Wearing the arm (or not). Reconceptualising notions of in- and exclusion in Disability Studies

In the last few years the social model in Disability Studies has been criticized for focussing too much on social and environmental factors in mechanisms of in- and exclusion and overlooking the materiality and embodied experience of disability. In this article we look at the specific ways in which an assistive technology can give shape to mechanisms of in- and exclusion. We study the biographic narratives of two women who use(d) an arm prosthesis. As a result, new notions of what in- and exclusion can entail for people and how they come about are formulated.