As Dakar’s urban sprawl accelerates, people with disabilities find themselves increasingly pushed to the margins of city life. Despite policy progress and national commitments to inclusion, inaccessible infrastructure and social stigma continue to limit their participation in public space, housing, and mobility. Rethinking the city through inclusive design and citizen-led planning holds the key to a more equitable urban future.
In 2013, 59 out of every 1,000 Senegalese were living with a disability. According to the FSAPH (the Senegalese Federation of Disabled People's Associations), this number has since increased significantly. But has societal perception evolved in step with this rise? How are people with disabilities viewed in Senegal today?
In interviews conducted for this piece, the Director of the Promotion and Protection of People with Disabilities believes that "Senegalese public policies reflect the consideration shown by the highest authorities towards people with disabilities". He considers that the material elements that reflect this perception relate first and foremost to the country's commitments to international instruments, particularly the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which Senegal ratified in 2009, but also the Social Orientation Act adopted in 2010, that deals with the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities. This view is at odds with that of the President of the FSAPH who states that "disabled people are not full members of society, but members apart…My view is that we have an exclusive society that focuses more on the individual's impairment than on his or her abilities".
These two statements illustrate different perspectives on the situation of disabled people in Senegal, representing two poles of perceptions of disability. Between them lies an intermediate state that the ethnographer Arnold van Gennep calls "liminality" - a phase in which individuals or groups are no longer in their previous state but have not yet transitioned to a new one. Disabled people in Senegal are neither really excluded nor really included in society but exist between these states.
In addition to feeling socially excluded and often being victims of various forms of discrimination and stigmatisation, their living conditions are exacerbated by the consequences of urbanisation, which severely restricts their activities. According to projections, Africa's population is set to double by 2050. Demographic growth and the poorly managed, uncontrolled urbanisation that characterises the growth of African cities are of increasing concern to development stakeholders. The pace of urban growth in Dakar is impacting the environment (pollution, overcrowding, etc.), public safety and people's health. This rampant urbanisation is leading to new forms of exclusion for people with disabilities, who often feel ignored and prejudiced against. This daily reality is compounded by the absence of effective adapted and inclusive infrastructure to accompany urbanisation, which results in hindrances to mobility, access to housing, employment and health.
The challenge for Africa's major cities, encapsulated in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, is to eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities by ensuring that densely populated cities are resilient to the environmental effects of urbanisation on vulnerable populations and accommodate the need for viable and inclusive spaces. Achieving these objectives is politically complex and requires ambitious political initiatives on equitable access to common rights and citizens’ awareness of the need to live together.
Issues of Accessibility and Social Inequality in Urban Areas
Barriers to accessibility in urban areas reflect a violation of the rights of people with disabilities to fully and equally participate in society. Key drivers of exclusion include limited mobility and a lack of accessible, appropriate housing.
People with disabilities face constant risks in urban environments, where inadequate infrastructure significantly increases their chances of accidents and injury. As one association leader put it, "A disabled person travelling in any African city has no peace of mind, even if accompanied, because there are risks everywhere". This comment is supported by the typical layout and design of shared public spaces, which often fail to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities: : pavements are poorly designed and do not allow people with reduced mobility to move around properly; sewers in the avenues and unauthorised parking prevent disabled people from moving around normally; and there are other considerable risks relating to urban development and sanitation, such as open canals, impassable roads, traffic lights that no longer work, etc. Buses are not accessible to disabled people: there is no voice signage for the visually impaired, no ramp for wheelchair users and no image for the hearing impaired. The autonomy of disabled people in their mobility activities seems to be neglected.
Just like mobility, access to housing is key to independence and social inclusion. Yet most public and private buildings remain inaccessible to people with disabilities—turning homes and essential services into daily obstacles and reinforcing their exclusion from urban life. In cases where spaces, transport and buildings already exist, involving the people concerned, either directly or through civil society and their representative associations, should be considered as an essential part of identifying and implementing corrective measures.
More often than not, it's a question of remedying the design ‘omissions’ that failed to consider their needs, by introducing compensatory devices such as ramps and optical or audible signals.
But, with or without these devices, the damage has been done, because the city, its spaces, its transport and its buildings were quite simply thought of as spaces to be designed for able-bodied people.
The current trend, very much imbued with ‘empathy in principle’, is to make the participation of the people concerned an imperative in the very design of public or private spaces, transport and buildings. In this case, we could say that, on the one hand, we are designing a city, its spaces, transport and buildings from a ‘universal design’ perspective, but on the other, we are inviting the people concerned to adapt this city to their specific needs. The best result is better-integrated, more discreet facilities that avoid stigmatising the disabled.
Is Dakar an Inclusive City?
Seen as a social imperative and a political will, the issue of inclusive cities now occupies an important place in public debate and social policies on housing and the fight against exclusion. Inclusivity calls into question our humanism and challenges us on the notions of living together, empowerment, participation and social justice. It is seen as a complex social project that takes into account the diversity of capabilities for both individual and collective participation.
The FSAPH President believes that African cities like Dakar are far from inclusive. He notes that the abusive occupation of urban space excludes the disabled: "You only have to drive around Dakar to notice the sewers, the illegal parking, the occupation of pavements, the wrecked cars on the road[...]no, I'm sorry, but Dakar is not an inclusive city, and it's the same for other African cities."
The increasing urbanisation of Dakar, the growing need for suitable housing and mobility, the image of poverty caused by begging and socio-economic inequalities mean that promoting an inclusive city is a complex task which is further weakened in an environment already affected by shanty towns, promiscuity and pollution. Insofar as it reflects unequal sharing of natural resources, the lack of accessibility to urban spaces by people with disabilities is an additional form of environmental inequality.
Some of the institutional stakeholders interviewed see inclusion as taking disability into account in the formulation of public policies. Other, more committed, stakeholders believe that the inclusion of people with disabilities means strengthening and improving their ability to participate effectively and meaningfully. To achieve this, society needs to be much more open and welcoming, and aim to promote equality and social justice.
The context of overcrowding and worrying urbanisation, which aggressively affect the daily lives of poor and vulnerable people, must lead us to think or rethink an adapted model of disability care in large African cities such as Dakar. The societal model we need to build to cope with the effects of urbanisation must be humanistic, supportive and inclusive to ensure recognition and social justice. This model will make it possible to act on the physical, social and institutional environment to improve the living conditions of the less able.
Although very modest, it is important to recognise and encourage the efforts made by the Senegalese government to support disabled people. In addition to universal health coverage, programmes have been developed to promote inclusion. The 2010 Orientation Act gave rise to the Equal Opportunities Card, which provides access to a range of services including health, training, transport, employment and finance. The card identifies disabled people and provides social protection by facilitating their access to services. According to the Director of the Promotion and Protection of People with Disabilities, these programmes are elements that give concrete content to the notion of inclusion.
Rethinking the City: Inclusion by Design
Rethinking the inclusive city requires an approach based on the commitment of stakeholders, the identification of forms of exclusion and discrimination, and the construction of a culture of solidarity based on sharing and social equity. This proposed inclusive approach will encourage participation in community life, give citizens the means to contribute socially by reducing barriers to exclusion, and take into account the diversity of needs, financial means and respect for the limits and abilities of each citizen.
From this perspective, it is no longer a question of taking into account the situation of the ‘people concerned’ but of breaking with certain categorisations by simply accepting that the city concerns everyone. Instead of thinking about it from a universalist point of view, we need to think about the city from an interactionist point of view. If it is to be the city of all, and of all interacting, it seems sensible that it should be designed by all. This overall concept includes taking into account the less able in their participation in the life of the city. This dynamic is in line with the participation, citizen council and empowerment approaches that mobilise people in inclusive public action processes.
From the outset, the inclusive city is imagined as a space where everyone belongs, contributes, and is heard. This requires more than adaptation - it calls for intentional design that considers the full diversity of human experience. Urban planning must ask: for whom are we designing, and to what end? It’s about shaping a shared way of living where people with disabilities are not reduced to their impairments, but recognised as individuals with aspirations, rights, and the power to shape the city alongside everyone else.
A practical step toward building a truly inclusive city could begin with citizen-led design workshops - spaces where diverse communities come together to reimagine daily life and the social connections that shape it. These popular assemblies would give voice to people from all walks of life, setting clear priorities for policymakers, planners, and architects. After all, it’s not institutions alone that make a city inclusive - it’s the people themselves, if they are empowered to do so from the very beginning.
