“Dirty looks”: A critical phenomenology of motorized mobility scooter use

Alfiya Battalova, Laura Hurd, Sandra Hobson, R. Lee Kirby, Richelle Emery and W. Ben Mortenson

Social Science & Medicine, 2022, vol. 297, issue C

Abstract: The use of motorized mobility scooters has become increasingly prevalent. Drawing on the critical-phenomenology and disability-studies literature, this study explored the embodied nature of scooter use among 20 new scooter users. The analysis revealed four themes: 1) Navigating the social environment and being (un)seen presented a paradox of how hypervisibility and invisibility can both exist; 2) Transitioning to scooter use revealed the affective component of becoming a scooter user despite the underlying desire to avoid unwanted attention; 3) Experiencing accessibility challenges en route and at destinations demonstrated that the inconsistency in accessibility along different routes unavoidably makes disability more visible; 4) Strategic and personalized use of devices for mobility illustrated how reliance on other mobility devices (e.g. canes and walkers) can be used as a strategy to circumvent the barriers and lessen the visibility of disability. The lifeworlds of “lived relation”, “lived body”, “lived space”, and “lived things” encapsulated the multi-faceted experiences of new scooter users. The critical phenomenology of scooter use emphasized the need for creative strategies to address the physical and attitudinal barriers as well as scooter design-related concerns.

Keywords: Wheeled mobility device; Scooter; Critical phenomenology; Lifeworlds; Visibility; Invisibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:297:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622001162

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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114810

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