For example, creating a safe and direct sidewalk route to a local playground may encourage families to walk or bicycle to the park. Consider the following questions, in relation to your own neighborhood:
- Are the sidewalks and crossings safe?
- Are there direct routes or shortcuts to popular destinations such as the school, playground or local store?
- Are there all-ages playgrounds and parks nearby that encourage active and free play or recreation options for all age groups?
- Are barrier-free design features (such as curb cuts) incorporated in most or all public spaces?
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Daily Physical Activity is Important
It is not difficult to add physical activity into your daily activities. It can be as simple as using an “active” form of transportation, such as walking, using your wheelchair or bicycling. It can also mean mixing “active” transportation methods, such as biking or walking and then taking a bus.
Regular physical activity helps to improve your health and may help to prevent chronic health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lung disease and some cancers.
Canada’s Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living recommends that children and youth get 90 minutes of physical activity each day. The Guide recommends that adults get 60 minutes each day and older adults (65+) 30-60 minutes on most days of the week.
To help promote physical activity by all people, and equal access and opportunities, it’s vital for communities to think about practical ways to ensure or improve accessibility.
Encouraging Physical Activity in Your Area
Whether you are considering a move to a new neighborhood or thinking of ways to make your existing community more active and accessible, there are a lot of factors to consider.
Start by assessing the features of the community. For example, look for:
- safe and secure sidewalks
- barrier-free features, such as curb cuts
- safe pedestrian crossings
- bicycle routes
- walking or bike routes that are linked to direct routes (these linked routes can increase your community’s activity level, e.g., by making bicycle commuting easier)
- all-ages parks and playgrounds that are within walking distance of most residents
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Other Features of Accessible Communities
There are many other features in accessible communities.
For example, sidewalks and pathways should:
- be visually pleasing and inviting
- be wide enough for wheelchair users or those using walkers, crutches or guide dogs
- be wide enough for people passing in opposite directions
- be well-lighted and generally make pedestrians feel safe
- be clear of objects or obstacles
Pedestrian crossings should:
- be well-marked (streets clearly painted, working signals, etc.)
- be placed at locations where there is reduced vehicle traffic
- be at right angles to the roadway, so young pedestrians and people with low-vision can look left and right
- have a curb cut/ramp
Ideally, all transportation routes should allow for one or more methods of active transportation. Consider whether it’s easy, or not, to use active transportation on the various routes in your area? How could some routes be improved or changed?
Among other design options, routes should generally:
- connect houses to local schools, parks and businesses
- offer short-cuts where sidewalks are not possible
- include dedicated bike lanes (this makes sidewalks safer for walkers and roads safer for bikers)
For playgrounds, various features help to promote accessibility, such as:
- design features that facilitate access by people of varying abilities and ages (including young children and older adults)
- having a separate area for those age five and under
- installing gates (rather than fences or other design obstacles) that accommodate mobility aids and strollers
- aligning benches and garbage containers on one side of a pathway to assist low-vision walkers
- providing universally accessible (barrier-free) washrooms
What Action Can You Take?
If you live in an established neighborhood and would like to help your community become more active and more accessible there are many actions you can take.
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For example, parents and schools can work together to make playgrounds more accessible and safe. They can also encourage walking to school on most days of the week.
Parents living near popular routes to school can get together and walk children in a group, creating a fun and safe alternative to car-pooling. This is an innovative idea called a “walking school bus.”
Schools may be able to recruit volunteers to walk with children, perhaps even a retired adult. Also, teachers can work with students to map out the safest route to get to school, while reminding them of traffic and bicycle safety rules.
More Issues or Actions
Equal accessibility can also be restricted by cost, or a wide range of economic, social or political factors. For example, on the economic side, communities and regions can work together to ensure low or no-cost activities are available for low-income families.
Sometimes community actions or individual efforts are not enough to create a change or result in increased accessibility or safety. You may wish to involve others and advocate on a wider scale for changes in laws, by-laws or common practices that negatively influence community accessibility.
There are a few good places to start. For example, parents can advocate for provincial legislation for increased physical activity in schools. Or, perhaps you’d like to advocate for improved recreational areas and playgrounds in your area that are safer and more accessible. You and your community can best decide what needs to be done in terms of improving accessibility.
It helps to check out resources on the web and inform yourself. For example, the Social Planning and Research Council of BC has a useful guide to help advocate for accessible communities, including a bylaw guide. Among a wide range of topics, this guide suggests how community members can advocate for parks and green spaces to be located within walking distances from neighborhoods.
Remember, accessibility includes all ages (children to seniors) and mobility levels. Experience has shown that when accessibility features are added or broadened to include people with restricted mobility, the features (e.g., barrier-free design) are often helpful to all people.
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An Active and Accessible Future
Regular physical activity is vital in maintaining good health and preventing chronic health conditions. Meeting the recommended levels of daily activity can be as simple as adding active transportation into your daily activities.
On a community level, making your community accessible and safe for all ages and abilities will promote increased physical activity options for all. You can be proud of your efforts to make your community’s future more active and more accessible!
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Learn More:
SHAPE Alberta
This Alberta-based site promotes active and safe routes to school. You will find information on the walking school bus, walking buddies and school travel planning.
CSA Standard on Children’s Playspaces and Equipment
Canada’s only nationally recognized standard on children's playspaces and equipment, CSA Standard CAN/CSA-Z614-07.
Social Planning and Research Council of BC (SPARC BC) – Accessible Community Bylaws Guide
This guide looks at what community accessibility is and gives ideas and tools to create accessibility by-laws.
Public Health Agency of Canada, Ideas for Active Transportation
Describes active transportation and provides ideas for incorporating physical activity into your daily life. It covers individual, workplace and community environments.
Safe Kids Canada, Playground Safety
Practical information about playground injuries and safety. You can also link to other sites including playground safety tips, design features and other playground information.
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