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“It’s just a parking space, don’t get so obsessed” – disabled people’s experiences of abjection and ‘second class citizenship’ in accessible parking spaces

Vera Kubenz, University of Birmingham

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About me and my research

  • Final year of PhD (submitting next week!)
  • Focus on the “Politics of Parking”: Disabled people’ s encounters with strangers in accessible parking spaces
  • Using mixed method approach: content analysis, survey, and interviews
  • Today’s focus is on how these encounters perpetuate the feeling of being ‘less than’ and a second-class citizen

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Background

Ableism

    • Centres the ‘normal’ person (McRuer, 2002), with disability the alter which justifies non-disabled superiority
    • Disabled people are expected to be “unfortunate, useless, different, oppressed, and sick” (Hunt, 1998, p. 17)

Stigma

    • Disabled people have been stigmatized systematically and intentionally to justify welfare benefit reform (Tyler, 2020)
    • ‘Scrounger’ discourse and debates about who is ‘deserving’ creates a politics of resentment (Briant et al., 2013; Hughes, 2015)

Relationality

    • The social-relational model of disability (Thomas, 1999) draws explicit attention to psycho-emotional dimensions of disablism (Reeve, 2008)
    • Accessibility is also relational (Edwards & Maxwell 2021; Hall, 2019) - spaces shaped by the people within them

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Interview methodology

Follow-up interviews with 20 participants who had previously completed survey

Heterogeneous purposeful sampling approach to ensure maximum diversity of disabled experiences

Semi-structured interviews conducted remotely (Zoom/Teams, phone, or email)

Data analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2022) approach to reflexive thematic analysis

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Bare Minimum Access

  • ‘Accessible’ spaces are often built to the minimum legal requirement rather than equal access (Reeve, 2014; Slater & Jones, 2021)
  • Poor design and implementation of the scheme reinforces the impression of disability as an afterthought
  • Bays are not enough and often not fit for purpose (too far, too narrow)
  • Rules are inconsistent and enforcement often non-existent
  • Rights are being eroded – e.g. restrictions on bays, introduction of fees, removal of bays

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“We’re disabled, we’re not werewolves”

Emma: “Some of the Blue Badge bays I've noticed are suspended after 6 o'clock [where I live], and you kind of think, ‘We’re disabled, we’re not werewolves!’, you know. [laughs] Why is this? Because that means after 6 o'clock, anyone can park there! And, you know, disabled people do like to go out in the evening.”

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Contrasting reasons behind encounters

People don’t understand

  • Blue Badge is not understood as essential for access to everyday life – seen as a ‘perk’ or ‘luxury’
  • Disability is not understood – lack of representation of disabled people in policy and media

vs

People don’t care

  • Non-disabled people feel entitled to control parking spaces – whether through policing or misusing
  • Scrounger rhetoric and perceived better treatment gives rise to resentment

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“People don't want to hear about, you know, all that side of things: “Oh, it's just a parking space, Jim, and don't get so obsessed by it.” […] But that's the thing, it's not just a parking space. It's whether or not I can do what you've just taken for granted.” (James)

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Abjection

“Well, I'd like to spread a whole load of nails under the tires, so that when they move out they'd learn what it's like to be without transport.” (Richard)

  • Anger and hate circulate in Blue Badge bays, sticking to spaces and people (Ahmed, 2014)
  • Participants were angry about perpetual blatant disrespect, including interrogation, sideways parking, and “I’ll only be 5 minutes”
  • Misuse often feels intensely personal - some shared ‘revenge fantasies’

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Slow death

If somebody gives me grief I'm going to give it right back to them. I do occasionally have the “It's not worth doing the thing, I don't want to get into a fight with anybody” and will have a couple of weeks of maybe not wanting to use my Blue Badge and then I notice that my world has got smaller again. (Charlie)

“Slow death” wears groups of people down over time through mundane events (Berlant, 2011)

Most participants stopped going out either temporarily or permanently

Undermines confidence not just in accessible parking but in society as a whole

Parking is just one aspect - experiences of second-class citizenship occur in other situations

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Case study: York

  • Between 2021-2023, York City council banned accessible parking in pedestrianised areas as a security measure (Laver & Dale, 2023)
  • Katie Lomas, a disabled councillor, was excluded from debates on the ban due her “personal interest” (Evans, 2021)
  • For Christmas 2024, the ban was temporarily reinstated, as planning for disabled access was “too complex and really expensive”, but the council will “endeavour” to give Blue Badge holders access next year (Booth, 2024)

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Charity model: Access as a ‘gift’

  • Disabled people are merely guests in public spaces
  • A charity model approach

“sees [disabled people] as passive, tragic or suffering and requiring care. It assumes that it is the community and society’s responsibility to arrange all services for these vulnerable people and know what is good for them.” (Christian Blind Mission, 2025)

  • The ‘gift’ of access is always contingent on playing “the part of the cripple” (Goffman, 1986, p. 88) - visibly suffering, demure, helpless, and grateful
  • This approach obscures both accessibility as a fundamental right, and how disability rights were achieved in the first place

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Scrounger rhetoric: Access as a ‘perk’

Charity model relies on deservingness – being seen as ‘undeserving’ can have devastating consequences

While the Blue Badge scheme has not been affected by cuts, scrounger rhetoric is very much present in accessible parking spaces

Divide and conquer approach – pitting different groups of disabled people against each other, obscuring why provision is inadequate in the first place

Resentment and hostility create negative “affective atmosphere” (Burch, 2021, p. 65) - disabled people can never be at ease in accessible parking bays

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Conclusion

  • Encounters manifest the institutional abjection and hostility against disabled people
  • Bare minimum accessibility maintains the status quo:

“The inconvenience, the emotional burden, the money, the time—are not “the cost of [accessibility].’ Rather, they are the point. The system, as the saying goes, is working as intended.” (Price, 2024, p. 113).

  • While ableist attitudes persist, no ‘accessible’ space can ever be truly accessible

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Thank you for listening

Any questions?

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References