PEJ-AC Presents: The Sum of all Parts-Disability Culture as a key component of Inclusive Design

"Many non-disabled people attribute a degree of brokenness to disability; it arises from the medicalization of our bodyminds.  To be disabled is, in this world, to experience a problem of body and/or mind so severe that it distinguishes a disabled person from a non-disabled person. I learned about my body from figuring out ways to live in my diagnosis. I learned about disability from disability studies, books, and people like Corbett O'Toole and Simi Lindon. My initiation into this world revealed that disability was more than the state of my body" Quote by Alice Sheppard.

This session offers an opportunity to explore our individual and collective relationships to the concept and lived experience of disability. Does the architectural practice hold biases against disability? How is the design process informed by disability culture? Is our current use of accessibility codes and guidelines achieving the results required to produce truly inclusive design solutions?  How can disabled lived experiences help us move closer to the ambitious goal of creating more equitable built environments?