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The Three Praxes Framework - A Thematic Review and Map of Social Accessibility Research

JiWoong Jang, Patrick Carrington, Andrew Begel

Abstract

Research in social accessibility aims to improve the lives of disabled people across diverse abilities and experiences by assisting with communication, relationships, and ecosystems of access. We seek to understand this intersectional body of work through analyzing social accessibility research from 2011 to 2025. Through constructivist grounded theory analysis of 90 papers (curated from 605), we develop the Three Praxes Framework: three sites of practice Artifact (constructive), Ecosystem (relational), and Epistemology (theoretical) - two cross-cutting stances toward change (Temporal Orientation and Stakeholder Focus) - and one reflexive cycle modeling how insights can flow between praxes. Our analysis reveals these praxes operate largely in isolation, risking that insights remain academic exercises while assistive technologies reinforce existing barriers. We call on the field to realize a cycle where disabled people's lived experiences shape material realities, material practice generates theoretical knowledge, and both transform ecosystems of access.

The Three Praxes Framework - A Thematic Review and Map of Social Accessibility Research

Abstract

Research in social accessibility aims to improve the lives of disabled people across diverse abilities and experiences by assisting with communication, relationships, and ecosystems of access. We seek to understand this intersectional body of work through analyzing social accessibility research from 2011 to 2025. Through constructivist grounded theory analysis of 90 papers (curated from 605), we develop the Three Praxes Framework: three sites of practice Artifact (constructive), Ecosystem (relational), and Epistemology (theoretical) - two cross-cutting stances toward change (Temporal Orientation and Stakeholder Focus) - and one reflexive cycle modeling how insights can flow between praxes. Our analysis reveals these praxes operate largely in isolation, risking that insights remain academic exercises while assistive technologies reinforce existing barriers. We call on the field to realize a cycle where disabled people's lived experiences shape material realities, material practice generates theoretical knowledge, and both transform ecosystems of access.
Paper Structure (57 sections, 7 figures, 6 tables)

This paper contains 57 sections, 7 figures, 6 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Theoretical Background and Positioning
  3. How the Framework Relates to Prior Work
  4. Identifying Gaps in Current Frameworks
  5. Project-Level Lenses Cannot Reveal Field-Level Patterns
  6. Field-Level Analyses Miss Conceptual Depth
  7. The Ecosystem as Distinct Practice
  8. Making Politics and Change Theories Explicit
  9. What Field-Level Analysis Enables
  10. Why a Reflexive, Field‑Level Lens Is Needed
  11. Methods: Constructing the Research Map
  12. Stage 1: Building the Corpus
  13. Stage 2: Curating the Theoretical Corpus
  14. Stage 3: Synthesizing a Map and Framework
  15. Step 1: Open Coding and Concept Extraction
  16. ...and 42 more sections

Figures (7)

  • Figure 1: Visualizing the stages of analysis to deriving the Map and Three Praxes Framework for Social Accessibility.
  • Figure 2: PRISMA-style flow diagram from the initial search ($n=8,731$) to the final set of included papers ($n=605$)
  • Figure 3: The inductive analysis process: transforming 362 initial concepts into 46 codes and six final thematic territories.
  • Figure 4: Mapping the six thematic territories to the three sites of research practice (Artifact, Ecosystem, Epistemology)
  • Figure 5: The reflexive praxis cycle: how building, relating, and theorizing can become mutually constitutive research practices.
  • ...and 2 more figures