Abstract
Commissioned by Penelope K. Hardy (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse) In Hacking the Underground: Disability, Infra‐ structure, and London's Public Transport System, Raquel Velho examines how wheelchair users navigate the public transportation system in Lon‐ don. Velho's work is influenced by a variety of the‐ ories, disciplines, and methodologies, including in‐ frastructure studies, feminist technoscience, critic‐ al disability studies, and emancipatory action re‐ search. Applying a " crip feminist lens " for infra‐ structures, Velho argues that wheelchair users mold infrastructures, though their impacts are limited by the sociohistorical contexts in which the infrastructures were designed. Hacking the Underground is split into four main chapters. Chapter 1 provides important his‐ torical context for the book, outlining the histories of disability and public transportation in London. In bringing together these histories, Velho reveals how wheelchair users' current experiences of London's public transport system are shaped by the legacy of the Victorian era in which it was built. The omnibus and railway systems were de‐ veloped for the purpose of geographic and social mobility for middle-and upper-class people to commute to work or participate in leisure activit‐ ies. During this time, disabled people were largely segregated into institutions and excluded from the labor force due to ableist perceptions of disabled people as unproductive, objects of pity or charity, or economic burdens. As such, disabled people were not imagined as potential users of the public transport system. Because the designers of the om‐ nibus and railway systems did not account for dis‐ ability, they left them inaccessible to disabled people, particularly wheelchair users. Over time, there have been incremental improvements to ac‐ cessibility resulting from disability activism, but many barriers remain. Chapter 2 elucidates why wheelchair users ex‐ perience tremendous frustrations despite substan‐ tial improvements to the accessibility of London's public transport system over the past decades.