Access labour

The additional physical, cognitive, and emotional work that disabled people must perform to navigate inaccessible environments, systems, and social situations. This includes researching whether venues are accessible, requesting and negotiating accommodations, educating non-disabled colleagues and service providers about disability needs, and managing the emotional toll of repeated exclusion. In design and research contexts, access labour also encompasses the burden placed on disabled participants to teach non-disabled researchers about basic disability concepts. Recognising access labour is important for accessibility practitioners because reducing it — through proactive accessible design rather than reactive accommodations — should be a core goal of inclusive practice.