Wrestling with part of Karen Nakamura's keynote at #ASSETS2019: move from diversity and inclusion to ownership and belonging. Us deaf folks have been preaching this from the rooftops. Great to see this issue recognized. But how good are we at putting it in practice at ASSETS? 1/6
The target communities need to own the accessibility work and data, through and through. That also means putting people from the communities out font there on the stage and have them present on the work that they've sweated for. We're not seeing nearly enough of this here. 2/6
Yesterday 4 out of 5 deaf/hard of hearing-related presentations had a presenter who is a member of the deaf community. Only one out of six blind/low vision-related presenters was from the community. And none from learning/cognition/emotion presenters, not that I could see. 3/6
Today the parade continues. I'm sure I missed some. But we need to think: what kind of message are we sending with this, regardless. Are people with disabilities not presenting, because they are not in key roles in research that affects their very own communities and lives? 4/6
Or are they not presenting because they are not given the resources to attend the key conferences in the field? I've seen both happen in the past. 5/6
It's different if we can make a conscious choice of our own free will, without duress, whether we present our own work, or whether we hand it off to an ally or non-member. Until we are at that point, however, we need to work extra hard at "nothing about us, without us." 6/6
