Building Inclusive Spaces: How Accessibility Enhances Community Engagement

Key Takeaways:

At its core, the Neighborhood Design Center’s community-led design process is grounded in the belief that communities should have the power to shape their neighborhoods in ways that best serve their needs.

Central to this mission is ensuring that all community members have the opportunity to contribute to decisions and solutions. To support this mission, accessibility must be a priority in both digital and physical environments, helping to ensure all voices can be heard in the engagement process and that the resulting projects effectively support the community’s needs.

Accessibility encompasses physical design and factors such as language, culture, mental abilities, resource availability, and digital literacy. Prioritizing accessibility in planning and executing community engagement activities prevents the exclusion of critical stakeholders while fostering a sense of inclusion and shared purpose.

When accessibility is approached as a process, it ensures that digital and physical engagement spaces adapt to meet the evolving needs of diverse participants.

While accessibility is a vast and evolving field, this piece is not an exhaustive examination of the subject. Instead, it highlights key learnings and practices from NDC staff, offering insight into how accessibility is integrated into both community engagement efforts and project design.

Through thoughtful engagement planning, partner communication, and activity design, NDC strives to embed accessibility at every stage, ensuring all stakeholders feel valued and included.

Basic Accessibility Practices

As a landscape architect, NDC Project Coordinator Micaela Ada initially became passionate about accessibility from the perspective of ensuring equitable access to the landscape, approaching it primarily in terms of physical barriers. Yet her understanding of its many dimensions has evolved with additional education and experience.

These dimensions extend beyond physical barriers to include factors such as language, literacy, psychological safety, and resource availability. This expanded, multidimensional view of accessibility transformed Micaela’s approach to design, reinforcing the importance of integrating accessibility into every stage of the process. From initial community engagement and co-design to the final project, ensuring accessibility helps create spaces where all community members feel seen, supported, and able to participate fully.

She highlights several key accessibility practices that support inclusive engagement through the co-design process.

ACCESSIBILITY KEY PRACTICES:

Julia DiMauro, NDC program manager, has been a key advocate for accessibility throughout the participatory process. Her journey into this field began focusing on making PDFs more accessible, a crucial yet often overlooked design aspect. She recognized the importance of ensuring that documents are intentionally formatted to accommodate users with disabilities, including compatibility with screen readers and proper tagging for navigation. While seemingly small, these adjustments can significantly enhance the accessibility and usability of documents for all users.

While her early efforts focused on document accessibility, Julia’s commitment to inclusivity has expanded to encompass digital tools and processes used during community engagement. One example is Mentimeter, an interactive polling platform that can be used for gathering input from an audience by enabling participants to submit smartphone responses. Providing it as an option is a helpful tool to have in augmenting accessibility due to its straight forward interface that provides good usability for those that have access to a digital device.  

Julia also highlights the importance of adapting to the technological advancements that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, which normalized the use of virtual platforms like Zoom. Features such as live captions have become invaluable for participants who are hard of hearing or who prefer visual aids, making virtual meetings significantly more accessible. These tools address diverse needs and enhance the inclusivity of digital engagement, ensuring that individuals who might struggle with audio can fully participate.

In addition to leveraging external tools, Julia emphasizes the importance of creating resources to support community partners. While the Equitable Engagement Toolkit includes documented best practices, there is potential to expand its content, particularly for digital meetings. She suggests developing concise, practical resources, such as a one- or two-page guide, to address common questions and provide actionable advice for hosting effective community meetings. 

Julia is also focused on developing internal tools to enhance accessibility within NDC’s processes. One initiative involves creating a Word template specifically designed for accessibility. While many of NDC’s deliverables are produced in InDesign, not all partners can access that software.

The new Word template addresses this gap by incorporating features that improve document readability for individuals using assistive technology. These features include alternative text, which provides a brief written description of an image for screen readers; image descriptions, which offer more detailed contextual information about an image’s content and purpose; and captions, which display text alongside images or graphics to support comprehension. By integrating these accessibility measures, the template ensures that any document created meets accessibility standards and can be used by a broader audience.

“It’s these tiny, simple things that make a big difference,” Julia emphasizes.

The Johnston Square Digital Equity Hub: Bridging Access Gaps in Baltimore

When the Mount Sinai Baptist Church in Baltimore’s Johnston Square neighborhood became a hub for public WiFi, it marked the beginning of a project aimed at addressing the digital divide. The city extended its public WiFi network—commonly available in libraries—into Mount Sinai Baptist Church, an anchor institution in the area where no such facilities previously existed. NDC collaborated with Mount Sinai and Rebuild Johnston Square to expand the project, creating a dedicated space where residents could use computers and receive training for essential tasks like job searching, signing up for health insurance, and more.

Recognizing that many of the intended users of the hub would have accessibility needs, NDC integrated inclusive engagement and design practices throughout the process. While accessibility remains a work in progress across the organization, the team applies key approaches to improve usability and participation.

Key Approaches:

In addition to engagement strategies, accessibility was a key consideration in the physical design of the hub itself. National ADA standards must be followed, as well as additional design choices that enhance usability for specific communities. Since many seniors in Johnston Square expressed interest in using the hub for telehealth appointments, NDC incorporated thoughtful design elements to ensure comfort and accessibility.

The dedicated telehealth desk provides privacy while accommodating users with limited mobility. A specialty chair was added, featuring a stable track that allows users to reposition themselves without needing a fully wheeled chair, which can be difficult to maneuver. A height-adjustable monitor was also recommended to ensure that users could customize their setup for comfort and visibility. Additionally, the team consulted the Maryland Department of Disabilities’ Assistive Technology Library (MDTAP) to explore additional tools, such as alternative keyboards and screen readers, that could further improve accessibility in the space.

Beyond physical accommodations, the hub offers a variety of training sessions tailored to residents’ needs. Classes range from basic computer literacy, such as learning to use a mouse, to more advanced topics like navigating Microsoft 365, setting up smartphones, and utilizing social media or email. Training is structured to support both beginner and advanced users, incorporating tools like iPads and other devices.

During a visit to the hub, Ms. Barbara Bolden, one of the instructors, shared how they use educational materials with large print and visual aids to make learning more accessible. These workbooks provide step-by-step visual instructions for tasks such as composing an email or browsing the internet, helping participants build confidence without relying solely on text-heavy explanations.

The outdoor area adjacent to the church further extends the hub’s accessibility, allowing residents to connect to WiFi from the park. Plans are underway to add more outdoor seating to ensure that individuals can use their devices comfortably in warmer months.

The hub also emphasizes reducing barriers to participation. Efforts such as offering anonymous survey options for feedback, creating a welcoming environment with refreshments, and providing patient, hands-on guidance help residents feel comfortable engaging with new technology.

Future plans for the hub include acquiring additional assistive technology and offering hands-on training in AI tools to help community members develop new digital skills.

Conclusion: Designing for Equity and Participation

Balancing accessibility needs with resources can be challenging, but even small adjustments make a meaningful difference. Ensuring accessible digital and physical engagement spaces is an ongoing effort, requiring feedback from the community and adjustments over time. Embracing accessibility as a process allows organizations like NDC to learn and adapt to the evolving needs of their diverse participants, creating spaces where everyone feels supported and empowered to engage.

“When everyone has the same opportunity to participate, it leads to better design,” says Julia. “It’s just an equalizer; that’s really important to our mission.”

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