The Urban Circle of Life of People with Disabilities

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Nowadays, over a half of humanity live in cities. This means that we must face numerous challenges. The most important area of discussions among planners is the development of the model of a future city whose urban and architectural space will be friendly both for the dwellers and the visitors. There are many ideas for such development, including an accessible, smart, creative, playable, ecological, or green city. However, according to the author of the present study, the most promising trend is the idea of a just city in which such values as democracy, diversity, and equality are pursued simultaneously, both in the urban space and in the social life. For a city to be a just city, it must be adapted, inter alia, to the needs and movement limitations of people with disabilities and others with special needs. This study presents the key moments in functioning of a disabled person in the urban space, which, at the same time, determine whether they are to participate in social life or not. The essence of a designer’s work should be to understand that the actual architectural and urban accessibility is revealed on a small scale, that it is based on detailed solutions, where architectural barriers in the existing urban environment are well diagnosed through competent auditing and then eliminated in a consistent way. On the other hand, in the present reality, we are faced with new challenges in terms of the post-pandemic future of cities. There is hope for a firmer and more consistent implementation of the principles and goals of Universal Design, which should liberate a new, more humanitarian thinking about every person’s fair participation in social life, including through public spaces available.