Disability and the City
People with disabilities are one of the poorest groups in Western societies. In particular, they lack power, education and opportunities. For most disabled people, their daily reality is dependence on a carer, while trying to survive on state welfare payments. The dominant societal stereotype of disability as a ′pitiful′ state reinforces the view that people with disabilities are somehow ′less than human′. In taking exception to these, and related, conceptions of disability, Disability and the City explores one of the crucial contexts within which the marginal status of disabled people is experienced: the interrelationships between disability, physical access, and the built environment. The author seeks to explore some of the critical processes underpinning the social construction and production of disability as a state of marginalization and oppression in the built environment. These concerns are interwoven with a discussion of the changing role of the state in defining, categorizing, and (re)producing ′states of disablement′ for people with disabilities.
By Rob Imrie.
