Access to blue spaces is often imagined as something simple. Build a ramp, widen a path, install the right infrastructure, and participation will follow.
But time spent in, near, and around water tells a more complicated story.
I’m very pleased to share that my latest paper has been published in Disability & Society:
“Not just the ramp: routinings and the messy politics of access in blue space fieldwork.”
You can read the full paper here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2026.2634349
Access Is More Than Infrastructure
The paper grew from time spent in and around water with visually impaired participants during the early stages of my fieldwork.
What quickly became clear was that access to blue spaces is rarely straightforward. It is not something that simply exists or does not exist.
Instead, access unfolds.
Many conversations about accessibility focus on infrastructure: ramps, pathways, changing facilities, or formal policies. These things matter. But they do not tell the whole story.
During fieldwork, I began to notice smaller and often invisible moments shaping participation. These included navigating slippery ground together, adjusting clothing after a swim, pausing at the shoreline, or sometimes choosing not to enter the water at all.
Understanding “Routinings”
In the paper I describe these moments as “routinings.”
Routinings are the shared practices through which participation happens. They include the everyday negotiations of pace, trust, fatigue, weather, timing, and care.
These moments shape whether someone can take part on any given day.
They are often messy, relational, and emotionally charged. Yet they rarely appear in accessibility guidelines or research protocols.
Despite this, they sit at the heart of how access is actually experienced
Research in the Water
The paper also reflects on what it means to do research alongside participants.
This meant being present in the water and on the shoreline together. We swam, walked coastal paths, navigated changing conditions, and sometimes stepped back when bodies or environments said “not today.”
Holding these shared moments carries responsibility.
Participants generously shared stories, reflections, and experiences of navigating blue spaces. These moments included joy, hesitation, trust, and vulnerability.
The paper tries to honour those encounters by recognising that access is not simply a technical issue. It is also a relational and political one.
These insights are not only academic. They are already informing conversations with organisations, community groups, and policymakers working to improve access to blue spaces across the UK.
A Question for Research and Practice
Ultimately, the paper asks a simple but important question:
Who is fieldwork designed for, and whose participation gets quietly designed out?
When we pay attention to the everyday labour of participation (Spencer, 2023) – the pauses, adjustments, refusals, and shared acts of care – we begin to see access differently.
Access is not fixed.
It is continually shaped through relationships between people, environments, and institutions
I remain deeply grateful to everyone who shared their time, presence, and experiences during this work.
This paper exists because of those moments together.
