Disability and discourses of mobility and movement

In this paper I seek to make a contribution to 'geographies of mobility' by arguing that assumptions of unrestricted movement and mobility in contempo rary Western societies are hegemonic in prioritising specific bodies and mo des of mobility and movement. In particular, mobility and movement are defi ned through 'normalising' discourses which serve to alienate impaired bodie s and to prioritise what one might term the 'mobile body: This has the effe ct of (re)producing structured inequalities in peoples' movement and mobili ty patterns. Such ideas are developed and illustrated with reference to int erviews with disabled people.