Falling in love with a wheelchair: enabling/disabling technologies

Abstract

The aim of this article was to explore how young women with physical impairments make use of technology in their identity construction, drawing on the metaphor of the cyborg as well as on science and technology studies and disability research. In addition to participant observation, semistructural interviews were conducted and video diaries were kept of the women playing sledge hockey, wheelchair basketball, or table tennis. The informants included their wheelchairs in constructing their identities as young women and active subjects. In talking about pleasure and strength, they opposed the discourse that characterizes disabled people as leading empty, tragic lives. They challenge stereotypical notions of gender in sport by displaying determination, strength and risk-taking, while embodying a more traditional femininity when resisting the widespread view of disabled women as non-gendered and asexual.

‘Just kids playing sport (in a chair)’: experiences of children, families and stakeholders attending a wheelchair sports club

“…However, the children in our study had many positive impressions and ideas about wheelchairs, why some people needed them and the fact that they could be beneficial as well as fun. Findings from Apelmo's (2012) study reflected young women's positive attitudes to their wheelchairs. Reverse integration studies note that using a sports wheelchair can be part of the attraction for able-bodied participants (Medland and Ellis-Hill 2008) The children in our study mostly they talked about wheelchair skills such as how to "ride [in a wheelchair]" (AC), and "move in a chair better" (CwD).…”

Achieving Against the Odds: Gender, Chance and Contradiction in the Horseracing Industry

“…Women entering the sporting field therefore face considerable challenges (see for e.g., Apelmo, 2012;Pfister, 2012;Hacısoftaoglu and Pfister, 2012;Hedenborg and Hedenborg White, 2012;Bell, 2012;Thualagant, 2012;Pfister, 2012). This is true even in interspecies sport which brings together humans and horses (Gilbert and Gillett, 2011;Hedenborg and Hedenborg White, 2012;Plymoth, 2012) and involves a relationship between the 'human' athlete and the 'horse'.…”

Assistive technologies and autonomy in a cyborg world

“…which show how an individual's culturally defined identity is shaped by them being an AT user [1,21].…”