Reconsidering the Stigma of Physical Disability: Wheelchair Use and Public Kindness

This article reexamines the stigma of physical disability using the empirical example of wheelchair users' treatment in public places. It draws upon conversational interviews with wheelchair users, field notes recorded during participant observation in public places while using wheelchairs, and previously published autobiographical accounts. The analysis of these materials primarily focuses upon the many public encounters in which wheelchair users request and receive various forms of assistance. Our analysis demonstrates that wheelchair users' place in public life is more uncertain and unsettled than the concepts deviance and stignia suggest. We argue for an empirical reassessment of the social definition of various physical disabilities through ethnographic study of relations between typical and atypical people and analytic attention to situated processes of identification.