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Canadian power mobility device users' experiences of ageing with mobility impairments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2015

ALEXANDRA KOROTCHENKO  and
LAURA HURD CLARKE
ALEXANDRA KOROTCHENKO*
Affiliation:
School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
LAURA HURD CLARKE
Affiliation:
School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
*
Address for correspondence: Alexandra Korotchenko, School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, 156–1924 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z2 E-mail: alex.korotchenko@ubc.ca
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Abstract

In this article, we 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, we investigate how individuals ageing with mobility impairments perceived and experienced the practical impacts and symbolic cultural connotations of utilising a power mobility device. Our 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. We consider the ways in which the participants attempted to manage, mitigate and reframe their experiences of utilising power mobility devices in discriminatory environments. We discuss our findings in relation to on-going theoretical debates pertaining to the concepts of ‘biographical disruption’ and the third and fourth ages.

Keywords

ageingpower mobilitymobility impairmentmeaning as significancemeaning as consequencethird agefourth age
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , July 2016 , pp. 1238 - 1253
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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