When we speak about gender and mobility, the conversation often focuses on safety in public transport, last-mile connectivity, or the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work that shapes women’s travel patterns. These are critical issues. But one dimension is almost always missing from the discourse: disability.

For women and girls with disabilities, mobility is never just about getting from one place to another. It is about negotiating layers of exclusion in infrastructure, policy, and social attitudes. Accessibility is therefore inherently gendered. And, unless disability is part of the mobility agenda, inclusion will remain incomplete.

The Gendered Face of Inaccessibility

Consider the journey of a woman wheelchair user trying to reach a bus stop. The barriers begin at the very doorstep: a missing ramp, an uneven pavement, or a broken kerb. By the time she navigates these obstacles, the bus itself may lack a low-floor design or proper boarding assistance. Even if she manages to board, security concerns about harassment remain unaddressed.

These challenges are compounded for women with visual, hearing, or intellectual disabilities, who face not just physical but also communication and attitudinal barriers. Gender norms further restrict their independence, as families often hesitate to let them travel alone, fearing both safety and stigma.

The Missing Piece: First-Mile and Last-Mile Barriers

For many women, the greatest challenge in mobility is not the main mode of transport itself. It is the first and last mile. Reaching the metro station, bus stop, or shared auto stand often means navigating broken footpaths, unsafe alleys, or streets without lighting.

For women with disabilities, these barriers multiply: 

• Shared autos, connecting buses and rickshaws are inaccessible

• Traffic chaos and crowds endanger physical safety 

• Wheelchair users face discontinuous pavements, missing ramps, and unsafe crossings

• Blind or low-vision women confront obstacles like dug-up footpaths, parked vehicles, and the absence of tactile or auditory cues

• Deaf women often lack access to real-time safety information or route changes

  
  

A recent Metro ride in NCR highlighted these gaps vividly. Station ramps led abruptly onto busy roads with no protective buffer or safe crossing. At ticketing counters, there were no visual systems to support deaf travellers — announcements were audio-only, excluding anyone who could not hear. For first-time riders, there was no structured guidance or assistance to navigate the system, whether at entry gates, platforms, or wayfinding points.

Even when the core system — the metro train itself — is accessible, the journey to and from it remains exclusionary. This is why “first-mile/last-mile” cannot be treated as a logistics issue alone; it is a gendered and accessibility issue that determines whether women with disabilities can travel at all.

Several global and Indian cities have begun addressing these challenges through integrated, people-centred design.

• Singapore has made barrier-free connectivity mandatory in new developments, linking metro stations with sheltered walkways, ramps, and accessible bus stops through its Walk2Ride and Active Mobility programmes.

• Tokyo ensures continuity of the travel chain by mandating accessible sidewalks, tactile paving, and audible signals in the 500-metre radius around metro stations.

• London’s Healthy Streets Approach integrates first- and last-mile design by widening pavements, installing dropped kerbs, and enforcing step-free access in walking routes connecting Tube and bus interchanges.

• Bengaluru’s TenderSURE initiative and Delhi’s Complete Streets Guidelines (2022) offer India-specific examples of reclaiming first-mile public space for accessibility by introducing continuous footpaths, curb ramps, street lighting, and tactile paving linked to metro stations.

Why Disability Belongs in the Gender–Mobility Agenda

Intersectionality Matters: Gender and disability together amplify vulnerabilities. A ramp that is absent in a metro station excludes a wheelchair user, but it also affects pregnant women, elderly women, and caregivers pushing strollers.

Policy Commitments Already Exist: India’s Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (2016) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) both recognise accessibility as a right, not a privilege. SDG 11.2 explicitly calls for “safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all.”

Data Gaps Hide Realities: Mobility surveys rarely disaggregate by disability. Without gender–disability disaggregated data, the lived experiences of millions of women remain invisible to planners and policymakers.

This invisibility has tangible consequences. When data fails to capture how women with disabilities move through cities, or why they often cannot, policies default to a “one-size-fits-all” model that overlooks accessibility, caregiving patterns, and safety needs. Transport investments then prioritise vehicle speed over pedestrian safety, assume all commuters can see, hear, or climb stairs, and measure efficiency without measuring inclusion. The result is a transport system that unintentionally excludes those who depend on it most.

Accurate data is the foundation of inclusive planning. Collecting gender- and disability-disaggregated data on trip frequency, purpose, mode choice, time of travel, and barriers encountered can guide more responsive design — from accessible footpaths and lighting to safe interchange zones.

Global frameworks such as the UN-Habitat Gender and Mobility Initiative and the World Bank’s Accessibility Indicators for Inclusive Cities already embed disability metrics into mobility planning. 

India’s own National Transport Development Policy Committee (NTDPC) and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) can integrate similar indicators into national mobility surveys and Smart City dashboards. 

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), through its policy brief Women and Transport in Indian Cities (2018), provides actionable insights on gender-responsive transport, travel patterns, and data-driven design. It offers a valuable model for integrating disability inclusion within gender-sensitive mobility planning.

The Draft Transport Accessibility Framework (2025) by the Strategic Accessibility Cell – Rights of Riders (SAC-RR) can further build on these approaches to mainstream accessibility metrics in India’s transport ecosystem.

Without such data, inclusion remains an aspiration — not an outcome.

From Universal Design to Universal Dignity

The solution lies in adopting universal design as a non-negotiable principle in mobility systems. When metro stations have tactile pathways, clear audio-visual signage, and step-free access, they don’t just serve persons with disabilities — they benefit everyone. For example:

• Women travelling with children find it easier to navigate

• Elderly citizens experience greater independence

• Safety improves when spaces are well-lit and designed with visibility in mind

Learning from Global Cities: Inclusive Mobility in Action

Globally, cities are reimagining mobility through the lens of accessibility and inclusion. For example:

• Stockholm integrates universal-design principles across buses, trams, and the urban pedestrian network, and was awarded 3rd prize in the European Commission’s Access City Award (2013) for its accessible transport infrastructure.

• London’s Transport for London initiative combines extensive step-free access improvements with structured engagement of organisations representing disabled people.

• Tokyo has led metro accessibility since the 2000s, with 92.8 % of train stations reporting step-free access, 95.8 % universal-access toilets, and near-complete tactile paving coverage by 2016.

• Bogotá’s TransMilenio BRT system has introduced measures to support passengers with disabilities and elderly travellers, reflecting a more inclusive approach to public mobility.

• Singapore’s Land Transport Authority continues to embed barrier-free design across its transport network and actively involves persons with disabilities in accessibility auditing and feedback processes.

• India’s cities are now poised to take similar strides. The challenge is not lack of policy, but the will to make accessibility a baseline, not an afterthought. As global examples show, inclusive mobility doesn’t happen by accident. It is designed, budgeted, and enforced through shared accountability. India’s next phase of urban transformation must bring women with disabilities from the margins to the policymaking table. Only then will our cities truly move forward — together.

• Accessibility, in other words, is not an add-on. It is the foundation of dignity and equal participation.

A Call to Action

Initiatives like MobiliseHER, can mainstream disability within gender-responsive mobility. This is the moment when we need to promote:

1. Design with disabled women at the table: This ensures consultation is not symbolic. Rather, the lived experiences of women with disability shapes blueprints and budgets. Meaningful participation goes beyond one-off consultations — it must be institutionalizedthrough clear mechanisms that give women with disabilities decision-making power in mobility planning. Some proven approaches include:

a. Advisory Panels and Co-Creation Councils: Establishing Women with Disabilities Advisory Panels within city transport authorities, smart-city missions, or metro corporations can ensure fair and equitable participation of the user groups. These panels can review station designs, bus route accessibility, and digital ticketing interfaces from a lived-experience lens. A successful example of this format can be found in Transport for London’s Independent Disability Advisory Group (IDAG) that works closely with TfL engineers and planners, ensuring accessibility features are built into design stages rather than added later.

b. Participatory Design and User Testing: Participatory Accessibility Design Workshopsinvolving women with different disabilities, transport engineers, and urban designers can be used to test wayfinding tools, prototype station layouts, and assess lighting, safety, and signage. UN-Habitat’s Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme demonstrates how co-design processes can embed community and disability perspectives in urban development. Similar participatory approaches are being applied to mobility systems:

i. The Women in Mobility Walkshop in Europe invited women and people with disabilities to walk test routes around train stations and assess inter-modal accessibility and safety.

ii. The Changing Focus: Mobility Hub Design Centered on Women and Caregivers initiative in the United States used co-design to shape transport-hub features such as lighting, signage, and rest spaces to meet diverse user needs.

c. Accessibility Impact Assessments (AIA) with a Gender-Disability Lens: Accessibility Impact Assessments for major mobility projects, with at least 30 % of community assessors being women with disabilities must be mandated. For example, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority and SG Enable jointly conduct accessibility audits and user-feedback loops to improve public-transport infrastructure.

d. Leadership and Representation in Governance: It must be ensured that women with disabilities hold seats on Urban Transport Boards, Smart City SPVs, and State Road Safety Councils, with paid participation and recorded inputs. This aligns with Section 3(c) and Section 72(2) of India’s Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which uphold the principles of participation, equality, and involvement of persons with disabilities in policy formulation, and require that rules and schemes be framed in consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations.

2. Collect better data: Gender- and disability-disaggregated mobility surveys are critical for planning responsive interventions. We must move from ad-hoc data collection to in-depth research with large and diverse sample sizes representative of diverse abilities.

3. Shift narratives: Media and advocacy campaigns must highlight not only safety but also accessibility as a gendered issue.

4. Make accessibility standards enforceable: Accessibility policies and standards must translate into design and not remain on paper. India has developed some of the most progressive accessibility laws and standards. A recent policy development adds momentum to this agenda. The draft Transport Accessibility Framework, prepared by the Strategic Accessibility Cell – Rights of Riders (SAC-RR), proposes wide-reaching changes across India’s transport systems to make them more inclusive for persons with disabilities. The framework calls for comprehensive accessibility standards spanning buses, metros, railways, and paratransit, with an emphasis on universal design, continuity of the travel chain, and stronger enforcement mechanisms. However, it is unclear whether SAC-RR included women with disabilities.

If adopted, this framework could serve as a transformative blueprint for embedding accessibility in the heart of India’s mobility planning

Conclusion

If urban mobility is to be truly inclusive, it cannot stop at addressing gender alone. It must also recognise disability as a central axis of exclusion and opportunity. Accessibility is gendered, and the absence of disability in the conversation is an absence that costs women their independence, safety, and dignity.

True inclusion demands more than empathy. It requires systemic action. Cities must:

• Adopt universal design as a non-negotiable foundation for all mobility systems, ensuring continuity from doorstep to destination.

• Collect and use gender- and disability-disaggregated data to reveal hidden barriers and shape evidence-based interventions.

• Design with disabled women at the table, embedding their lived experiences in every phase — from planning and budgeting to monitoring.

• Institutionalise accessibility audits and feedback mechanisms so that progress is measurable, not symbolic.

Bringing disability squarely into the mobility agenda will not only transform how women move but also how cities themselves evolve — from spaces of exclusion to spaces of belonging.

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