
Findings from Stage 1
The thoughts and experiences from participants with and without disability shared many aspects in common. Here are some of the points in brief. An inclusive community is about people where everyone is valued and belongs. Everyone is valued and respected regardless of their culture or background. That means communities must be planned for all people – built for equity, fairness and accessibility. Inclusive communities are happy places where people have choices and safe spaces to have fun and socialise. So how do we make it happen? The answer is planning together from the very beginning. People with disability, diverse groups, government and urban planning practitioners should all be involved. The Planning Inclusive Communities website explains the project in plain language with lots of graphics. There is also a link to an Easy English explanation of the project. The video below also gives an overview. The title of the full report is What Makes Inclusive Communities? Meanings, Tensions, Change Needed and is downloadable in Word. It gives more detail about the background to the research and the findings. Stage 2 of this research project will identify people who want to help make change and create a plan for inclusive communities. https://youtu.be/s9LFt8LZ81k Here is a quote from the website that has more information.“I feel like it’s all about everyone being able to equally engage in the environment in the community. For people with disabilities there is a lot of restraint and they can’t engage as much as other people. It’s also like equality is not enough, it should be equity so everyone has what they need to be able to engage in that community. Because I feel like a community is about people and engagement, but also being able to access and work around a community.”
Planning Inclusively: Make Communities Just for All


-
-
- Adopt an approach of planning for all
- Apply spatial justice thinking to planning
- Embed universal design as a core planning principle
- Re-emphasise the social in planning
-
Editorial Introduction
“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. However, to make this transformative, we must first critically question how well do we really consider human diversity in planning cities, towns and regions? This question is examined in this briefing paper by contesting entrenched challenges like ‘ableism’ before providing fundamental starting points for planners in planning more inclusive and just communities for all.”