Walkability Audit Summary Report

Walkability audits of towns, outdoor spaces and public buildings can help to promote access needs of people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities. Walkability is defined as the extent to which the built environment is friendly to the presence of people walking, living, shopping, visiting, engaging or spending time in an area. Audit reports highlight barriers and enablers to walkability as well as suggestions to improve walkability.

Age Friendly Ireland (AFI) is a Local Government led service, working to prepare Ireland’s infrastructure and services for the predicted rapid increase in our older population. AFI has programs across each local authority area in Ireland and leads on initiatives such as coordinating Walkability Audits across towns and public buildings, as well as producing audit reports. 

The National Disability Authority (NDA) prepared a report in 2025 which provides a summary of 48 AFI Walkability Audits conducted between 2013 and 2024.

The report covers the following;

• how walkability audits were carried out and reported upon,
• aggregated findings across audits on towns and outdoor spaces,
• aggregated findings across audits in and around public buildings.

The purpose of the report is to help improve future audit practices and reach accessibility policy goals for public buildings and the public realm. This report will help inform the development of future and complementary tools to assess and improve access to buildings and the public realm for all people.