Persons With Disabilities and the Right of Access to the Built Environment in Zambia: : A Socio-legal Case Study of the Regulatory Framework for Designing the Built Environment.

Abstract: Zambia has ratified vital international conventions that promote the rights of PWDs and domesticated some of them in various legislatures and policies. However, access to the built environment for PWDs does not seem to be improving. There is, therefore, a need to understand the challenges that the Zambian legal framework that regulates the design of the built environment faces in ensuring adequate access to the built environment for PWDs. This study explored Zambia's legal framework that regulates the designing of the built environment for sufficiency in ensuring adequate access to the built environment for PWD. The study is a qualitative descriptive case study of the said legal framework. The study reviewed Zambia’s architecture, equality and disability laws from 2012 to the present from a socio-legal perspective. They were then analysed by transformative equality principles for accessibility. It has been established that the legal framework in Zambia is not sufficient to ensure adequate access to the built environment for PWDs.