Engaging Disability Theory in Planning Practice

Abstract

In this commentary, we suggest that disability in planning practice is widely under-theorized. Planners must respond to normalized inattention to disability in the planning field and can begin doing so by engaging disability theory in practice. Five disability perspectives are discussed with a view to providing planners with a disability theory toolkit: (1) the medical, (2) social, and (3) biopsychosocial models; (4) a neoliberal viewpoint; and (5) a critical ableist studies lens. We encourage planners to embrace disability theory and the complexity of disability experiences, and to work toward unsettling the normalcy of disabled people’s exclusion in planned environments.