A Service Dog in the Field - Accommodating Disabled Archaeologists and Nontraditional Medical Equipment

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

There are many things one expects to find on a field site: a plethora of trowels, interns and students working away— but disability and medical equipment are not among them. Archaeology often shies away from including and accommodating disabled voices. This fear has created an environment in which those with disabilities are unsure if they will be welcomed or accepted, let alone accommodated. Disability encompasses a broad range of individuals, and many types of medical equipment can accompany disabled individuals. Equipment can range from an acceptable pair of glasses, to the traditional symbol of a wheelchair. One often misunderstood, non-traditional, type of medical equipment is a task-trained service dog. In collaboration with the Institute for Field Research and the Irish Archaeology Field School, I was granted the opportunity to attend the field school at Ferrycarrig in Co.Wexford with my Service Dog. In this paper I will describe the process of applying to and attending a field school with a service dog. Along with this, I will provide an introduction to the current state of disability in archaeology, and theoretical actions that might be taken by other field schools hoping to engage with disabled archaeologists in the future.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32338