Intersectional Accessibility

Abstract

Intergovernmental organizations recognize that people with (dis)abilities experience discrimination in intersections between oppressive system. For example, the European Union has adopted the term “multiple discrimination” to describe discrimination on several grounds(Schiek & Lawson, 2011) In the recent years, researchers within Universal Design of ICT has started to apply intersectional-type methods to investigate the implications of these intersections in accessibility (Giannoumis & Skjerve, 2020; Giannoumis & Stein, 2019; Skjerve, Giannoumis, & Naseem, 2016) This thesis presents result from a study consisting of interviews with persons that holds intersectional identities. The findings show that persons with intersectional barriers experience unique barriers in relation to cost and affordability, exclusion and online aggression and learnability. It uses a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach to propose a model depicting intersectional barriers as a combination of instances and processes. The findings in this thesis can give direction to future research and inform development- and policy making processes through identifying points of interest where persons with intersectional identities experiences barriers.