So very happy to share our article, titled “Bridging the Gap: Accessibility for Aging and Disability in Planning,” published in the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA)! This was a result of a roundtable Andy Hong and I organized at ACSP in 2024.
It was a great experience for Andy Hong and me to write this article with the panelists on the roundtable: Jongwoong Kim, PhD, AICP; Shengxiao (Alex) Li; Abigail Cochran, Ph.D., Samantha Biglieri ; and Bhavya Bogra!
Here is the abstract for your quick reference. 👇
The overlap in planning requirements for older adults and people with disabilities creates strong potential for collaboration. A centrally shared challenge is inaccessibility in the built environment. Despite overlapping theory and design principles, there is a gap in policy, practice, and research that jointly explore accessibility issues for both groups. This may be partly because each group’s needs have been overlooked in the planning process. In this piece, we address these gaps by describing the accessibility challenges that both groups face in transportation, housing, and overall planning processes, and by charting directions for strategic integration grounded in an anti-ableist framework.
Please cite as follows:
Hong, A., Gebresselassie, M., Kim, J., Li, S. (Alex), Cochran, A. L., Bogra, B., & Biglieri, S. (2026). Bridging the Gap: Accessibility for Aging and Disability in Planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2026.2660653
Mahtot [Mah-tote] Gebresselassie, PhD 