A Systematic Literature Review of Accessibility Standards, Universal Design Principles, and Implementation Gaps in the Indian Urban Public Open Spaces

While inclusive public open spaces are essential to equitable living in the city, they are not always achieved using accessibility standards and universal design principles, especially in fast-growing cities in the Global South. The aim of this SLR is to identify findings from current research on inclusive public open spaces, particularly in relation to the incorporation of accessibility standards and universal design principles into urban design practice. According to PRISMA 2020 guidelines, articles were identified in Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases, 1247 articles were found, 78 were included for full-text analysis. Seven themes emerged from the review: the shift from architectural to urban scale of universal design; operationalization of the seven universal design principles in the context of public open space; the limitations of existing accessibility audit methodologies; intersectional perspectives on gender, age, disability and class; gaps in the policy arena of developing countries; participatory and co-design approaches; and the emerging integration of universal design and sustainability frameworks. The challenges that still need to be addressed are the lack of representation of South Asian urban contexts, lack of incorporating multi-dimensional aspects of universal design with the environmental sustainability aspects, lack of enforcement of accessibility legislations in India, and lack of validated multi-dimensional evaluation frameworks which are specifically calibrated to Indian metropolitan public spaces. Based on the above, the review suggests a holistic framework of universal design, sustainability and user experience, which has four dimensions, and has direct implications for the rollout of the Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT 2.0 and SDG 11 in Indian cities.