18.6% of Bengaluru inaccessible to physically challenged

Key points

• BENGALURU: The 16,265 assessments by the Association for People with Disability’s (APD) ‘Yes To Access’ (YTA) initiative reveal that 18.6%…
• “The data shows that Bengaluru is largely inaccessible in public spaces, with varying degrees of inaccessibility.
• The assessments were conducted through YTA, a community-powered platform that maps and rates the accessibility of public and private spaces.
• “If you look at these individually, they can seem like small infrastructure gaps.

BENGALURU: The 16,265 assessments by the Association for People with Disability’s (APD) ‘Yes To Access’ (YTA) initiative reveal that 18.6% of assessed locations in Bengaluru were not accessible to persons with disabilities (PwDs).

The assessments were conducted through YTA, a community-powered platform that maps and rates the accessibility of public and private spaces. It has recorded more than two lakh accessibility assessments across Karnataka between December 2024 and June 2026. The APD data shows 11,530 locations lacked accessible parking, 6,106 lacked approach signage, 4,819 lacked internal tactile pathways, 3,740 lacked ramps and 3,068 lacked accessible toilets.

Educational and research institutes recorded the highest share of inaccessible observations at 20%, followed by hotels and hospitality (19.6%), retail and commercial locations (19.5%), office buildings (19.2%), schools (18.6%), healthcare facilities and cafeterias/restaurants (18.4% each), judicial and legal buildings (18.1%), residential locations (17.7%), transportation services (17.5%), public spaces (16.9%), recreational buildings (16.6%) and religious buildings (16.3%).

“The data shows that Bengaluru is largely inaccessible in public spaces, with varying degrees of inaccessibility. This becomes particularly important as Bengaluru is home to around 2.74 lakh PwDs for whom the accessibility to workplaces, hospitals, educational institutions, transport and other public spaces directly shapes everyday participation and independence,” stated an APD spokesperson.

What happened

As accessibility works as a chain in which a failure at any point can affect a person’s ability to independently use a destination, the gaps, however, cannot be viewed in isolation, the spokesperson stated. “If you look at these individually, they can seem like small infrastructure gaps. For a person with a disability, they can completely change the experience of using a place.

If I cannot identify the accessible entrance, getting from the parking area to the entrance, finding my way around the building or using the toilet independently, then the building is not accessible to me, even if it technically has a ramp,” the spokesperson said.

The managing trustee of The Good Sam Foundation, David Istacky, said most public and private spaces have been designed for residents without mobility issues and hence, accessibility has not been given much of a thought. He pointed to Namma Metro as an example of progress, citing features such as lifts, accessible entrances, tactile guidance, wheelchair access and visual and audio information. However, he stated such interventions need to be connected through accessible footpaths, crossings and public transport.

Both of them argued that one of the biggest changes is to stop treating accessibility as something that is checked after a project has been designed.

The details

“A major structural problem is the lack of direct representation of persons with disabilities in planning bodies and at the design stages of infrastructure projects. If accessibility is not brought in at that point, you are often trying to fit an inclusive solution into an environment that was never designed for it. That can result in compromises, expensive retrofits or solutions that technically exist but are difficult to apply,” the spokesperson added.

They urged mandatory accessibility audits, stronger enforcement and maintenance, accessible standards for footpaths and pedestrian crossings, removal of encroachments from pedestrian paths, and greater involvement of persons with disabilities in infrastructure planning.