The accessibility activism of the disability rights association Threshold, 1973–1982

Abstract

Architectural accessibility has developed since the mid-twentieth cen- tury, yet accessibility history has remained an understudied topic in the Nordic countries, particularly in relation to the intersecting historical trajectories of accessibility and the disability rights movements. This article analyses the accessibility activism of the Finnish disability rights association Threshold between the years 1973 and 1982. The research is a historical inquiry into Threshold’s archives and publications, in which the association’s materials are conceptualized as previously unrecognized sources of architectural history. Threshold’s activity is contextualized historically in relation to the histories of accessibility, social movements, and the construction of the welfare state in Finland, and to previous international research on accessibility and disability history. The article shows that accessibility was widely discussed and understood in the association’s agenda as an issue of disability policy. In Threshold’s architectural discourse, the activists articulated understandings of the user-centred accessibility expertise of disabled people, indicated the significance of architects’ knowledge for implementing accessibility, and called for progressive legislation. The article presents a history of disabil- ity activism, arguing that this recognition can augment our knowledge of accessibility. Furthermore, the research presents a novel perspective on the disability history of architecture in the Nordic countries.