Eskyte, I orcid.org/0000-0001-9486-0033 (2019) When Accessibility of Public Space Excludes: Shopping experience of people with vision impairments. The Journal of Public Space, 4 (4). pp. 37-60. ISSN 2206-9658
Abstract
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) recognises access to consumer goods and services in the mainstream private market as essential for full participation in society. Nevertheless, people with impairments rarely enjoy the same rights and consumer experience as non-disabled individuals. This paper argues that (in)accessibility of public space is an important factor shaping how accessible the private market is for people who do not ‘fit’ conventional norms and standards. It demonstrates how category-driven accessibility provisions in some geographical areas and not in others segregate disabled people within certain providers, create social and consumer isolation, and become a marker that accentuates difference and separation between disabled consumers who live in accessible districts, and the rest of the population. To illustrate the case, the paper uses empirical evidence from mystery shopping in retail outlets and qualitative interviews with people with vision impairments who live in the ‘Blind district’ in Lithuania. The district was developed by the Soviet Union (1949-1990) to boost people with vision impairments’ participation in the socialist labour market economy.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Accessibility, public space, shopping, consumer, disability, vision impairments, Soviet Union |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Law (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Feb 2020 16:04 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:10 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | City Space Architecture |
Identification Number: | 10.32891/jps.v4i4.1233 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:157747 |