The use of quantitative or mixed quantitative-qualitative approaches to analyse disabled mobilities is still in its infancy. On the one hand, the field of disability studies is dominated by theoretical-analytical and qualitative approaches and often explicitly rejects any quantitative methods for various political-epistemological reasons. On the other hand, transport geography has taken considerable advantage of the rapid advances in large data sets and GIS techniques, including the ease of modelling accessibility. However, almost all quantitative work has considered ‘average people’, without taking into account those with physical, visual, hearing or cognitive impairments. This can be done in two different ways, either by explicitly removing disabled users from datasets (as outliers) or by focusing on the average behaviour in datasets where disabled users are often under-represented. The results therefore overlook the actual mobility conditions of a significant proportion of the population (generally estimated to be between a sixth and a quarter of the population in the Global North, depending on the criteria chosen).

In this context, we encourage researchers to submit research that explores the use of quantitative or mixed quantitative-qualitative approaches in the field of disabled mobilities. We welcome all modes of transport; on the move and parking; all scales from local to global; all types of places (urban, suburban, rural, etc.); theoretical and applied works. We also welcome epistemological and methodological contributions on the status of this undone science.

WORKING LANGUAGE: English only.

NOTE: This proposal is under the auspices of the IGU Commission on Transport & Geography