Original design from 1946
The Invacar—a single-seat, three-wheeled vehicle promoted by Oscar Greeves and adopted by the British government as a mobility aid from 1948 to 1977—offers a compelling lens into the participation of disabled individuals in society. Granted as a disability benefit, the Invacar was framed as an advancement towards independence, allowing a large number of disabled veterans to move autonomously and efficiently. It also reflected a pursuit of assimilation for disabled individuals, and it accompanied a state-sponsored project of vocational rehabilitation that sought to have them enter the workforce alongside those who were non-disabled.
This focus on assimilation shaped much of 20th-century disability policy, particularly in the United States. For some, vocational rehabilitation programs were an important means of empowerment. For others, however, they emphasized “fixing” individuals to fit into normative workplaces and value systems—making disabled people employable, efficient, and economically self-sufficient.
However, disability activism has also nurtured powerful critiques against the request for disabled individuals to assimilate. Central to this resistance is the celebration of rest rather than just valuing individuals for their work. Described not as laziness, the need for rest has been reclaimed by contemporary disability activists to challenge the demand for disabled individuals to perform able-bodied norms. In this vision, disability is not something to overcome in order to enter society, but a way of being that questions the pace of the contemporary world.
