Young, Mobile, and Highly Educated Cyclists: How Urban Planning and Policy Dis/able Users

Abstract

The focus of this study is how intended users of the built environment are categorized in strategies, policies, and guidelines for the planning and building process. The image of the intended user reflects a disabling society that also is in conflict with established policies on a society for all. Patterns of inequality are found in the materials, both within and across groups of users. With youth, health, and mobility in the foreground, older persons and persons with disabilities are almost never evident. Disability is made visible only through its mirror: the ability norm. In the review of planning documents from a medium-sized Swedish municipality, the study sought to identify if and how users are described and to analyse which users are included in or excluded from the urban environment during planning stages. The article argues that new ways of thinking, to include a diversity perspective in planning, are needed.

Keywords

• categorization
• urban planning
• accessibility
• universal design
• dis/ability
• policy