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Canadian power mobility device users' experiences of ageing with mobility impairments
- Authors:
- KOROTCHENKO Alexandra, CLARKE Laura Hurd
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 36(6), 2016, pp.1238-1253.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
In this article, the authors draw upon interviews with 14 men and 15 women aged 51–92 to examine the embodied experiences of Canadian power mobility device users. In particular, they investigate how individuals ageing with mobility impairments perceived and experienced the practical impacts and symbolic cultural connotations of utilising a power mobility device. The findings reveal that those participants who had begun to use their power mobility devices later in life were dismayed by and apprehensive about the significance of their diminishing physical abilities in the context of the societal privileging of youthful and able bodies. At the same time, the participants who had used a power mobility device from a young age were fearful of prospective bodily declines, and discussed the significance and consequences of being unable to continue to operate their power mobility devices autonomously in the future. The authors consider the ways in which the participants attempted to manage, mitigate and reframe their experiences of utilising power mobility devices in discriminatory environments. The authors discuss their findings in relation to on-going theoretical debates pertaining to the concepts of ‘biographical disruption’ and the third and fourth ages. (Edited publisher abstract)