UBER - Designing for Everyone: Accessibility as Innovation

In this week’s 4-Quarter Lives Podcast, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is joined by UBER’s Briana Gilmore to explore how ageing, disability and mobility intersect — and what that means for the future of work, cities and independence. Briana reframes ageing not as a demographic segment but as an access issue, shifting the conversation from “senior markets” to systems that either enable or restrict independence. She introduces self-efficacy — the confidence to navigate the world predictably — and shows how it erodes when environments fail to adapt, not because of personal limitations. Applying the social model of disability to ageing, she argues that disability lies in environments, not impairments, opening fresh ways to design products, services and cities. Along the way she unpacks the tension between safety and autonomy, the dignity of risk, and how this thinking reshaped Uber’s approach to older users — and what age-friendly cities truly require: meaningful choice.Briana Gilmore is Head of Global Accessibility Policy at Uber, focused on disability access, ageing and inclusive mobility. With a background spanning global migration policy, public health and urban planning, her work examines how systems shape access to resources, movement and independence. A long-time disability advocate, she integrates the social model of disability into product and policy design, challenging traditional assumptions about ageing and adaptability. At Uber, she leads efforts to expand access for older adults and marginalized communities, Get full access to 4-Quarter Lives | Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe