Accesible City Award

Beginning in 2024, notable contributions will be recognized with the Accessible City Award. This award may be given to individuals, cities, organizations, or other entities accessible design and other significant improvements to the quality of life in areas of accessibility.

Build it Accessibile

Accessibility across an extended area is something the most successful developments have in common. Walkability and rollability matter along with other accommodations.

Elegance is not just a facade, but a holistic experience, so is accessibility and usability. The best curb appeal is no curb at all. Level entries, wide doorways, open spaces, no mazes, along with easy to access restrooms, etc. - all make for great experiences that keep people coming back.

And Digital is not separate, but a key part of it. Online discovery of attractions and the details needed to partake can be the deal maker or breaker. Hours, Event Schedules, costs, wayfinding, to and from, reserving - all integral to the experience.

The whole is greater than the sum in making SportsCity, ArtsCity, Accessible City

What is Accessible.City?

Accessible.City is a voice and a means for improving the experience for all citizens and guests of our community

A gathering place

It is a magnet for collecting people and ideas in creative collaboration

A celebration of Purpose

A place for recognizing, sharing, and celebrating successes

Who is Accessible.City?

We are an Independent entity, not a government agency or enterprise, a voluntary collaboration on the common purpose of creating a more accessibly city for all

For years I said that design of architectural spaces was analogous to UX design in cyberspace.  I was wrong.  They are in fact one in the same.  As we move toward web3, that awareness will change from novelty to necessity.

This page is for all of us working to make a model city for accessibility. Working together, creating awareness of the need and vision, then sharing information tips and resources, designing, and advocating solutions.

Accessible City

Congratulations to the Frisco Mayor Cheney and City Council on a thoughtful and openly transparent working session to determine the city's priorities for the coming year.

Ten Priortiies

Several of the City's ten priorities carry important implications for accessibility. The most obvious of these is the improvements to transportation Infrastructure. But the historic down, parks, performing arts all bring new opportunities to design in accessibility for everyone.

Instead of treating accessibility as an add-on afterthought or checkmark on the ADA compliance requirement, let's look at creative ways to raise the bar on designing great experiences for all of our residents and visitors.

For example instead of ramps, which are oten awkawd even when ADA compliant. Let's look for solutions that don't need them. Normal slopes and moderate grades are better and more cost-effective anyway.

Attractions can have spaces and doorways wide enough for wheelchairs and other mobility devices to navigate via the same route as other visitors. No one wants to be singled out and sent to a freight elevator.

ConneCtivity

Public places, private places, open spaces and all places in between.

Inclusive

Everyone regardless of abilities, or demographic should feel welcomed and accommodated, citizens and visitors alike.

True Connectiviy

Wide sidewalks with curb cutaways are nice and may meet ADA compliance, but are useless if not part of a connected path. Like a broken wire or unplugged internet cable, a lovely sidewalk without connectivity is a tease or worse, it's a trap for some unsuspecting user unaware that the "bridge is out" ahead.

Connectivity is what makes the pieces add up to a whole that is usable. Otherwise none of it makes much practical sense.

We must continually ask, "Is it possible, practical, and reasonably comfortable for a person with wheels or other limitation to actually use this feature and path to go from points A to B?

Can a mom pushing a stroller with one hand while holding the hand of a preschooler in the other get from the parking garage to the public market safely and easily? Or will it be a miserable frightening experience to never ever be attempted again?

ADA law addresses individual features. PRACTICAL ACCESSIBILITY demands that we go much further to consider connectivity and real life context of use. As we tie destinations together with sidewalks and pathways, let's consider the variety of people and circumstances of use in composing the design. Then let's test those theories with real people as much as we can to validate the approach and seize new opportunities it may reveal.

Another Example

Is the distance across the junction connecting the Rail District to the Public Market and Frisco Square too far for some seniors to walk without a bench to take a rest? What else??

There are countless quality factors impacting accessibility and the experiences of everyone that ADA alone might not tell us.

Our Digital World

Then there's digital and other virtual accessibility. In this post COVID culture where on-line/metaverse/web3 elements are no longer an add-on option, but often the only means to engage in many aspects of daily life and community, neither can accessibility be treated as an add-on. It must be built-in.

Web3 and beyond

Like city streets, digital accessibility cannot be just feature by feature, but holistically considered as integral to the entire set of life experiences in a truly Accessible City.

Working together with empathy and creativity, Frisco can raise the standard again, this time in defining how to become Accessible City Frisco.