Archiculture, Vol. 2 (2), December, 2019 ISSN (Print): 2636-6747 36 *Author for correspondence: jatauts@kasu.edu.ng Exploring the Discrimination Faced by Persons with Disability from The Design and Construction of the Nigerian Built Environment Jatau Tchad Sharon, Kagai Kaliat Joanna and Paul Christiana Ada Department of Quantity Surveying, Kaduna State University 1&3 Department of Architecture, Kaduna State University 2 Abstract Everyone should have an unrestricted access to public built spaces, People with Disability (PWD) have often lamented on the discrimination they face in gaining entrance to public spaces. This discrimination limits them from fully achieving their daily goals and aspirations. The cases of poliomyelitis and insurgency which leave victims who mostly children as paraplegics in some parts of Nigeria implies that over the coming years the number of PWD in Nigeria will increase. This research seeks to explore the discrimination faced by PWD which emanates from the design and construction in public built spaces with a view to creating more awareness among construction professionals to design and construct a built environment which admits all persons irrespective of their ability or disability status. An online opinion survey was conducted among construction professionals and a total of 120 respondents’ voluntary participated in the survey. Analysis of retrieved data revealed that though construction professionals are aware of disability standards in the design and construction of the built environment, they still do not construct public spaces to accommodate the needs of all users by installing appropriate access facilities. The data further showed that construction professionals agree that the various professional bodies saddled with the responsibility of regulating practices should also include in their terms of reference the responsibility of creating more awareness among professionals and also enforcing the human right access to buildings. The research also concludes that construction professionals must view the discrimination faced by PWD in the built environment as a collective responsibility, it must not be left on only the designers but all who are involved in the building process must ensure that access is granted to PWD in the built environment. Keywords: accessibility, built environment, construction professionals, disability, discrimination. 1. Introduction The Nigerian Government in 2019, signed the disability bill into law, as stated by the Human Rights Watch| ReliefWeb, (2019), this came after over nine years of relentless advocacy from disability rights activists. They also mentioned that the law prohibits any form of discrimination targeted at individuals on the basis of their ability and/or disability. The ‘WHO | Disabilities’, (2017) describes disability to be a generic term referring an impairment in individuals which limits their ability to carry out their normal activities with ease. It is a complex phenomenon which reflects the interaction between the features of a person’s body and their social environment. Disability can be both physical and psychological, among the various physical disabilities is paraplegia which is defined as an impairment in motor or sensory functions of the lower extremities (National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC), 2010). It is important to note that an impairment to an individual’s lower extremities also known as legs can be caused by both health and human causes, this explains the statement from the World Health Organisation, 2011 emphasising that all humans will suffer some form of disability in their life time and categorised disability into permanent and temporal. All humans have a human right of access to public spaces which must be respected and provided for by the construction team. Evcil, (2012), mentioned that a paraplegic is not disabled in an accessible environment, they become disabled. This is further corroborated by Ahmed, Awad and Yaacob, (2014) who suggest that there is no such thing as disability but an environment which discriminates against People with Disability (PWD), this suggests that the provision of an accessible built environment is the responsibility of major key players in the construction team and should not be seen as that of the designer alone.