“Early and Often”: Practitioner Perspectives on Developing a Process for Consultation with Disabled Persons’ (Representative) Organisations (DP(R)O) in Active Travel
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.Abstract The issue of effective consultation with disabled people regarding planning for infrastructure in the public realm, including active travel infrastructure, is a topical and often fraught subject. While barriers to active travel participation for disabled individuals are beginning to receive a greater level of attention than they have historically (Cox and Bartle, 2020; Inckle, 2020; Larrington-Spencer, 2025), the lack of access to consultation for disabled people on active travel infrastructure design is less frequently discussed. This is a practical issue for local authority practitioners, who often carry the greatest responsibility for the delivery of active travel infrastructure. For many, their ability to conduct effective consultation on active travel projects with disabled people is undermined by a lack of confidence and familiarity with appropriate processes. This article presents an edited document of a roundtable discussion held on March 10th, 2025, in Dublin City Council’s Active Travel Programme Office. The purpose of the roundtable was to share the Council’s experience of developing a process for consultation with Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs) on active travel projects. It is stressed throughout that this is very much a ‘living’ process, refined and improved as each active travel project moves through its stages. Nonetheless, it is hoped that the experiences in developing the process will be useful for other practitioners and for other DPO/DPROs working on active travel in Ireland or elsewhere. The roundtable participants included the Council officials, DPO/DPRO representatives, and service designer responsible for developing the co-designed process of consultation and the discussion was moderated by an external researcher. For clarity, DPO/DPROs are the sole representative organisations regarding disability, and are led, run, directed, staffed, and mostly membered by Disabled People, (CRPD, GC7, para. 11). They are human rights based and distinguished from a disability service provided.
Source: Active Travel Studies
DOI: 10.16997/ats.1911
Institutions: Dublin City Council, Technological University Dublin
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7143806271