Walking on eggshells: disabled people's management of emotions during everyday encounters in accessible parking spaces

TL;DR

This paper examines how disabled people manage emotions during everyday interactions in accessible parking spaces in the UK.

Contribution

It introduces a new perspective on accessibility by focusing on the emotional labor and relational aspects of disablism.

Findings

Disabled individuals perform significant emotion work to manage interactions in accessible parking spaces.

These encounters can lead to long-term exclusion and emotional strain for disabled people.

Negative emotions from such encounters are better understood as collective rather than individual experiences.

Abstract

This paper explores how disabled people manage their own and other's emotions during encounters with strangers in accessible parking spaces in a UK context. Due to their mundanity, the affective impact of encounters is frequently not considered in the move towards removing barriers to public space for disabled people. Understanding the energy and emotion work that goes into managing these affects therefore offers a crucial new perspective on how we understand what “accessibility” means. Situating my analysis at the intersection between the sociology of emotions and critical disability studies, I present data from 20 disabled interview participants in England on their experiences of accessible parking encounters. This includes a discussion of the impression management and emotion work required to navigate encounters in parking spaces, and the exclusionary impact these encounters can have over time. In the findings I highlight how considering relational and psycho-emotional aspects of disablism are crucial when understanding everyday oppression and offer a way to rethink the negative emotions arising from encounters as a collective rather than an individual experience.