Research has highlighted various barriers to exercise which disabled people encounter. Some researchers have highlighted individual, personal barriers such as lack of energy
(Henderson & Bedini, 1995), lack of time and motivation (Scelza, Kalpakjian, Zemper & Tate, 2005), lack of knowledge of how and where to exercise (Heller, Ying, Rimmer & Marks, 2002) and fear of injury (Vissers et al., 2008) as reasons why disabled people are inactive. The idea that disabled people are stopped from exercising because of some kind of physical deficit or lack of personal motivation is problematic, however, as this aligns to a medicalized perspective of disability which places responsibility to be active squarely on the shoulders of the individual and leaves social oppression unchallenged (Goodley, 2016). Thus, a more socialized view to evaluate barriers to exercise may be a more prudent approach to develop a contextually meaningful, nuanced appreciation of disabled people’s experiences in public exercise facilities.
From this socialized perspective, research has highlighted numerous structural barriers which hinder a disabled individual’s agency to exercise in certain spaces. For example, a lack of access into facilities (Rimmer & Marques, 2012), inaccessible or
unnegotiable built environments (Kehn & Kroll, 2009), and unsuitable equipment (Dickson et al., 2011) have all been distinguished as key reasons why disabled people are a minority population in exercise spaces. These are important issues and must be considered when investigating ways to craft more inclusive exercise spaces for disabled people and promote health enhancing behaviours. This socialized perspective, however, is also one dimensional in that a purely socialized lens does not appreciate the lived experiences of disabled people in
39 exercise domains. Nor does it appreciate how an exclusory physical space marginalizes disabled people in such a way that their psycho-emotional well-being is compromised. The psycho-emotional consequences disabled people may experience when trying to negotiate an exclusory environment can be highlighted by applying a social relational lens of disability.
As Finkelstein (2001) stated, “it is society that disables us and disabled people are an oppressed group” (p. 2). Understanding disabled people to be an oppressed group allows for the concept of disablism to be applied, thereby providing a deeper insight into the lived experiences of disabled people (Thomas, 2007). Disablism refers to the social oppression disabled people encounter (Goodley, 2016). Contextually, within exercise settings, a lens of disablism allows scholars to recognize the social imposition of restrictions of activity on disabled people and the socially engendered undermining of their physical health and psychological and subjective well-being through discriminating practices (Thomas, 2014). This lens also illuminates how physical barriers not only stop this population participating in exercise, but what these barriers mean and do to a persons’ sense of self. As previously mentioned in this literature review, disablism arises in two forms: indirect psycho-emotional disablism relating to the impact of exclusory messages through encounters with structural barriers, and direct psycho-emotional disablism pertaining to negative interactions a disabled individual has with other people or themselves (Thomas, 2007). Experiencing either type of disablism can have a profoundly negative effect on a disabled persons’ psychological health (Reeve, 2012; Smith, 2013). For example, previously in this section, I have highlighted that structural issues such as lack of access are key reasons why disabled people have difficulty participating in regular physical activity (Dickson et al., 2011). Applying a lens of disablism to this finding, however, also sheds light on how these physical barriers go further than merely stopping a disabled person from entering a physical space. Rather, these barriers act as ‘landscapes of exclusion’ sending exclusory messages that disabled people are out of place
40 and do not belong (Kitchin, 1998) resulting in individuals feeling othered, isolated and
lacking self-worth (Morris, 2014; Reeve, 2006). Thus, physical barriers do more than just stop a disabled person from entering an exercise space; they instil in a person the perception that they are not wanted which can consequently lead to poor self-esteem and be detrimental to an individual’s psychological health (Reeve, 2014). Moreover, disablism also draws attention to the damage negative encounters with other people can have with regards to long term adherence to exercise. For example, disabled peoples’ psycho-emotional well-being may be directly compromised through the negative interactions they encounter with others in exercise facilities. This includes being stared at, judged by other clients, made to feel marginalized and their lived experiences invalidated by fitness instructors and managers (Kehn & Kroll, 2009; Rolfe, Yoshida, Renwick & Bailey, 2009). Consequently, psycho- emotional disablism risks damaging individuals’ psychological and emotional pathways, self- esteem and sense of intrinsic value (Thomas, 2007). As such, disabled people who encounter these oppressive practices are made to feel ‘other’ when trying to exercise and may be deterred from attempting to exercise in this space again despite the potential benefits they may gain from exercising.
In this section, I have presented how applying different models of disability to
research on disability and exercise results in different understandings of why disabled people experience difficulty when trying to enact active behaviour. What is also important when working in the area of disability and exercise is to appreciate the social context of the fitness space which disabled people are negotiating to better understand how cultural norms may influence how disability is understood and treated in these spaces. As Sage (1993) argued, it is necessary to understand how sport and physical activity are linked to the social relations which underlie inequality, such as disablism and other types of social injustice. As such, it is important to understand the social worlds which help produce the disabling practices
41 aforementioned, why these practices occur and how these practices impact individuals’ experiences of exercise. In the context of this thesis, the fitness space under investigation is the gym. Consequently, the next section of this literature review presents gym culture and how disability may be understood in this psychosocial context.