Reinventing the Wheel and Charting a New Course

Approximately 18.7 percent of the American population has some disability. Additionally
over 3.3 percent or 10.5 million people in United States are deaf/ have difficulty hearing. Based
on the U.S Census report more than half of this community reported the disability was severe.
However the disabled community if often overlooked or inadvertently excluded from the
mainstream planning process. Many community meetings, charrettes and even public hearings
lack strategic measures to engage or inform the deaf community of current plans and as such we
often create living spaces that fail to accommodate their unique needs. In the book Death and
Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs rightly notes that “Cities have the capability of
providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by
everybody.”
To that end, I would like to explore how the Planning Process can become inclusive of the
disabled and particularly the deaf community. Based on my experience in Planning thus far I
believe interpreters can play a vital role in fusing the communication lines between the general
population and the Planning team or public officials. I understand the needs of the community
and would like to use my unique perspective to reinvent the “Planning Wheel” and chart a new
course with guidelines or recommendations on how to engage the disabled community to
become active participants in the Planning process.