Raleigh debuts iAccess program to improve access to accessible parking

The city of Raleigh launched the iAccess program on June 16 this year, allowing users of accessible parking downtown to take part in a survey aimed at improving accessible parking in the city.

Tony Howard, senior transportation analyst for the city of Raleigh, said the city has been working to improve access to accessible parking since 2018, when it added its first 15-20 street spaces.

Individuals may see one of the signs featuring QR codes installed at the 28 Americans with Disabilities Act, compliant parking downtown. The city hopes to utilize the feedback gained from the survey to improve parking accessibility for residents. 

Brittny Zenere, a Raleigh resident and ambulatory wheelchair user, said the biggest challenge for the city is the amount of accessible parking available.

“There may be a couple of accessible parking spots that are available, but the demand is high,” Zenere said. “I’m a wheelchair user that has a mobility van, and the van spots are even more limited than the accessible spots.”

Zenere also said that utilizing a wheelchair-accessible van downtown comes with safety risks, due to having to deploy the van’s ramp from the driver’s side into the traffic lane. 

Emily Kibler, who uses a rollator, mentioned that curb cuts, or areas where the sidewalk dips down to street level to allow an individual to roll a wheelchair or other mobility device from street level onto the sidewalk, are a critical, often overlooked part of accessibility. Kibler also pointed out that proximity to destinations is another key factor in ensuring access for people with disabilities.

“That part is not always considered when accessible parking is done, and it’s the distance, a lot of times it’s way more convenient for me to not park in the accessible parking,” Kibler said. “It’s because people think about, ‘Okay, well we’re going to have to put space for a ramp, and we’re going to have to have space in between, so we’ll kind of put it in this corner.’”

Howard said another wheelchair user shared their experience of being unable to deploy her ramp onto uneven pavers in an accessible parking space, which led to the idea to implement a user feedback program like iAccess.

Overall feedback has been positive for the program, which has received roughly 90 responses over three months, Howard said. Users were generally happy with the program and excited with the use of spaces, though a few individuals have reached out to the department about individual issues.

Howard said the city aims to incorporate feedback from the program into future decision-making around accessible parking.

“What we’re going to do is we’re going to take this data that we’re collecting, and this information that we’re collecting to try to incorporate those good decisions and good outcomes that we’re seeing into our decision-making moving forward,” Howard said. “What are best practices telling us here in Raleigh, not necessarily what is some federal government telling us, but what are the users in Raleigh telling us are their needs?”

Kibler said she would like to see more options available for individuals with disabilities.

“It’s also sometimes the idea that I should reserve disabled parking spots for somebody who needs it more than can be a major issue for me, because I do need the closeness, but I don’t necessarily need the extra space,” Kibler said.

Kibler highlighted a South Carolina program allowing individuals to park in any spot and use it as accessible parking with a disability placard, allowing for unlimited time in the spot.

“It’s so, so helpful. It’s to the point where I will always, always look up the city that I am going to to see if they have that as an option,” Kibler said.

Zenere echoed Kibler’s suggestion of providing more options to individuals who use accessible parking.

“If there aren’t more accessible spots, give us more options, because I’m having to come up with creative solutions,” Zenere said. “If I can go downtown and park in a parking garage and not have to pay for it because I can’t park on the street where the free parking is, you know, that would be more accessible to me.”

Kibler and Zenere also agreed that additional enforcement of accessible parking spaces would help to ensure spaces are available. Enforcement is handled by parking enforcement downtown and on Hillsborough Street, while it is handled by the Raleigh police department for the rest of the city.

Brandon Winfield, co-founder of iAccess, said his personal experience of disability and using a wheelchair led him to co-found iAccess.

“It’s the whole reason I’m here, honestly,” said Winfield. “There were a lot of things that I came across that I didn’t know about until I was living this experience that made me go, ‘why don’t we have this accessibility information at our fingertips?’”

Kibler said she would like to see more engagement with individuals within the disabled community as the city tries to improve accessible parking.

“I’d like to see more community engagement, and I’d like to see more evidence of the community engagement influencing that reality,” Kibler said. “Sometimes it can feel performative to just say we are taking these steps to get this information, and it’s like, okay, well, what’s the next step? So I don’t want to judge that yet.”

Kibler and Zenere also emphasized that the disabled community has diverse needs, including needs for individuals who are blind or have different accessibility needs. They said these diverse needs should be taken into account when planning.

iAccess, headquartered in Atlanta, is now in use in other areas, such as Zoo Atlanta and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, to gather user feedback and explore ways to improve accessibility, Winfield said.

“We’re trying to revolutionize accessibility a little bit,” Winfield said, “It’s really about being able to collect data from different walks of life and making sure that’s aggregated into one place, so that people can go ‘Hey, we’re starting to notice a trend, we’re doing really well here, but there’s a place that we can improve on.’” 

Kibler emphasized that parking is often critical to broader access for individuals in the disabled community.

“Parking is the first step of accessibility for so many people,” Kibler said. “If parking is not available and accessible, no other accessibility steps matter.”