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Hey people who think that accessibility is only for disability-related events: #thread
1. I spent this week at a conference about the history and philosophy of biology. It was not a disability studies conference. There was nothing about the topic we were discussing that seemed to be explicitly about disability. And guess what? They rocked at accessibility.
2. The meeting room, cafeteria, and rooms where we stayed were all in the same building, which was wheelchair accessible, had non-LED lighting, lots of good natural light, etc.
3. The organizers supplied tons of microphones and actually enforced the practice of using them. Everyone turned on their mic before speaking. If someone insisted their voice was loud enough, the group said, no, use the mic.
4. They had a fragrance-free policy that was announced ahead of time and repeated several times in the meeting, including at the beginning of sessions. People were very considerate about where they sat if they had used fragrances recently.
5. They asked about food allergies ahead of time and did the work of reminding the food providers several times of all of our diverse food access needs.
6. They asked those with access to more resources (such as employed professors) to pay a bit more so that graduate students could come at a discounted rate.
7. And not only were there a few disabled folks and elders participating in the workshop, but we also ended up talking about disability in productive ways that unsettled some of the assumptions we had come in with.
8. Access was good enough that I was able to participate in whole days of sessions, whereas at most conferences, I only go to 1 session per day max.
9. Moral of the story: if people who don't live and talk about disability all day can pull this off so effectively and not complain or make excuses, so should disability spaces and folks who nod toward anti-ableism but don't follow through with access.
