Daily Archives: 12 February, 2010

Accessibility & Sustainable Transportation

accessibility, autonomy, politics, social attitudes

Last week I attended a meeting at my university campus regarding sustainable transportation options for the next five to ten years. We’re at an interesting point in time here, as both the transit routes and the university are putting in long-term planning, so we may have a chance to push for real, useful, interesting change that can have long-term impact on both the university community and the greater community.

I would say “Ask me what wasn’t covered at all!” but I’m sure you can all guess – accessibility was never mentioned, even though the initial study into the needs of students, faculty and staff on campus had raised issues of accessibility.

But! Credit where credit is due. I brought this up at the meeting, and then again (as in, ten minutes later) with head of my particular branch of student government, and this afternoon attended a meeting including myself, the president of my particular branch of the student union, and student accessibility services to talk about concerns regarding accessible transport and sustainable transport.

Basically, the topics of conversation were around the fact that we’re a growing campus, we have greater needs regarding getting people to and from campus every day, but we want those needs to be Green in focus. The initial meeting I attended last week focused on things like faculty bus passes, incentives to car pool, and what encourages people to walk or bike to campus.

What we talked about today were more focused ideas that were inclusive of people with physical and sensory disabilities. I wanted to talk about this here, because I have no illusions: Even with student accessibility services there, we were still only talking from a limited perspective. I focus a lot on mobility needs, and more specifically on the needs of people using wheelchairs, for reasons I think are obvious, and the gentleman from student accessibility services then focused a lot on issues around students with low-vision, or who are blind.

I figure I’ll use our meeting for a greater discussion here. I want to both bring attention to others about sustainable transportation conversations and how to include concerns about accessibility and people with disabilities in them, but also I want to have more feedback and input. There are new students every year, new faculty who may have different issues regarding transportation and accessibility. The more we talk, the more we collectively can ask for things that will aid as many of us as possible.

Things that were brought up:

– Sidewalks. We talked about how horrible they are around the university, although this is pretty universal in our city. SAS brought up the needs of students who are low-vision or blind about sidewalks, including the need for high-contrast paint jobs on the curbs and around obstructions, and to have some sort of guide on the actual sidewalk for canes.

– Buses. More seating for bus stops around campus. Pushing to get more accessible routes to come here. Stop announcements (municipally they’re on the agenda for next year). Giving out cards to people so they can just show their card (usually something bright) so the bus driver will just lower the low-floor buses without you needing to ask. A recording to indicate when the next bus is coming.

I happen to know from looking at the current five-year plan regarding the bus service here that it will cost $1500 per stop to get a stop up to what they want for accessibility needs, and that a route must be entirely made up of those stops before it is allowed to carry people who use wheelchairs. This is a long-term project, sadly.

– Parking. I confirmed that here there is no additional charge for parking passes if you have a disability, you get guaranteed parking, and if there is a greater need for parking in front of a building, Facilities Management will actually designate more spots accessible. I don’t know how that plays out in reality, though. (I note there’s only one accessible parking space in front of the Library, for example.)

What are your thoughts regarding this?

Chatterday! Open Thread.

chatterday

This is our weekly Chatterday! open thread. Use this open thread to talk amongst yourselves: feel free to share a link, have a vent, or spread some joy.

What have you been reading or watching lately (remembering spoiler warnings)? What are you proud of this week? What’s made your teeth itch? What’s going on in your part of the world? Feel free to add your own images. (Anna insists that these should only be of ponies, but I insist that very small primates, camelids, critters from the weasel family, smooching giraffes, and cupcakes are also acceptable.) Just whack in a bare link to a webpage, please – admin needs to deal with the HTML code side of things.

Today’s chatterday backcloth comes via Tjflex2 on flickr, who took the photo in a cemetery in Prague.

red squirrel

Either/Or – Both/And

activism, bodies, disability activism, social attitudes

One of the ways mainstream media talks about things is in binaries. People are either book readers or they read nothing at all, for example. Women are either sluts or they aren’t having any sex at all.

People are either caregivers or they have disabilities and thus are cared for.

Or so I keep hearing.

So, when we talk about needs relating to children with disabilities, somehow the idea that there may be parents with disabilities who are primary caretakers for these children is missed. When we talk about caring for elderly or disabled parents or extended family members, we don’t talk about how to do that if you are also disabled. Because people with disabilities are cared for, right? You can’t be both cared for and caring for someone, right? Right?

Right now, I’m getting a lot of literature sent my way about “caring for” a spouse with Cancer. That literature will often include the information given by Family Caregiver Network Society: “We understand the common feelings of isolation, helplessness, exhaustion, stress, anger and guilt faced by family caregivers.”

All of that is often true for caregivers. But for some of us, that stuff is unrelated to being a caregiver because it comes from our status as people with disabilities in the first place.

I think this feeds into the ideas of disabled people as passive receptors of whatever, who never act on their own, who can’t act on their own, and whose only stories are those of being a burden. These perceptions feed into how and what support is given to families affected by disabilities that have long-term caring needs, what accommodations are made for meetings with caregivers (I was invited to a meeting in a space that isn’t wheelchair accessible, for example), and basically how society views everything to do with being disabled. Suddenly, your whole life is perceived as a burden to others, with nothing to live for and nothing to look forward to.

I know there are readers of this blog who are disabled and care for others, either in their homes or workplaces. I want to talk about how we are both disabled and carers. [1. ETA: It is not my intention to imply that if you are not both/and in this case, you are somehow a burden or not worth talking about, or ruining it somehow for everyone else. I am just focusing this particular discussion on that bit of intersectionality.]

Recommended Reading for February 12th

recommended reading

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language and ideas of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Tom Sawyer actorsSt Louis Globe-Democrat: Tom Sawyer to be staged by actors with disabilities as part of ‘Big Read’

“The Assorted Short Adventures of Tom, Huck and Becky” will be performed for local students by That Uppity Theatre Company’s DisAbility Project, an ensemble of actors with and without disabilities, as part of St. Louis’ “Big Read” project.

This is possibly the first production of this classic book to be created through a disability perspective and performed primarily by actors with disabilities. […]

The ensemble has 15 active members, both with and without disabilities, who are diverse in age, race, ethnicity, class, occupation, education, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability and performance experience.

Politics Daily: My Left Breast Put Fancy TSA Scanner to the Test

Then she said she needed to check something. And she began sweeping her hands around my left breast and rib cage.

This didn’t bother me all that much; in fact it made me smile. For one thing, I don’t really have any feeling in my left breast. That’s because it doesn’t exactly exist. For six years now, it’s been a composition of part of my lat dorsi (mid-back muscle) and a skin graft from my back, supplemented by a sac of silicone. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the result of a mastectomy and reconstruction, which in turn is the result of breast cancer. […]

The takeaway here is, if you have fake body parts, you should be prepared to explain them to the full-body screening folks at the TSA.

WHEELIE cATHOLIC: Saying it doesn’t matter, when it does

Now imagine this being repeated over and over in the course of a number of hours, days, weeks, months, even years, when a resentful, angry person responds like this when you as a person with a disability make a choice. […]

Their reaction may be passive or outright anger. Sighing. Heaving. Verbal retorts. Arguing. Complaining. Or worse.

Makes me wonder if “learned helplessness” is really that or an intelligent choice in the face of these situations.

“Any color is fine.” “Doesn’t matter which flavor it is.” No, don’t rock the boat. Just don’t say anything. This can even lead to not asking in the first place.

SnowdropExplodes at A Femanist View: Dancing on Wheels 1st episode [includes spoilers]

Britain has until now never entered into the European Wheelchair Ballroom Dancing Championship. The objective of the series is to find a couple to represent Britain in the next competition.

The wheelchair dancers are all novices to dancing, but have been wheelchair users for some time (the shortest has been for 18 months after becoming paralysed). The temporarily-able-bodied dancers are all celebrities who either appeared on Strictly Come Dancing or else have dancing training due to their showbiz background.

The Smith College Sophian: Dis/Ability: An Introduction

As Smithies, there is a lot on our minds. Worries about classes, papers, exams, relationships, fitting meals into our schedules, money and so many other things constantly flit through our minds.

But how many of us worry about getting our course materials in accessible formats, having a note-taker whose notes we can follow, or deciding whether to go on medical leave for the third time in as many years or to tough it out for one more week – only to pay for it for months after?

Maybe you don’t have to think about those things. We do.

The News Tribune: Delvin backs closing institutions housing disabled

At the top of [Arc advocates’] wish list was for the Legislature to consider closing the state’s institutions and allow people to live and get services in their own communities.[…]

Teresa Payne, an Arc client and advocate for people with disabilities, said people should be allowed to choose where and how they live.

Payne, who has impaired vision and slight mental retardation because of a birth defect that affected her brain development, lived in the state’s Lakeland institution as a child and left when she was 17 because she was allowed to make the choice. She said she doesn’t remember much about living there because she was medicated, but she knows her life is better because she lives independently now.

“I am successful,” Payne said. “I am in the process of buying my own home. I have a part-time job. I serve on the (Developmental Disabilities Council) board. I want others to have the same opportunities.”