Access friction was originally termed Liz Jackson to explain the friction that can happen between disabled people and environments and spaces that are not built for them. Access friction goes beyond just describing an environment as inaccessible because it can also include when individuals' access needs have not been considered or are not met in spaces that are otherwise deemed as accessible. Access friction has also evolved to include what is more colloquially known as conflicting access needs, or the idea that you can have situations where meeting the access needs of one individual or a group of individuals impedes access for another individual or group of individuals.

Access Friction

Price offers us the following example to look at how access was thought about in interviews for DAS. One participant in Spring 2013 indicated that Skype would work for the interview; however, the participant's internet connection was not stable, leading Price and the participant to use the chat box to communicate and conclude that the interview needed to be rescheduled. Price asked the participant if an in-person interview would be preferred. In this case, while the participant indicated Skype would be accessible it was not and access is emerging or becoming in this case as it is renegotiated based on the realities of unstable internet connection. 

Access Example of Access as Process in DAS

Price notes that in thinking about access the research team used the theory of access as process.Titchkosky theorizes access as procress as the idea that access is not a set goal that we meet but instead an unfolding process that happens between specific bodyminds and in specific places and depends on the interaction between bodies. 


Price notes that throughout the survey and interview process that the team strove to make their research methodology accessible and interdependent.

Values of the Research Team

The Question of Access

Price notes that to achieve the values of accessibility and interdependence, Price and the research team drew on a research method Price conceived during her work on the book Mad at School which she called an interdependent qualitative research paradigm and the team drew on principles that Price outlined in her article "Disability Studies Methodology."

Foundations of Research Methods

Interviews were transcribed and quotations from interviews throughout the book are shared in what price calls a "near-verbatim" fromat, in this format markers for short pauses, occasional stumbles over words, and vocalizations like "um", and "uh" are omitted, however speech patterns including pauses longer than two seconds, words that were started then interuppted (for example "nev-well almost never"), repeated utterances including "um" and "like", and moments where the interviewer and speaker are simultaneously communicating.

Near-Verbatim Format

Price and Kerschbaum are both disabled, Price notes that the dynamic of having both disabled researchers and disabled research participants had effects on the data collection methodologies and analysis including that interviews were conducted in various combinations of in-person, remote, telephone, email, instant messaging, signing, and oral speech with additions of interpreting and captioning. Additionally, participants had assistants, personal interpreters, and service animals present.

Researcher Identity and Study Creation

Price and Salzer decided to include a content warning at the beginning of the survey out of an understanding that questions within the topic of mental health, including but not limited to questions about institutionalization or discrimination at work, may be triggering for specific individuals. The content warning informed participants that they would encounter questions related to diagnoses, medication (while also informing participants they would not be asked to disclose what medication they take), hospitalizations, experiences of disclosing mental health diagnosis status and relationships with co-workers. The content warning also encouraged participants to skip questions and that they could stop the survey at any time.

Content Warnings in DAS (Disabled Academics Study)

Access as a Process

Price points out that researchers sometimes treat non-oral modes of conducting interviews, for instance sign languages, email, or typed chat, as less than oral interviews. Some believe that non-oral modes make it harder for an interviewer to connect with and maintain the interviewee's interest. But, this belief ignores not only access needs but also that digitally mediated and non-oral modes might be the most natural and usable for disabled researchers and research participants. 

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