Accessibility

I haven't paid that much attention to disability studies/issues for most of my life becasue I've been completely ignorant about it. No excuses. Just plain ignorance. I didn't pay attention to it. I was on crutches for about a week in high school after I sprained my left knee playing soccer, but other than that, I've lead a pretty 'able bodied' life.

I haven't had many friends with disabilities, but every one of them has taught me things. Things you learn not by them giving me a book or anything, just being around them in an everyday setting. I had a friend in college who was a boxer before I knew him. He had an injury and used a motorized wheelchair as a result. Hanging out with him around campus and waiting for his driver to pick him up was actually quite shocking to me.

Now, while living in Philly, I've become more aware. I've been reading the Disabilities Studies, Temple University blog for the last couple of months. I attended the Disabilities Caucus at the Young Dems regional conference last month with the group. And this post especially caught my eye. It's about this new buliding on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University:

[T]he elevators will be especially slow-moving. They will also be tucked away at the rear, while the atrium will feature a prominent set of stairs -- 28 to get to the second floor, and a total of 76 to get all the way up to the fourth floor.

Fear not--a "slimming mirror" will greet stairclimbers, to encourage them in their efforts to get fit. (Will they also put "fattening mirrors" in the elevators? Or just stamp "lazy" on the foreheads of elevator users?)

At the Young Dems caucus it was brought up that the fight for disability rights and minority rights go hand in hand and with that in mind, I couldn't help but think of the notion of separate but equal, not in a 100% correlation, but pertinent nevertheless.

This is a situation where a group of people are not allowed/capable to use certain facilities for one reason or another. Whether it is because they are black and they want a sip of water from a white-only waterfountain because let's say the black-only fountain is broken or inaccessible or if a person is unable to take on a set of stairs because they are on wheels or have a cane. Comically, Dave Chappelle addressed this issue in a skit on Chappelle's Show where a black man has to use a white-only bathroom and has a firehose set on him. Crudely funny, but point taken. The notion is ridiculous.

How about institutions taking a real step towards improving the health of their employees by providing some good healthcare coverage. Let people get the treatments they need before things get worse later on. Preventative medicine is underpracticed in America. It's only after a person has a condition of any sort that they get any attention paid to them. After all, what good is a person who is cured of a potential ailment before s/he needs more medicine? Where's the cashflow going? The money's in the comback as Chris Rock pointedly jokes.

Disability issues are often disregarded until an individual experiences them on a personal level. Whether they themselves go blind, a family member can no longer walk without assistance or a friend loses her hearing. And there are many more disabilities as well that are not as physically noticable. One example that comes to mind is diabetes.

I don't mean this post to say that people with disabilties are helpless. After watching Murderball, I know that there are tons of disabled athletes who are waaaay more physically capable than me. I know from meeting disabled people with PhD's that they are waaaaay smarter and more committed to things than I will ever be. I'm saying that there needs to be more light shining on the issues that effect everyone. Disability issues go hand in hand with minority issues and hand in hand with everyone else issues.

But how to reach the people who are ignorant as I very plainly was to get involved and pay attention? Problems can be solved as easily as having accessible elevators. Tables at restaurants that don't have bars underneath so that a person on wheels can fit. Differently textured surfaces along edges like a subway platform.

Comments

[Penny]

Hi Albert! Nice job making the connection to separate-but-equal accommodations. (The "equal" part never quite adds up anyway, does it?) I'm so glad to hear the Young Dems were talking about disability rights in the context of civil rights.

[Mike Dorn]

Hi Penny! I was at that Young Dems session sponsored by the Disability Caucus, along with Albert Yee and the speaker Carol Marfisi. I was startled to find that the session was being held in the same room directly following the session sponsored by the Minority Caucus. The Minority Caucus session featured a full panel of aspiring politicians and went overtime, requiring members of the Disability Caucus to wait until they cleared out. Sitting in on the Minority Caucus session, it was obvious that health and disability issues were of little concern. And if the circumstances under with the Disability Caucus proceeded are any demonstration, the Young Dems have a long way to go to make people with disabilities feel welcome. The organizers of the session were wonderful to us, but in spite of advance notification, they were not able to get a lapel microphone so that audience would be able to easily understand what Carol Marfisi was saying.

The constrasts, and lessons of that February 25 morning were not lost on Albert Yee however. Congratulations on a wonderful post! Mike

[Mike Dorn]

Hey Albert and Penny! Photoblogging can be a great way of keeping up the pressure for barrier-free and universal design. Check out John Kelly's Neighborhood Access Group, a successful venture up in Boston - http://www.neighborhoodaccess.org