TY  - JOUR
A1  - Watson, Nicholas
T1  - Access Activism. The Politicization of Wheelchairs and Wheelchair Users in the Twentieth Century
T2  - Zeithistorische Forschungen –  Studies in Contemporary History
N2  - For millions of disabled people around the world the wheelchair has been one of the most important technological innovations of the twentieth century. From its inception as a relatively cumbersome, heavy machine, designed principally for indoor use, the wheelchair has evolved into a sophisticated and highly technical mode of transport. Wheelchairs are, at least in the Global North, relatively widely used and universally recognizable – so recognizable that they have become the cultural symbol to represent all disabled people. Wheelchairs are often viewed with trepidation: as machines that disable, confine, and deprive their occupant of independence – as medical devices that doctors prescribe only to the sick, the wounded or the elderly. Such definitions and perceptions infiltrate the public lives of wheelchair users, cause considerable macro and micro political difficulties, and consequently disable users in a myriad of different ways.
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://zeitgeschichte-digital.de/doks/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2432
UR  - https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/2-2022/6058
VL  - 19
IS  - 2
SP  - 367
EP  - 379
PB  - ZZF – Centre for Contemporary History: Zeithistorische  Forschungen
CY  - Potsdam
ER  -