Missing: Wheelchair: Access, Accessibility, and Disability in Community Development Work

Abstract

This autoethnographic account analyzes the physical barriers faced by the author while participating in coursework and fieldwork at the UBC Learning Exchange, and examines the systemic barriers to engagement that disabled students, employees, and community members face in community development, academic institutions, and anthropological fieldwork. Personal narrative, critical engagement with approaches to anthropological fieldwork, and multimodal representations ultimately come together in this paper to explore community adaptation and resilience in response to institutional norms and physically inaccessible research environments.