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The Paradox of Pace:�Slow Librarianship through a Disability Lens

Brittni Ballard, Towson University

March 10, 2026

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Rupert (2010-2023)

Rupert was a pug-beagle mix with heart disease, arthritis, seizures, and spinal issues. He took more than twenty pills a day and had four specialists. Our life revolved around alarms, appointments, and compounding pharmacies.

But Rupert also loved sunbathing. And puzzle toys. And hash browns after vet visits.

I write that his “lessons on the relentless rhythm of care, the constant negotiation of needs, and the interconnectedness of body, mind, and environment illuminated the paradoxes of slow living.”

He taught me to ask, over and over: How does Rupert feel today?

And somewhere along the way, I began asking myself the same question.

This chapter combines personal narrative with critical analysis because we can’t separate our bodies from our scholarship. As Donna Haraway reminds us, “Situated knowledges are about communities, not about isolated individuals.” What I know of navigating vocational awe and tenure with all of you fellow librarians, I know from within my disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent body.

It is from that situated knowledge I explore three paradoxes of slow librarianship.

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The Three Paradoxes

Slow as Performance and Punishment
Slow as Policy and Practice
Slow as Politics and Physicality

First, slow as performance and punishment. Slowness is praised as thoughtful and strategic when performed by certain bodies — but treated as deficiency when it shows up as disability. I quote a disabled academic who says “‘Slowing down to keep up’ is paradoxical… But for me it’s a lived reality.” That same tension lives in our institutions.

Second, slow as policy and practice. We say we value work-life balance, we say we value care, but the bureaucratic systems meant to provide access become additional barriers. Access requires disclosure and paperwork as justification — at the very moment when someone has the least energy to navigate it.

Third, slow as politics and physicality. For many disabled people, slowness is not a lifestyle choice, but a bodily necessity. As Evans and colleagues explain, “Living with energy impairment involves careful calculations and pacing.” Slowness begins as survival, but becomes resistance—and it begins in the body.

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And this is where my vision begins to shift.

Inclusion, not accommodation.

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Practical Strategies

Establish self-care guardrails.
Guard your time.
Practice mindfulness and gratitude.
Write your own script.

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We need to do more than resist.�We need to reimagine the world.

Valarie Kaur, 2021, p. 171

See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love

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Thank you!

Brittni Ballard