Evaluating urban accessibility barriers to walking for people with physical–motor and visual disabilities: A FAHP-based approach

This study analyzes barriers in the urban environment that hinder the mobility of pedestrians with disabilities, taking a user-centered approach. The objective is to assess and compare the relative importance of the main barriers to urban accessibility for walking perceived by people with physical-motor and visual impairments, considering different functional and perceptual user profiles. The study used the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method, which combines Saaty's traditional multi-criteria decision method with fuzzy logic to address the uncertainty and subjectivity inherent in human judgments. The research was based on expert panels composed exclusively of people with disabilities (PwD) from Brazil. The panels were organized by type of disability and assistive device use. The results indicate that the most critical barriers for people with physical-motor disabilities are those that compromise route continuity and safety, notably the need to share space with vehicles, insufficient sidewalk width, and pavement discontinuities. For people with visual impairments, barriers related to sensory legibility and spatial orientation predominate, particularly the absence of tactile paving, route discontinuities, and irregular or slippery surfaces. Statistical analyses revealed no significant differences among users of different devices or levels of visual impairment. This allowed for the consolidation of aggregated weights by type of disability. The study concluded that urban accessibility fundamentally depends on the physical continuity, surface stability, and sensory clarity of pedestrian routes, and that FAHP proved to be an effective tool for making robust diagnoses and prioritizing interventions and public policies aimed at inclusive and sustainable urban mobility. • FAHP method addresses subjectivity in pedestrians' urban accessibility assessments. • Walking barriers weighted by experts with physical-motor and visual disabilities. • Lack of tactile paving is the most critical barrier for visual impaired people. • Discontinuity and safety are major concerns for people with physical disabilities. • FAHP effectively supports evidence-based priorities for inclusive urban policies.