Why Living in a Deprived Area is a (Hidden) Disability Issue: Some Housing Policy and Practice Implications

Abstract

Housing policy debates currently focus on the need to remove physical barriers that exclude disabled people from undertaking normal, everyday activities in the home and neighbourhood environment. They have not yet considered the impact that living in poverty has on the social exclusion of disabled people. This article outlines some key findings from a recent study which found that the everyday experience of living in a deprived area, rather than physical barriers, was a key cause of social exclusion among visual impaired children. However, most housing providers were wedded to the narrow ‘physical barriers’ view of the causes of disability, and were therefore unresponsive to parents' requests for a transfer to a better area for their children.