"Disabilities" in Space & Place

Being an able bodied person I have never thought of what it would be like to be ‘disabled’, that is until last week’s readings and discussion. As a student majoring in geography at York, this year’s focus in all of my classes has been on a variety of disabilities in urban and rural cities. My professor in my American Sign Language (ASL) course explains to students that being deaf is not a disability. Instead, the professor explains what it is like living in a predominantly hearing world. It is hard to communicate with others who do not know ASL, but finds a way to share ideas, thoughts and needs to other people. The professor has also described what it was like growing up in a hearing household (as the only deaf child), going to an all deaf university, getting married and having two children (one is deaf, the other is hearing). To be a part of the deaf community is like being in a different place because it has its own language and culture. As we have examined through course readings and class discussions, society and the media plays a huge role in shaping and developing our thoughts about the ‘disabled community’.
In Rob Kitchin’s (1998) reading “Out of Place, Knowing One’s Place: space, power and the exclusion of disabled people” in the first few sentences he suggests that disabled people are marginalized and excluded from mainstream society through the workplace, schools, housing and transportation. This may be true depending where you are. As we discovered in our class task, York University is very poorly constructed for people with physical disabilities. Some examples may be: limited access to washrooms for people in wheelchairs, few ramps that are hidden for people with walkers, few signs with brail for the blind, etc. But those are not the only disabilities that are apparent in our society, there are many more such as behavioural and psychiatric.
Kitchin (1998) also describes that the urban and rural landscapes have been created by able-bodied people. He continues by suggesting that spaces are created to exclude disabled people in two ways: first, to keep disabled people “in their place” and secondly, to inform disabled people that they are “out of place”. I find this very appalling because it seems to me that planners are trying to construct accessible buildings to the best of their ability. Although, recognizing that as Toronto is known for being the “world in one city” and the city with the most diversity. People fail to recognize that diversity does not just entail race, gender, ethnicity and culture. It also refers to disabilities and the accessibility of the city to the “disabled” community. Disabled people may feel that they are left out of many things because there are many old buildings in the city which they are still not able to enter. This may be a problem in today’s society, but planners are trying to make better arrangement for these situations.
People may believe that disabled people have segregated and secluded facilities in social spaces and places. Although in reality, they are integrated into “normal” areas, such as washrooms, elevators, ramps, etc. In the city of Toronto there are also high schools which offer an integrated curriculum for children with special needs (physical, psychiatric, behavioural). As these children grow up and enter the workforce there are companies which hire people with disabilities. For example, there is a company named Meta Centre who hires people who have special needs and disabilities, they also have programs to integrate children with special needs into the ‘real world’. This city is trying to become a better place and space, preparing itself for a more diverse population not just in culture but in abilities as well.