Cities for all: co-design interventions on urban features by using inclusive technology

Abstract

All residents of the city should have the right to access, occupy, and produce space to their demands and desires. Cities and public spaces are not for a particular group; they are for everyone's use, including people of different ages, genders, races, and abilities. However, participation, mobility, and engagement levels vary among different people. Minorities in particular are challenged by segregation and inhibited from participating in the city. Designers, local governments, non-governmental organizations, and social enterprises are responsible for providing solutions to this problem. This paper introduces a multidisciplinary project, HeyKENT: Inclusive Urban Experience For All, which aims to increase the civic participation and engagement of all citizens with urban features, regardless of citizens' abilities. The project was designed by PinGOin, a social initiative that aims to reduce inequalities in social life. The collaborative project was conducted and monitored by two designers, local volunteers, and two Metropolitan Municipalities in Turkey. The project's primary outcome was a co-design intervention conducted in two cities with existing urban features using inclusive technology. Twelve urban sculptures in the first city center and 15 different tree species in an urban park in the second city center were determined. The project entailed accessible signboards with QR codes next to each urban feature that led to online video modules. The video modules, co-designed with diverse volunteer groups, were intended to be accessible to people of different ages and abilities (e.g., people with visual and audio impairments, children, the elderly, and tourists). Each video includes visuals, general narrations, audio descriptions for blind visitors, and sign language translations for deaf visitors about the urban feature. Thus, this project is a new approach in Turkey in which urban features of the city are equipped with multisensory features so that people of different ages and with diverse abilities can experience them. It is also a new application of inclusive video narrations for diverse users that are presented with accessible signboards. This design application helps to improve the participation and engagement of citizens with diverse abilities, enhances user interaction with urban features, and cultivates public awareness toward different accessibility criteria. It advocates civic participation and leads designers and local governments to consider inclu-sivity features using collective design intervention in a public space. In the project's next stage, users' engagement levels and the factors influencing their experience will be studied by a post-occupancy evaluation using observation and survey methods. The follow-up research outcomes will provide additional feedback to enhance future interventions' design processes and outcomes.