PPPM Senior Instructor Featured as Expert in WalletHub Article on the Best and Worst Cities for People with Disabilities

October 10, 2023
Photograph of a mixed crowd in Southern Oregon.

Senior Instructor in the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management (PPPM) and Director of Education and Outreach at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Lisa Abia-Smith, was featured in a recent WalletHub article about the best and worst cities for those experiencing a disability. WalletHub compared 33 different indicators between the 180 most populated cities in the United States to rank cities in accordance with their accessibility. Portland, OR, comes in as number 52 and Salem as number 129 on the list.

In the article, Abia-Smith lists five important indicators for evaluating a city for accessibility:  public transportation options, cultural institutions and outdoor spaces, healthcare and wellbeing program access, infrastructure and city planning, and employment opportunities. Abia-Smith believes that we have come pretty far as a society since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) but we still have a long way to go before cities and communities are truly inclusive and accessible for all. 

Read more:  https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-for-people-with-disabilities/