What is accessibility? - a phenomenology
Abstract
This article offers a phenomenological exploration of the concept ‘accessibility’. It examines how and why spaces, structures and orientations are not neutral: dynamic and interweaving forces that shape them, by histories that privilege some and marginalise others. Drawing on my own testimony as an autistic, queer academic with chronic health issues, I describe how accessibility can be felt through what it is not. In doing so, I reflect on subtle ways in which spaces may – superficially – appear as accessible but effectively require already marginalised bodies to take on additional emotional, cognitive and, therein, bodily labour. Overall, this article argues that accessibility needs to be lived and sustained rather than merely claimed.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Digital Accessibility for Disabilities
Subtitles and Audiovisual Media
Disability Rights and Representation
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Disability & Society
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1–5
- Publication date
- 26 February 2026
- Language
- EN