“I am used to being extremely patient because I’m forced to be”: the affective politics of accommodation for disabled archivists
Archives—repositories that store, organize, and give access to historical materials—produce a constellation of affects for both the people who use them and work within them. This article, drawing on data collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 disabled archivists in Canada and the Unite...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-06-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Sociology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1468401/full |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849332294622380032 |
|---|---|
| author | Julia Rose Karpicz Tara Brar Gracen Mikus Brilmyer Veronica L. Denison |
| author_facet | Julia Rose Karpicz Tara Brar Gracen Mikus Brilmyer Veronica L. Denison |
| author_sort | Julia Rose Karpicz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Archives—repositories that store, organize, and give access to historical materials—produce a constellation of affects for both the people who use them and work within them. This article, drawing on data collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 disabled archivists in Canada and the United States, focuses on how disabled archival workers experience, manage, and perform emotions while navigating work-related access and accommodation in archival institutions. The ineffectiveness of traditional systems of individual accommodation—which sometimes forced them to disclose their access needs or, alternatively, feel pressured into denying their own needs—produced complex emotional responses among participants. Many spoke about the emotional toll of requesting accommodations, while others described their exhaustion and refusal to engage with such processes. Yet, participants highlighted how collective (rather than individual) approaches to access transformed the affective experience of access towards ease and empowerment. Centering this affective reality for many disabled archivists, this research echoes the growing body of research and theory around access labor, while also adding focus on the affective debt of archival access that occurs through accommodations processes—both an internal indebtedness, where one “borrows against” their patience and energy to survive, and an external indebtedness, where one is required to “pay” in gratitude, vulnerability, and being nice in order to be deserving of accommodation. We draw attention to how the very people who facilitate access to historical documents are also navigating their own access—performing additional forms of labor to manage inaccessible, precarious, or hostile work while also imagining access otherwise. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4182f16d9c4541939a7e26d314759eff |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2297-7775 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Sociology |
| spelling | doaj-art-4182f16d9c4541939a7e26d314759eff2025-08-20T03:46:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Sociology2297-77752025-06-011010.3389/fsoc.2025.14684011468401“I am used to being extremely patient because I’m forced to be”: the affective politics of accommodation for disabled archivistsJulia Rose Karpicz0Tara Brar1Gracen Mikus Brilmyer2Veronica L. Denison3Department of Undergraduate Education Initiatives, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesDisability Archives Lab, School of Information Studies, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaDisability Archives Lab, School of Information Studies, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaRhode Island College, Providence, RI, United StatesArchives—repositories that store, organize, and give access to historical materials—produce a constellation of affects for both the people who use them and work within them. This article, drawing on data collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 disabled archivists in Canada and the United States, focuses on how disabled archival workers experience, manage, and perform emotions while navigating work-related access and accommodation in archival institutions. The ineffectiveness of traditional systems of individual accommodation—which sometimes forced them to disclose their access needs or, alternatively, feel pressured into denying their own needs—produced complex emotional responses among participants. Many spoke about the emotional toll of requesting accommodations, while others described their exhaustion and refusal to engage with such processes. Yet, participants highlighted how collective (rather than individual) approaches to access transformed the affective experience of access towards ease and empowerment. Centering this affective reality for many disabled archivists, this research echoes the growing body of research and theory around access labor, while also adding focus on the affective debt of archival access that occurs through accommodations processes—both an internal indebtedness, where one “borrows against” their patience and energy to survive, and an external indebtedness, where one is required to “pay” in gratitude, vulnerability, and being nice in order to be deserving of accommodation. We draw attention to how the very people who facilitate access to historical documents are also navigating their own access—performing additional forms of labor to manage inaccessible, precarious, or hostile work while also imagining access otherwise.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1468401/fulldisabilityarchival studiescritical access studiesemotional laborarchival accessworkplace accommodation |
| spellingShingle | Julia Rose Karpicz Tara Brar Gracen Mikus Brilmyer Veronica L. Denison “I am used to being extremely patient because I’m forced to be”: the affective politics of accommodation for disabled archivists Frontiers in Sociology disability archival studies critical access studies emotional labor archival access workplace accommodation |
| title | “I am used to being extremely patient because I’m forced to be”: the affective politics of accommodation for disabled archivists |
| title_full | “I am used to being extremely patient because I’m forced to be”: the affective politics of accommodation for disabled archivists |
| title_fullStr | “I am used to being extremely patient because I’m forced to be”: the affective politics of accommodation for disabled archivists |
| title_full_unstemmed | “I am used to being extremely patient because I’m forced to be”: the affective politics of accommodation for disabled archivists |
| title_short | “I am used to being extremely patient because I’m forced to be”: the affective politics of accommodation for disabled archivists |
| title_sort | i am used to being extremely patient because i m forced to be the affective politics of accommodation for disabled archivists |
| topic | disability archival studies critical access studies emotional labor archival access workplace accommodation |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1468401/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT juliarosekarpicz iamusedtobeingextremelypatientbecauseimforcedtobetheaffectivepoliticsofaccommodationfordisabledarchivists AT tarabrar iamusedtobeingextremelypatientbecauseimforcedtobetheaffectivepoliticsofaccommodationfordisabledarchivists AT gracenmikusbrilmyer iamusedtobeingextremelypatientbecauseimforcedtobetheaffectivepoliticsofaccommodationfordisabledarchivists AT veronicaldenison iamusedtobeingextremelypatientbecauseimforcedtobetheaffectivepoliticsofaccommodationfordisabledarchivists |