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Paper short abstract

Blind people experience barriers to thrive in the workplace due to inaccessibility. Drawing on an ethnographic project collaborating with blind and sighted people working in different Danish workplaces, I explore ocular-centrism as a form of unintentional hostility with embodied costs.

Paper long abstract

Research in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) reveals disabled people face systemic barriers in the workplace. Disabled workers remain at a higher risk of unemployment due to inaccessible offices, technology, and lack of support. Addressing workplace exclusion and inaccessibility requires a deeper understanding of mundane workplace infrastructures and practices impacting disabled people's everyday life. In this context, I contribute to conceptualizations of hostility in design and Science and Technology Studies (STS) with the analysis of a year-long collaborative project with blind and sighted employees across different Danish workplaces. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 participants (blind and sighted employees), two focus groups with blind employees, and video ethnographic materials accompanied by image descriptions analyzed with blind and sighted participants, I examine how ocular-centrism (privileging vision in knowledge production, design, and social interactions) manifests as a form of infrastructural and unintentional hostility. The study reveals a paradox: while employers seeks to foreground blind knowledge and advocacy, the legacy of ocular-centrism in technological tools, designs, and social norms persist within workplace practices, technologies, and communication modes. As a response, blind and sighted colleagues develop forms of subversion and repair to trouble ocular-centrism. These include relations of mutual aid with sighted and blind colleagues, access work, braille hacks, humor, universal design, and complaints. Importantly, while blind employees and allies reclaim the right to an accessible workplace, acts of resistance derive in physical and emotional exhaustion and lack of trust in societal promises of social inclusion.