Inaccessible Cities is an interactive web experience that offers an intimate look into the lives of people with disabilities navigating three megacities – NYC, Lagos and Mumbai. The project is produced by AJ Contrast, Al Jazeera’s two-time Emmy-nominated media innovation studio. Inaccessible Cities combines our award-winning reporting with original photography, video and gamification to create a multi-city interactive that’s immersive in its navigation and storytelling.
More than one billion people – approximately 15% of the global population – experience some form of disability. Unlike other marginalized groups, anyone can develop a physical disability because of an accident, illness or, simply, old age. People with disabilities are some of the most excluded in our society. And in cities – which continue to grow and expand each day – without accessible public transport and infrastructure, people with disabilities find it very challenging to fully and independently participate in society.
Through Inaccessible Cities, we want to underscore the importance of talking about disability rights as a social justice and human rights issue that affects millions, especially in the global south where disability is even more prevalent. Of all the people with disabilities in the world, 80% live in developing countries.
With this project, we also want to instigate the conversation within online journalism about digital media accessibility. Many people with disabilities are unable to consume digital media, and, thus, are excluded from the national and local discourses. This becomes an even more pressing issue when our interactions and life in general go virtual during pandemics and natural disasters.
We decided to explore the issue of accessibility and disability through the stories of three women, since the majority – three quarters – of people with disabilities in low and middle-income countries are women. And they are at even higher risks of poverty, neglect and abuse than men. In Inaccessible Cities, we meet Rebecca Lamorte, a former New York City Council candidate, Olajumoke Olajide, an athlete from Lagos, and Nidhi Goyal, an activist and comedian from Mumbai.
Covering the issue that rarely draws attention of the mainstream media, we wanted to create an immersive experience that would be intuitive, informative, and highly engaging. A mobile-first experience that is adapted for desktops and tablets, the website features vertical scrolling, and has a menu function that allows users to choose their own path through the story. We combined a range of multimedia assets, including original photography, video, audio, text, infographics and gamification to create a non-linear but cohesive and nuanced narrative.
The gamification simulates the daily commute of our characters and is grounded in their and many other people with disabilities' experiences. It is meant to give users a sense of what it feels like to navigate New York City, Lagos and Mumbai while being disabled – to evoke frustration and discouragement – feelings that are commonly felt by those trying to get around these cities with a disability.
Inaccessible Cities is a global editorial endeavor bringing together local and international talent. AJ Contrast is a small team of women from different backgrounds: Indian, Lithuanian, Brazilian and Somali-Canadian. In each city covered in the project, we hired local documentary photographers: Ebunoluwa Akinbo and Omoregie Osakpolor from Lagos, Kanishka Sonthalia from Mumbai and Alexey Yurenev, based in NYC. Two teams from India and Brazil oversaw the development of the interactive website.
As is the case with all AJ Contrast projects, the storytelling was driven by our core values of collaboration and co-creation with our subjects – those who are hardest hit by conflict and inequality. Sarah Kim, disability journalist with cerebral palsy from NYC, and Kelechukwu Ogu, a blind journalist from Lagos, joined the team as reporters and writers. In addition to helping us craft the narrative, they ensured that the reporting addressed the most critical issues whilst grounding them in the stories of those directly impacted by inaccessibility in our cities.
We promoted Inaccessible Cities through all AJ Contrast and Al Jazeera English’s (AJE) social media channels. We shared stories on the AJE Instagram account with 2.4 million followers. We connected with the community on AJE Youtube channel, which has 8.55 million subscribers. We shared posts and threads on the AJE Twitter, which has 7.4 million followers.
Following its publication in December 2021, we’ve continued working to make the project fully accessible online. The updated version will become live at the end of March and be compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards, making it one of the first digital web news interactives of its kind.
We envision the impact campaign as an ongoing process. We will collaborate with disability rights organizations so the project can be used to raise awareness and demand more inclusivity, equity and representation for people with disabilities. As a physical installation, we will showcase Inaccessible Cities at the Fire Station Museum in Qatar during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
As one of the main objectives, Inaccessible Cities will spearhead discussions about online media accessibility while setting the standard for digital news content that’s fully inclusive of people with disabilities—a significant part of our audience currently shut out from digital media inclusion.
