(Un)accommodating disabilities: housing, marginalization and dependency in Australia

This paper examines the ways in which a lack of adequate housing and welfare provision for people with different kinds and degrees of disabilities reinforces their marginalization and dependency on carers, support agencies and the State. This paper argues that even though most people have to rely on others for help and assistance at some point in their lives, the ways in which dependency and disability are socially constructed reproduce the marginalization of people with disabilities. Drawing on findings from qualitative research with people with disabilities and family carers in urban and regional Victoria, Australia, this article explores how this lack of adequate housing and welfare provision reinforces the dependency of people with disabilities through low incomes, unsuitable housing design and poor housing conditions, restrictions in terms of location and place, and the lack of suitable care and assistance.