The right to inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable settlements is an aim of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11, with a particular focus on addressing racial, disability, class, gender and age inequality and injustice by the year 2030. Reaching this goal will be difficult given the legacy of poorly planned middle and outer suburbs that has produced car-focused streets and suburban environments that have created immobility, exclusion, and inequality for many groups and communities. Disabled people who are 1 in 5 or 4.4 million Australians, and the 1 in 3 or over 8 million Australians who live with at least one long-term health condition, particularly experience barriers to full participation in suburban environments due to varying degrees of exclusion and inaccessibility (physical, cognitive, and sensory).

Disabled people continue to experience exclusion by design in our everyday spaces, infrastructure and services, which has been magnified through the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, there is an opportunity for urban and regional planning practitioners, researchers and disabled people to come together to advocate for and create inclusive, sustainable communities for all.

Tune in to this ICAN Radio segment, an initiative of Clarence Access. Learn about how Young Leaders of Tasmania (YLOT) and Dr Lisa Stafford, lead researcher for Planning Inclusive Communities are connecting with community members of Clarence to make a more inclusive community.

Dr Naomi Stekelenburg is in conversation with Dr Lisa Stafford about what it takes to design inclusive research. Dr Stafford's razor sharp analysis and years of experience working in inclusivity research will call to question some of the norms and assumptions made in research design.

This seminar was presented by Dr Lisa Stafford, ARC Decra Fellow, on 7 September 2020, looking at how well do we really consider human diversity in planning cities and regions?

People are disabled by society, not individual impairments, so it’s society that needs fixing.

Read Dr Lisa Stafford's article on ableism and the struggle for spatial justice.