Thread by @AutSciPerson

I have just now finally heard that my university hired an ADA coordinator.

There were 2 candidates for the position in the Spring and I saw both of them..

and the person who was hired wasn't the one I thought did a really good job in the presentation and Q&A.

That's not to say the other person was terrible, but the candidate I recommended alluded to possibly being a disabled person themself. And the other person was using sort of abled people language and didn't know what the term "plain language" even meant.

I'm glad they are hiring someone but they always go for more experience with the law/lawyer language than for people who actually have lived experience -and- experience relevant to that position.

When will disabled people be allowed to be at the table?

An article just came out about the new ADA coordinator and this is what I mean by abled language:

"welcoming to people of every ability"

Every ability?

How about welcoming to disabled people??

Feels like this stuff is just a PR stunt sometimes.

And to be clear, I don't know if the other person either wasn't hired, or decided not to take the job - so that's a possibility I guess.

And I do think there will still be progressive changes made (they're making a disability cultural center). I just don't know to what extent.

It's not that the person they hired is not going to do anything, or not going to help.

It's just that time and time again, the person who is picked for a job on accessibility is nearly always the nondisabled person, who doesn't know what it's like to be us.

That's a problem.

It means instead of a disabled person with relevant background and experience getting that job, there is still free labor being performed by disabled students, disabled faculty and disabled staff to "work with" the ADA coordinator.

Disabled people should have a chance to give their input and there should always be input from the disabled community - but disabled people themselves are never the ones actually offered the position of power that allows them to change the system.

That's what is so exhausting.

Abled people like to talk about high unemployment statistics of disabled people, meanwhile many disabled people are open about their disability on applications and can't even get an interview. Meanwhile accessibility and "representation" initiatives are led by abled people.

Disabled people are seen, and will always be seen, as a "risk" even though we spend our whole lives constantly learning and adapting and problem solving just to live in the world.

& instead of recognizing that creativity and efficiency and amazingness, they think we can't work.

I was once in a meeting with high-up people at the university b/c I've been active in the campus disability student group (haven't been this semester because of grad school stuff) -

And I said that they need to pay people who are working part- and full-time on this as volunteers

I said that this is a lot of work and we're basically helping them with the bare minimum of ADA compliance, not even any "extra" things. I wasn't talking about myself - I was talking about a few faculty who literally basically work a 2nd job to help make the campus accessible.

You know what I got in reply, in real time? (they assumed I was talking about me when I wasn't).

Something very similar to this:
"Please stay, we need your input, student input is vital."

Basically saying "please do this free labor for us" without saying it.

I don't think they realize that while I was doing all of this, I was also having to navigate the inaccessible lab space in my own lab on this very campus. Navigating disability parking on a campus that sells basketball/football parking on the weekends? It's like solving calculus.

Trying to get a COVID-19 (required) test on campus?

I literally gave them free feedback to redesign the form so that it was actually accessible and so they streamlined testing for cars because the first time I tried to get tested the staff told me wrong information.

My point:

If you care about disabled people, don't ask for their free labor to make things more accessible. Don't ask disabled people to take a 2nd full-time job but it's a volunteer position with no pay.

Disabled people should not be required to advocate to have accessibility.

It is ridiculous to tell a disabled student, navigating an inaccessible environment (which, to be clear, is not ADA compliant) every single day, to "please stay" and please continue making the campus more accessible for free.

I literally teach a lab that has one "accessible table" and the "accessible" table is maybe 3 inches lower than the regular ones, and there is 100% no way I could use that table sitting down without being in pain. It's basically shoulder height when sitting! & I'm average height!

I worked for 1.5 years in absurdly bad foot pain because the specific lab I work in is not accessible in any way and it would cost probably a million dollars to remake it to where it's actually accessible. And I "had" to collect data still after I acquired my disability.

So the university, finally, hired an ADA coordinator to campus. And this ADA coordinator is going to work with the faculty, staff, and students who continue to volunteer their time and energy to make the campus more accessible.

I honestly don't know how that isn't exploitation?

Disabled people deserve better.

I'm glad they hired an ADA coordinator, but that doesn't fix the time and energy disabled people continue to spend to make the university accessible for free.

And to clarify - this lab was just recently redesigned. So this wasn't like an "old construction" issue. The lab was remade THIS SUMMER.

Who's consulting about ADA compliance to construction workers and contractors? Because it's clearly not working!