Disabling cities

Abstract

Geographic research on disability and cities is wide-ranging and encompasses the lives of people dealing with disability, physical impairment, and issues of mental ill health. This chapter focuses on what makes cities more and less disabling for persons with physical and mental health impairments whereby “disabling” refers to processes of physical and social exclusion arising from physical and social barriers to full participation in city life. It also engages with different ways of understanding disability (i.e., the medical, social, and embodied social models of disability) and the implications of these for whether and how cities need to change. A review of the literature on cities and disability serves to highlight a primary focus on issues of physical impairment and then is followed by an examination of processes shaping the lives of urban residents with mental health impairments.