Disability and mobilities: evening up social futures

Abstract

This paper explores the intersection between disability and mobilities, as a rich potential future area for mobilities research, social justice and futures. Disability has much more to tell us about mobilities, especially the relationships among different kinds of mobilities as they are woven into key aspects of contemporary societies. One strategically important zone where disability is crucially important is the shaping of new aspects of society and social relationships with digital technologies. Thus, the paper provides a case study of the three major stages of development of the mobile phone, and how a disability mobilities approach is necessary to understand these dynamics.

Keywords:

• Mobility
• communication
• disability
• mobile phone
• digital technology
• social justice
• exclusion

Notes

1. I use capital letters to refer to ‘Deaf’ and ‘Blind’ people, to reflect accepted usage referring to their cultural and social identity.