Mobility Disabilities

by

Rachael Gillibrand

• LAST MODIFIED: 17 April 2025
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780197768723-0022

Introduction

Over the last twenty years, the field of disability history has flourished. By bringing together historical methodologies with the questions raised in contemporary disability studies scholarship, disability history has moved beyond top-down, medicalized narratives of impairment and “improvement.” Instead, the field has concerned itself with the social and cultural construction of disability in different places and periods, drawing attention to the diversity of attitudes toward and experiences of disability in the past. While disability historians have considered a range of physical, mental, sensory, and speech impairments in their scholarship, mobility disabilities have provided an especially fruitful avenue of investigation. A mobility disability is a condition that affects an individual’s movement. That movement may be connected to fine motor skills (i.e., the ability to control small muscles in the hands and fingers) or gross motor skills (i.e., the ability to control the larger core muscles necessary for tasks such as walking). These conditions may either be congenital or acquired through age, disease, or injury. While it is possible that sensory impairments can lead to mobility disabilities—for example, blindness making it more difficult to navigate the physical environment—this bibliography will restrict itself to mobility disabilities arising from physical locomotor impairments. The bibliography will also exclude material relating to mobility impairment caused by conditions such as leprosy, as well as paralysis caused by neurological or autoimmune disorders. The fields of literature concerning leprosy and paralysis are vast and well-tailored to the specific cultural understandings of these conditions. To briefly include them in this bibliography would do a disservice to the extensive historiographical and scholarly developments concerning these impairments. As this bibliography demonstrates, the study of mobility disabilities intersects with many other areas of human history, including religion, technology, architecture, imperialism, colonialism, consumerism, literature, and culture. However, while this bibliography demonstrates the interdisciplinary breadth of scholarship connected to histories of mobility disability, it also highlights the paucity of English-language scholarship concerning the history of mobility disabilities in the Global South. In their 2023 “Global Survey on Persons with Disabilities and Disasters” the United Nations reported that “persons with disabilities constitute 16% of the world’s population, with 80% living in the Global South”—and yet the historical experience of disability in this region has been largely understudied. By identifying this gap in scholarship, this bibliography aims to encourage academics to consider more global histories of mobility disabilities in future scholarship. Throughout this bibliography, the terms “impairment” and “disability” will be used according to their definitions within the social model of disability. In the social model of disability, the terms “impairment” and “disability” are used distinctly. “Impairment” refers to an individual’s physical, mental, or sensory characteristics, whereas “disability” refers to the disadvantages that people with these characteristics face.

General Disability History Overviews

The texts in this section offer general overviews and frameworks through which to study the history of disability. Shakespeare 2017 offers an entry-level summary of key ideas and approaches within contemporary disability studies. Although it is not historical in its focus, this text offers a succinct explanation of principles that disability historians have subsequently applied to the past. Similarly, Albrecht 2005 provides an encyclopedic resource that is of particular benefit to scholars who are new to the discipline. Hanes, et al. 2018; Rembis, et al. 2018; and Rioux, et al. 2021 each fill a similar function by bringing together a broad range of chronological and geographical expertise to offer a window onto the diverse nature of historical disability studies. Bolt and McRuer 2020 is included to help readers familiarize themselves with constructions of disability in a range of chronological periods. However, perhaps the best place to begin would be with Stiker 2019, the first major work to present a framework for the study of historical disability, followed by Blackie and Moncrieff 2022 to develop an understanding of the present state of the field.

• Albrecht, Gary L. Encyclopedia of Disability. 5 vols. London: SAGE, 2005.

  Excellent reference resource. Volumes 1–4 contain over 1,000 encyclopedia entries alongside an extensive bibliography and index, while Volume 5 offers a selection of primary source documents. Relevant entries to this list include accessibility, assistive technology, history of disability, mobility aids, travel, and wheelchair.

• Blackie, Daniel, and Alexia Moncrieff. “State of the Field: Disability History.” History 107.377 (2022): 1–23.

  DOI: 10.1111/1468-229X.13315

  Useful introduction to English-language scholarship in the field of disability history, with suggestions for future avenues of research.

• Bolt, David, and Robert McRuer, eds. A Cultural History of Disability. 6 vols. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

  A six-volume collection that chronicles physical and mental disability over the last 2,500 years. Each volume includes an introduction relevant to the period under discussion. These introductions provide a useful foundation for understanding attitudes toward disability in a particular time period.

• Hanes, Roy, Ivan Brown, and Nancy E. Hansen, eds. The Routledge History of Disability. London: Routledge, 2018.

  Takes an intersectional approach to histories of disability from antiquity to the twenty-first century. Mobility impairment features in many of the chapters, but chapter 26, “The Genesis of Societies for Crippled Children in Canada and their American Roots” (Hanes), is of particular relevance to this list.

• Rembis, Michael, Catherine Kudlick, and Kim E. Nielson, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Disability History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

  Focuses on the global history of disability from the Greco-Roman period to the twenty-first century. The collection is interested in the study of disability outside of medicalizing narratives and considers the themes of work, institutions, representations, movements, and identities.

• Rioux, Marcia H., Alexis Buettgen, Ezra Zubrow, and José Viera, eds. Handbook of Disability: Critical Thought and Social Change in a Globalizing World. Singapore: Springer, 2021.

  Contains very wide coverage of key debates and issues within contemporary disability studies. The collection includes a useful section on the “History of Disability,” made up of five chapters.

• Shakespeare, Tom. Disability: The Basics. London: Routledge, 2017.

  DOI: 10.4324/9781315624839

  Accessible introduction to key debates within contemporary disability studies. Ideal for undergraduate students approaching the subject for the first time.

• Stiker, Henri-Jacques. A History of Disability. Translated by William Sayers. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2019.

  DOI: 10.3998/mpub.11575987

  The first text to present a framework for the study of disability history from antiquity to the twentieth century. Initially published in French as Corps infirmes et sociétés (1997), this new English-language edition includes a useful forward by Mitchel and Snyder, which reflects on the text’s contribution to the development of the field of historical disability studies.