PUBLIC POLICIES, URBAN ACCESSIBILITY AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION: A comparative analysis of Natal and Seattle
Persons with Disabilities. Public Policies Evatuation. Urban Acessibility. Citzen Participation. Natal and Seattle.
For a long time, equality in accessing services, goods, and environments in urban spaces was a privilege of a few. Historical records reveal that cities were built to meet the interests of a minority, while most inhabitants were spatially segregated, as they did not have access to the city in which they lived. The sociological model of disability replaced the biomedical model and redefined disability as a product of the interaction between a person with physical or sensory limitations and an environment composed of barriers. Its dissemination and adoption through official diplomas transferred the responsibility to the Public Power of being an active agent in the elimination of obstacles that persist in excluding people with disabilities from social life. In this thesis, we propose the study of the effectiveness of accessibility policies in Natal and Seattle, with a view to understanding which are the possible factors that facilitate or that present themselves as an obstacle in the implementation process. We assume that to ensure accessibility in physical spaces, there must be accessibility in political spaces beforehand. Understanding that for the construction of a more democratic city it is necessary to involve people with disabilities and reduced mobility and their representative entities in the decision-making process for the implementation of accessibility policies, this research aims to carry out a comparative analysis on the effectiveness of the implementation process accessibility public policy in the cities of Natal/RN and Seattle/US, both known for their vast legislative framework on the theme of urban accessibility, however. disability, urban accessibility, right to the city, and evaluation of public policies, in addition to conducting semi-structured interviews with municipal public managers and entities representing people with disabilities in Natal and Seattle.