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Introduction

1^st year PGR in Sociology – second career academic
Blue Badge ‘encounters’ are a common occurrence for many disabled people - conceptual exploration
Highlighting the complexity of an everyday situation and how this contributes to the experience of disablement
Understanding the Blue Badge bay as a socially created space – is it really removing barriers for disabled people?
Looking at encounters from a number of different angles – assemblage approach

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Why this topic?

Why encounters with strangers?

“Trying to understand the complicated feelings which arise out of our everyday encounters with the world is central to the lives of all disabled people” (Keith, 1996)
Interrelational and everyday experiences of disablement

Why Blue Badge spaces?

One of the few public spaces where disability is expected
Enables examination of wider assumptions and ideas about disability
Recent extension of Blue Badge scheme to “non-visible” impairments

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(In)accessible space

Structural and attitudinal barriers make it clear that disabled people are out of place in public spaces
Accessible spaces are the exception – but do they perpetuate exclusion in wider society?
Accessible spaces are often scarce and designed towards the legal minimum (Slater and Jones 2021)
Blue Badge bays are highly recognisable as accessible spaces

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Signage & the ISA

International Symbol of Access (ISA) tells us who to expect in this space

ISA encourages policing of the space for people who look like they don’t belong (Slater and Jones 2021)

A ‘misfit’ (Garland-Thomson, 2011) is created if the Blue Badge holder does not look like the symbol

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Signage & the ISA

International Symbol of Access (ISA) tells us who to expect in this space

ISA encourages policing of the space for people who look like they don’t belong (Slater and Jones 2021)

A ‘misfit’ (Garland-Thomson, 2011) is created if the Blue Badge holder does not look like the symbol

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Legitimacy & hierarchies of impairment

Hierarchies of impairment describe who is seen as legitimate / sympathetic and are held by both disabled and non-disabled people (Deal 2003)

The wheelchair is the ultimate symbol of disability

In/visibility of impairment is crucial but also problematic as reality is often more complex – eg incongruous appearance

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Austerity & media

Welfare reforms in the 2010s were justified through rhetoric of high fraud rates – ‘scrounging off the hardworking tax payer’ (Tyler 2020)
Disabled people were ‘scapegoated’ in news media as the new folk devils
Hierarchies were replicated in media representation, and fraud rates overestimated by the public (Briant et al. 2013)

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(Self-)surveillance

Staring is a common experience for many disabled people (Garland-Thomson, 2005)

Members of the public become agents in policing accessible spaces

External surveillance leads internal self-policing

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Emotional labour and performativity

Encounters with strangers often require disabled people to manage both their own and others’ emotions (Scully, 2010)
Masquerade (Siebers, 2004) – exaggeration of disability may be employed as a management technique
Disability becomes performance – emulating public ideas of what disability should look like

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Emotions & psycho-emotional disablism

Disability evokes strong emotions – pity, fear, disgust (Hughes, 1999), but also envy and hate
Hate crime against disabled people increased during austerity politics (Ralph et al., 2016)
Low-level everyday hate and microaggressions are a constant experience for many (Hall, 2019)
Emotions ‘stick’ to people and places and circulate in these spaces (Ahmed, 2014)
Reeve’s (2008) concept of psycho-emotional disablism is key to understanding the exclusionary effect of encounters

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How does all this fit together?

Interdisciplinary approach is crucial
Situated within a Critical Disability Studies paradigm
Crossovers into geography, psychology, feminist studies, queer studies, and media studies

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Research questions

Stage 1: Mapping encounters

What kind of encounters most commonly take place in blue badge bays?
What are some of the factors that determine the nature of these encounters?

Stage 2: Navigating encounters

What actions do disabled people take to manage or avoid these encounters?
How do these encounters affect disabled people’s emotions and self-identity?

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Next steps

Established Advisory Group of Blue Badge holders
Phase 1: Survey of Blue Badge holders and national newspaper content analysis
Phase 2: Semi-structured interviews
Dissemination through publications, policy report, and Blue Badge board game

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Thank you!

Please get in touch

vik104@student.bham.ac.uk

@Vera_Kub

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References

AHMED, S. 2014. The cultural politics of emotion Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.
BRIANT, E., WATSON, N. & PHILO, G. 2013. Reporting disability in the age of austerity: the changing face of media representation of disability and disabled people in the United Kingdom and the creation of new ‘folk devils’. Disability & society, 28, 874-889.
DEAL, M. 2003. Disabled people's attitudes toward other impairment groups: a hierarchy of impairments. Disability & Society, 18, 897-910
GARLAND-THOMSON, R. 2005a. Dares to Stares Disabled Women Performance Artists & the Dynamics of Staring. In: SANDAHL, C. & AUSLANDER, P. (eds.) Bodies in commotion : disability & performance. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press.
GARLAND-THOMSON, R. 2011. Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept. Hypatia, 26, 591-609.
HALL, E. 2019. A critical geography of disability hate crime. Area, 51, 249-256.
HUGHES, B. 1999. The Constitution of Impairment: Modernity and the aesthetic of oppression. Disability & Society, 14, 155-172.
KEITH, L. 1996. Encounters with strangers: the public's responses to disabled women and how this affects our sense of self. In: MORRIS, J. (ed.) Encounters with strangers: feminism and disability London: London : Women's Press.
RALPH, S., CAPEWELL, C. & BONNETT, E. 2016. Disability hate crime: persecuted for difference. British journal of special education., 43, 215-232
REEVE, D. 2008. Negotiating Disability in Everyday Life: The Experience of Psycho-Emotional Disablism. Lancaster University.
SCULLY, J. L. 2010. Hidden labor: Disabled/Nondisabled encounters, agency, and autonomy. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, 3, 25-42.
SIEBERS, T. 2004. Disability as masquerade. Literature and medicine, 23, 22-65.
SLATER, J. & JONES, C. 2021. Toilet Signs as Border Markers: Exploring Disabled People's Access to Space. The International Journal of Disability and Social Justice, 1, 50-72.
TYLER, I. 2020. Stigma: the machinery of inequality, London, Zed.