Pitching Perspectives on Disability: Voyage Experiences of Disabled Sailors on Tall Ships

Abstract

This paper explores the experiences of disabled sailors on board a tall sailing ship, adapted for accessibility. Eight disabled sailors kept audio diaries and created artwork during the voyages, as well as taking part in interviews afterwards. In reporting their accounts, we explored what it meant for participants to go to sea. We became particularly interested in embodied activities on board ship, the ways in which sailing created and highlighted new identities, and the social aspects of sailing in a team. Our account brings together some of the central concerns in Disability Studies with the perspectives of social practice theorists, and seeks to add layers of meaning to both approaches. Since this is a nautical project, the paper is structured by following the stages of going to sea, and in the words of one participant, we seek to 'join the dots between medical, academic and anecdotal knowledge'.

Being a Disabled Patient: Negotiating the Social Practices of Hospitals in England

“…All these features that come together to make up a particular social practice will have an influence on how people feel about themselves, how they give meaning to their experience, and ultimately on how they identify or include themselves within particular practices. For instance, Lamont-Robinson, Williams and Thompson (2018) have shown in a different context how objects may be significant in shaping people's decisions and actions within individual practices, which in turn are then 'continually shifting and re-developing' (Lamont-Robinson et al, 2018, p. 2). When someone enters an environment where things are done in ways that do not include their own needs or perspectives, then the material elements of that practice (in this case, maybe waiting rooms, complex written information, or medical equipment) combine with the human interactions in that environment, to create what is often a negative, disempowering and 'misfitting' experience.…”

“…These ideas have started to resonate for disability theorists interested in how disabled people interact with an environment that may not be suited to their bodies or needs (e.g., Abrams, 2016;Garland-Thomson, 2011;Titchkosky, 2008Titchkosky, , 2011. Even when the environment is 'adapted' to be made more accessible (Lamont-Robinson et al, 2018), individual disabled people can experience their own impairments in both positive and negative ways. Thus, a social practice argument would suggest that the experiences of disabled people in hospital can be influenced by a myriad of factors, both internal and contextual.…”

Editorial Review: Touring the Archive 1999–2017 and Mapping the Future of Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research

“…In this issue this is explored by two papers. Lamont-Robinson et al (2018) explore experiences of disabled sailors on board a tall sailing ship, adapted for accessibility. They discuss how the particular embodied activities on the ship, created new possibilities for positive and relational identities through their interactions with others.…”