APNA Arcause Purple Walk Goa 100

Universal Design is often addressed as a technical mandate, but it is fundamentally a question of equity. When public spaces, institutions, and everyday environments are designed without considering accessibility, large sections of society, persons with disabilities, the elderly, pregnant women, children, and even those temporarily disabled, are systematically excluded.

The APNA Arcause Purple Walk Goa 100 is a 100 km initiative designed to position accessibility at the centre of public and professional discourse. Anchored in Goa, a state defined by its beaches, heritage precincts, and tourism-led economy, the walk interrogates whether our built environment serves everyone equally. Along the way, participants engage directly with Goa’s layered landscape, its coastal stretches, bustling markets, serene village paths, and historic churches and precincts, experiencing firsthand how natural terrains and cultural heritage sites respond to questions of inclusion.

Led by architect Gita Balakrishnan, founder of Ethos Foundation, and APNA, the walk becomes a platform to examine, experience, and address barriers that often remain invisible until one is directly confronted by them. It reframes Universal Design not only as a professional responsibility but as a collective journey through nature, heritage, and everyday life, asking how we might reimagine these environments to truly serve all.

A core focus area of Arcause is to mainstream Universal Design as a principle that shapes everyday environments, ensuring equity and inclusion in public life. With this intent, Arcause is seeking to collaborate with the Rainmatter Foundation, Indian Institute of Architects, Goa Chapter (IIA), Council of Architecture (COA), Indian Institute of Interior Designers (IIID), and the Goa College of Architecture (GCA).

Global Autism Convention 2026

On 23rd January 2026, Ethos Foundation participated in the Global Autism Convention 2026 at St. John’s Medical College, Bengaluru, engaging with a diverse and interdisciplinary audience comprising doctors, therapists, psychiatrists, educators, caregivers, and students. Ethos was present at the convention for the entire day with a dedicated interactive booth, designed as a space for dialogue, learning, and exchange around universal design and autism-inclusive environments.

An Interactive Booth as a Learning Space

Rather than a static exhibition, the Ethos booth functioned as a participatory learning zone. A series of hands-on activities and prompts were curated to initiate conversations around:

• Universal Design principles
• Sensory sensitivities and spatial experience
• Autism-friendly public and institutional environments
• Everyday architectural barriers that often go unnoticed

These activities encouraged visitors to reflect on how spatial design impacts neurodivergent individuals and how small, intentional design decisions can create significantly more inclusive environments. The booth saw consistent engagement throughout the day, with professionals from medical and therapeutic backgrounds sharing lived experiences, clinical insights, and on-ground challenges that architecture and design can respond to.

Survey on Autism-Friendly Spaces

As part of this engagement, Ethos Foundation conducted a short survey aimed at understanding:

• Awareness levels around autism-friendly and sensory-sensitive spaces
• How professionals currently perceive the role of built environments in autism care
• Gaps between medical understanding and architectural implementation

The responses collected will directly inform future Ethos-led research, awareness programs, design guidelines, and collaborations, helping shape initiatives that are grounded in real-world knowledge and interdisciplinary feedback rather than assumptions.

Student Volunteers: Learning Through Exchange

A key highlight of Ethos’ presence was the involvement of 10 architecture student volunteers, who played an active role in facilitating activities, interacting with visitors, and documenting insights. The students became part of conversations with doctors, therapists, and mental health professionals, gaining exposure to:

• Sensory processing differences
• Behavioural patterns and environmental triggers
• The limitations of conventional architectural thinking when applied to neurodivergent users

This exchange proved to be a powerful learning experience, reinforcing the importance of cross-disciplinary dialogue in shaping truly inclusive design education and practice.

Symposium Presentation by Ar. Gita Balakrishnan

Ethos Foundation’s work was further represented at the symposium through a presentation by Ar. Gita Balakrishnan, titled:
“Designing Sensory-Friendly Public Spaces for Autism Inclusion.”

The session explored the role of architecture and public space design in supporting neurodivergent users, highlighting:

• Sensory overload in public environments
• Design strategies for reducing anxiety and disorientation
• The need for empathy-driven, evidence-based design approaches

The presentation sparked active interest, with many attendees engaging with the Ethos booth and activities immediately after the session, bridging theory, research, and hands-on exploration.

Elective – UDita Workshop

The workshop is envisioned as a practice-led learning module that exposes architecture students to Universal Design, Accessibility, and Inclusive Practice through direct engagement with experts, institutions, and lived realities. The elective balances sensitisation, skill-building and applied workshops, ensuring students move from awareness to action. The elective travels across colleges to expose students to multiple institutional cultures and to understand accessibility. 

The Travelling Elective successfully completed its first chapter in Bengaluru in 2026. 

Building on the insights and experiences gained there, the initiative now continues its journey to explore new cities, cultures, and learning opportunities through immersive, place-based education.

Arcause Spotlight 1.0

Arcause Spotlight 1.0 | Delhi Edition (IDEAS – Inclusive Divyangjan Entrepreneur Association):

As part of Arcause Spotlight 1.0 | Delhi Edition, IDEA conducted an immersive accessibility audit session that encouraged participants to engage with accessibility beyond compliance and regulations, approaching it instead as a critical design responsibility.

The activity began with a pre-engagement exercise, where participants received curated resource material and were assigned different disability perspectives to study prior to the session. This preparatory exercise helped establish a foundational understanding of diverse user experiences and accessibility challenges.

The session commenced at the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD), where participants were introduced to the principles of inclusive design through discussions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, accessibility frameworks, and the physical, sensory, and systemic barriers that shape everyday experiences. Participants were also introduced to IDEA’s Self-Assessment Accessibility Tool and its application within real urban environments.

Building on this foundation, participants undertook on-ground accessibility audits in small groups, evaluating selected public spaces through the lens of different disabilities. The exercise encouraged observation, critical analysis, and a deeper understanding of how design decisions impact inclusivity and access.

The session concluded with a collective reflection, where participants shared their findings, identified key accessibility gaps, discussed potential design interventions, and explored broader policy implications. Through dialogue and collaborative learning, the activity highlighted the importance of embedding accessibility into design processes from the outset.

By combining sensitisation, field-based assessment, and reflection, the session aimed to move participants from awareness to empathy, and from empathy to informed action, fostering a stronger commitment to creating more inclusive and equitable built environments.

Arcause Spotlight 1.0 | Delhi Edition (Samarthyam APNA): 

The workshop, facilitated by Samarthyam APNA as part of Arcause Spotlight 1.0 | Delhi Edition to conduct a participatory 

Accessibility Audit and Use of the SAM Metric and Rating in India Habitat

Centre under the Arcause Spotlight event. The exercise brought together

architecture students, practitioners, and persons with disabilities to jointly

assess accessibility, usability, and inclusiveness of a frequently used public

Building. 

The workshop highlighted:

• Promote experiential learning and awareness on Universal Design
• Build professional and institutional capacity
• Strengthen collaboration between technical stakeholders and users
• Generate evidence-based recommendations aligned with the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 and the Accessible India Campaign

This initiative supports inclusive and sustainable urban development in line with

with national and global accessibility commitments. 

Methodology:

The workshop adopted a participatory, experiential, and user-led

approach, combining technical tools and lived experiences.

Key methods:

• Orientation Session: Introduction to Universal Design, accessibility

standards, and the SAM Metric and Rating

• Participatory Audit: Mixed groups of participants (including persons

with disabilities) will assess accessibility

• Checklist-based Evaluation: Use of SAM indicators and structured audit

formats

• Observation and Documentation: Photographs, measurements, and

user journey mapping

• Barrier Identification: Physical, sensory, digital, and attitudinal barriers
• Rating and Scoring: Assessment of accessibility levels
• Reflection and Discussion: Consolidation of findings and

recommendations

Arcause Spotlight 3.0

The Accessibility and Inclusive Design Activity conducted as part of Arcause Spotlight 3.0 – Bengaluru emerged as an engaging and successful component of the overall event. The activity brought together participants from diverse academic and professional backgrounds, including architecture and design students, architects, researchers, educators, and professionals from different industries. The interdisciplinary nature of participation became one of the strongest aspects of the event, as it enabled conversations and observations from multiple perspectives rather than from a singular disciplinary lens.

The process of walking through spaces, documenting observations, sketching, discussing barriers, and assessing inclusivity created a much more embodied understanding of accessibility.

Participants began engaging with accessibility not only as a compliance issue, but as something connected to dignity, comfort, autonomy, safety, and emotional experience within public spaces.

A particularly important takeaway was that many participants realised how inaccessible spaces often become through seemingly “small” design decisions like:

• unclear signage
• abrupt level changes
• inconsistent tactile systems
• inaccessible seating arrangements
• lack of resting points
• confusing circulation systems
• poor sensory comfort

The comparison between different public environments also strengthened participant understanding of how accessibility varies depending on spatial typology, management, maintenance, and institutional intent.

The event demonstrated that participants are actively seeking more grounded and meaningful engagements with the city that combine research, documentation, discussion, and lived experience.

The activity also demonstrated strong potential for being expanded into a larger recurring initiative focused on:

• accessibility documentation
• inclusive urbanism
• public space mapping
• participatory city audits
• experiential learning frameworks

The response to the session indicates that there is a strong scope for future Arcause Spotlight activities that continue to combine city engagement, critical observation, collaborative learning, and public conversations around urban issues.