Risky bodies in risky spaces: disabled people’s pursuit of outdoor leisure

Abstract

Risk is used to deny disabled people access to many parts of mainstream life. Using qualitative data we explore disabled people’s views and experiences of outdoor recreation, bringing together ideas from two areas of sociology – disability studies and risk using the concepts of edgework and psycho-emotional disablism. Many people felt that the outdoors represented a risky environment. For some, risk was one of the main drivers for going out into the countryside; whilst for others, risk was a major cause of their reluctance to venture into the countryside. Engaging in risk both can disable and can challenge disablist views.

Keywords:

• disabled people
• risk
• outdoors
• psycho-emotional disablism
• edgework
• identity

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Forestry Commission who funded the research on which this paper is based. We would also like to thank our research participants for engaging with and contributing to this project.

Notes

1. Only some physical barriers could be viewed in this manner. As argued elsewhere (Burns, Paterson, and Watson 2009), some of our participants accepted physical barriers as part of the experience of being in the outdoors and as such did not feel discriminated against. However, this was limited to what were deemed natural physical environments rather than services.