How to write an accessibility strategy

An accessibility strategy expresses your overall vision, objectives and work programme for improving accessibility to key services and facilities. The accessibility strategy should be developed with partners in the context of the wider vision for the area. It should consider how accessibility improvements can help to deliver other objectives, such as the development of jobs and housing. It should be evidence-based, meaning it has to include an assessment of the accessibility needs and problems of the area, and it should demonstrate how a range of interventions can address these problems.

Your accessibility strategy provides the foundation for a number of local accessibility action plans that will be developed with partners over time. A local accessibility action plan sets out in detail how the authority, together with its partners, intends to achieve its objectives and tackle the identified accessibility priorities. Neither accessibility strategies nor action plans are one-off documents—you haven’t finished the job by writing the plan or even by implementing it. Remember that an accessibility strategy should be developed to evolve over time. One of the objectives of the plans is to help to instil and cultivate a new approach to transport and planning; over the coming years, all service sector planning and provision should have accessibility at its core.

The process of accessibility planning starts by identifying current problems and works through a structured sequence to deliver effective solutions. Right from the start it’s critical that partners from other areas in the local service sector are involved in defining the problems, developing long-lists of solutions and working proactively on the short-list. Encouraging partners to share the decision-making about which actions to take increases the non-transport actions on accessibility.

The skills you will need to achieve this include:

• Establishing working relationships with other local service providers
• Identifying and assessing viable solutions
• Developing action plans
• Fostering a culture of accessibility and planning within your organisation

Skills Resource 2 sets out a list of the skills that you will need for successful accessibility planning.

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