Abstract
One in five people in the world are said to have some type of disability. Disability is not merely individuals’ compromised capability in navigating the built environment, but rather the ‘misfit’ of capabilities with how a given living environment is organized. Planning, therefore, has a crucial role to play in responding to the needs of this significant population through changes to the built and social environment. However, discussion on planning theories and practices with a focus on persons with disability (PWD) has been limited to more specific realms of ‘design,’ and precariously absent in broader planning research. This systematic literature review aims to inform potential directions for planning scholarship by exploring the current and historic planning research investigating the needs of PWD. We compiled relevant papers from five prominent English language planning journals, some of which are long-standing (<em>Town Planning Review</em>, 1910–, <em>Journal of the American Planning Association</em>, 1935–). A very limited number of papers (n = 36) on topics related to PWD of any type have been published in the five journals throughout their existence, with even fewer focusing on the population. The subareas of planning these papers addressed include housing, transportation, land use, policy, and urban design. Many papers called for participation by PWD in the planning and decision-making processes, and some recent papers advocated for the production of evidence related to costs of creating accessible infrastructure. A critical look on some disciplinary divides and enhanced roles of planning research would be beneficial.
Highlights
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006) has renewed the member states’ commitment to enhance the rights of persons with disabilities (PWD) at the federal level, prompting them to establish legislation that articulates how accessibility for PWD is achieved (Brolan, 2016)
In light of this knowledge gap, our article asked: What is the state of planning research pertaining to the needs of PWD, and how should the planning scholarship evolve on this topic?
This study performed a systematic literature review to synthesize the planning scholarship focusing on issues and needs of PWD, and to identify ways to advance the area of planning research and practice
Summary
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006) has renewed the member states’ commitment to enhance the rights of persons with disabilities (PWD) at the federal level, prompting them to establish legislation that articulates how accessibility for PWD is achieved (Brolan, 2016). Urban Planning, 2021, Volume 6, Issue 1, Pages 120–132 planners, how planning can play an effective role in addressing the needs of PWD has been unclear In light of this knowledge gap, our article asked: What is the state of planning research pertaining to the needs of PWD, and how should the planning scholarship evolve on this topic?. The understanding of disability has more recently evolved towards a social model, where disabilities experienced by individuals stem from barriers in one’s social and built environment that prevent them from finding, moving through, and using a place, and from participating fully in social life in the community they live. PWD in this article is defined as persons who face barriers conducting their lives due to a mismatch of their physical and mental functional capacities and organization of the built and social environment (Hamraie, 2013). PWD often experience poorer health outcomes due to barriers in the built environment that hinder them from pursuing healthy lifestyles (Eisenberg, Vanderbom, & Vasudevan, 2017; Gray, Zimmerman, & Rimmer, 2012)
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