Many children around the world suffer from poverty, homelessness, abuse, neglect, preventable diseases, and unequal access to education and justice systems that do not recognize their special needs. These are problems that occur in both industrialized and developing countries. Children with Disabilities become more vulnerable in this scenario because inaccessible built environment poses one of the main causes of discrimination against people and children with disabilities.

Several definitions of accessibility refer directly to access-based individual rights laws and regulations. Products or services designed to meet these regulations are often termed Access or Accessible. Accessibility is not to be confused with usability which is used to describe the extent to which a product (e.g., device, service, environment) can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. Accessibility is strongly related to universal design when the approach involves "direct access." This is about making things accessible to all people (whether they have a disability or not). However, products marketed as having benefited from a Universal Design process are often actually the same devices customized specifically for use by people with disabilities. An alternative is to provide "indirect access" by having the entity support the use of a person's assistive technology to achieve access (e.g., screen reader).

Accessibility of the built and external environment is a key factor in people with disabilities achieving autonomy, inclusion and participation. However, many people with disabilities face barriers in respect of their equal participation in society.

Universal accessibility is a key concept that states that all environments should be accessible by everyone, regardless of ability (University of Ulster, 2003). Everybody is different and there is no ‘average’ person. As a result universal accessibility will benefit all, because people with disabilities, people of small or tall stature, parents with buggies, delivery persons, children and so forth will have greater access to the built and external environments.

To ensure that the accessibility of the built environment is of the highest standard, there are a number of essential criteria that need to be met. Some of these are highlighted below:

Unversal Design is a relatively new paradigm that emerged from "barrier-free" or "accessible design" and "assistive technology." Universal design strives to be a broad-spectrum solution that produces buildings, products and environments that are usable and effective for everyone, not just people with disabilities. Examples include cabinets with pull-out shelves, kitchen counters at several heights to accommodate different tasks and postures, low-floor buses and buildings that are equipped with ramps rather than lifts. Universally designed structures accommodate all users, are easy to understand, and able to retain their integrity in case of emergencies or disasters by working at a reduced level rather than failing completely. Some examples of such structures include:

• Ramps
• Smooth ground surfaces of entranceways, without stairs
• Wide interior doors and hallways
• Lever handles for opening doors rather than twisting knobs
• Light switches with large flat panels rather than small toggle switches
• Bright and appropriate lighting
• Use of meaningful icons as well as text labels
• Choice of language on speech output
• Closed captioning on television networks