Constructing reasonableness: Environmental access policy for disabled wheelchair users in four European Union countries

AbstractThis article aims to provide an understanding of responses to disability discrimination in the built environment within four member States of the European Union. Examples of contrasting policy constructions of “reasonableness” are provided in implementing reasonable adjustments in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Malta. The article provides a typology of policy intervention and a platform upon which an agenda of good practice can be formulated and initiated. In this respect, a primary objective is to define the parameters of what can be seen as “reasonable” in terms of accessibility for disabled people in wheelchairs and what enforcement procedures ought to be set in place to achieve the objective of equal access to the built environment