Academic Spotlight: Dr Ieva Eskyte

This Disability History Month, we are spotlighting Dr Ieva Eskyte and some of her most prevalent research in the field of Disability Studies.

Dr Ieva Eskyte specialises in Disability Studies, Social Policy and Social Research Methods, and is a current lecturer within the School of Sociology and Social Policy. Her work not only exposes the inequalities faced by disabled people but also offers pathways toward more accessible policies, environments and cultures. 

Breaking barries in consumer markets

Dr Eskyte’s research examines the accessibility of consumer markets for disabled people.  

In this area, I examine the inequalities and forms of exclusion that disabled consumers experience within the Single Market, as well as opportunities for developing more effective and equitable consumer policies.

Dr Eskyte’s publications on this topic include: 

• Her monograph: Disability and Shopping: Customers, Markets and the State 
• Disabled people’s vulnerability in the European single market: the case of consumer information
• When accessibility of public space excludes: shopping experience of people with vision impairments, among others.

Spaces for everyone 

A further strand of Dr Eskytes work focuses on the accessibility of public space.  

Working closely with interdisciplinary and international teams, I have explored the social justice issues that emerge when urban environments are not accessible to, or inclusive of, disabled pedestrians. This body of research highlights how street design, policy decisions, and competing urban priorities can create or reinforce exclusion.

Key publications arising from this multinational work include: 

• Enhancing accessibility of pedestrian environments: critical reflections on the role of the Public Sector Equality Duty
• Pedestrians with disabilities and town and city streets: from shared to inclusive space?
• Out on the Streets – crisis, opportunity and disabled people in the era of Covid-19.

Making research inclusive

A third key theme of Dr Eskytes work concerns accessible research practices.  

Here, I explore the shift from thinking about accessibility as a specialised add-on within “disability research” to promoting inclusive and accessible approaches across all areas of social research.

In 2023–2024, Dr Eskyte led the Inclusive and Accessible Research project, funded by the Enhancing Research Culture Fund. The findings from this project will contribute to developing resources and guidance that support researchers in making their work more inclusive of disabled people, helping to reduce the divide between disability-related and non-disability-related disciplines 

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