“I do not compete in disability”: How wheelchair athletes challenge the discourse of able-ism through action and resistance

‘It's actually very normal that I'm different’. How physically disabled youth discursively construct and position their body/self

“…In the following excerpt, Katy described her dislike of participating in disability sports and her desire to be normal: Similar to the negative attitude of wheelchair athletes toward other (more severely) disabled athletes that Wickman (2007) describes, Nadia and Katy constructed a hierarchy of disabilities by distancing themselves from those with 'extreme' disabilities. This exemplifies how Katy and Nadia engaged in disciplinary processes of categorization and normalization that reproduce dominant ableist discourses.…”

“…Qualitative data analysis software Nud*ist Vivo was used to help organize the data into codes and themes. Second, a critical discourse analysis was used, informed by our feminist poststructuralist approach (Wendell, 1996;Wright, 2004;Azzarito & Solmon, 2006;Wickman, 2007;Rail et al, 2010). This analysis allowed us to identify discursive constructions that our participants used in their narratives regarding sport and physicality.…”

“…For example, they contain elements of discourses about disability, sport, health and normalcy/difference. The description illustrates how dominant societal discourses related to physicality, such as the biomedical view of disability and the dominant discourse about sport, produce the abled body as the norm and construct the disabled body as 'abnormal' or 'deviant' by default (Garland-Thomson, 2002Wickman, 2007). The example also shows how professionals in the field of disability can reproduce and challenge dominant notions about the body as they attempt to introduce alternative notions of normality.…”

Experiences and Perceptions of Young Adults with Physical Disabilities on Sports

“…As Evans, Rich, Allwood and Davies (2007) have argued, distinctions between "able" and "non-able" participants can be seen to relate to specific social and political meanings in and around sport, gender and young people's participation, which circulate through a range of dominating notions and understandings of what "real sport" is and should be about (Wickman, 2008(Wickman, , 2011b. Such distinctions are important since they relate to the allocation of resources as well as according value to specific bodies (Clark, 2012).…”

“…This means that both gender and ability norms are constructed of masculine values such as strength, discipline, dominance and perseverance, which set the tone for how to conceive of and understand what "real sport" is and should be about (c.f., Schell & Rodriguez, 2001;Wickman 2008Wickman , 2011aWickman , 2011b.…”