This is a series of posts designed to help people approach diversity and inclusion. These are questions and scenarios we’ve actually heard or seen in the wild. This is part of our corporate programming for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. For more information, click here.
As a disability rights activist I’m often asked questions by folks who want to be allies with the disability community but understandably don’t know how to find a way in. Here’s a recent example, one which I think is well meaning:
Question: I’m wondering about the trajectory of rights for those who are disabled. I’m old enough to remember when “handicapped parking” was something comedians made jokes about. But looking back, it strikes me that rights for disabled people had a lot of concrete actions taken. Actual infrastructure was changed — not just parking, but curbs, ramps, building codes and more. Cut to the present day, and rights for the disabled seem to have taken a little bit of a back seat in the wake of #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. So my question is twofold: 1) How can I continue to support rights for the disabled and 2) Is there any learning that can be applied from the infrastructure changes that helped disabled people so much? How can those big sweeping reforms be applied to issues like sexism, racism and LGBTQ issues
There are many issues here and I want to take a few minutes to unpack them as best I can.
The assumption that disability is taking “a little bit of a back seat” to other civil rights concerns is off base though I understand the questioner’s feeling that disability is not as broadly recognized as other issues are. While disability is often characterized as being the largest marginalized group both in the United States and around the world its all too often underrepresented in our discourse and media. This is often true but the times are a’changing as Bob Dylan would say.
Stay with me here. One problem with disability is that it’s seen as an economic problem and a medical problem. Karl Marx was one of first writers to use the term “disability.” He employed it to demarcate those no longer able to work in factories—as he saw it permanently injured people were stripped of economic value. Today the “Dis” word still means lack of value. In capitalism as practiced in the US disability triggers a scarcity fear—if we give something to the disabled the rest of us won’t have good things. I’m taking time to underscore why disability bothers people in general. Doctors view disabled patients as medical failures. Medicine should cure the lame and the halt so they can once again be productive.
If we dismiss the scarcity model of human value then we can see that the old adage “a rising tide lifts all boats” is exactly right. The disabled represent every ethnicity and sexual orientation, the young and old, veterans, migrants, the poor and the rich. Disability rights are everyone’s fight.
Several terrific advocacy groups have taken this up, recognizing that disability is a black issue, a feminist issue, and therefore a fully inclusive human rights movement. One important group is Sins Invalid which seeks to emperor disabled people of color and those who are denied dignity because of their gender or sexual orientation. They write:
We define disability broadly to include people with physical impairments, people who belong to a sensory minority, people with emotional disabilities, people with cognitive challenges, and those with chronic/severe illness. We understand the experience of disability to occur within any and all walks of life, with deeply felt connections to all communities impacted by the medicalization of their bodies, including trans, gender variant and intersex people, and others whose bodies do not conform to our culture(s)’ notions of “normal” or “functional.”
This recognition that disability is in all human neighborhoods is in effect the future of disability activism.
It’s important to realize ally-ship requires a rejection of division by scarcity and the habits of history.
The second question relates to this. “Is there any learning that can be applied from the infrastructure changes that helped disabled people so much? How can those big sweeping reforms be applied to issues like sexism, racism and LBGTQ issues?”
I’m a big fan of a recent book entitled “Design Justice” by Sascha Costanza Chock. Design justice is built on the recognition that our built environment is not hospitable to diversity. The principles of the design justice movement are exactly on point with the question about infrastructure changes that benefit everyone. Professor Chock describes the goals of the movement:
1. We use design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities, as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive systems.
2. We center the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes of the design process.
3. We prioritize design’s impact on the community over the intentions of the designer.
4. We view change as emergent from an accountable, accessible, and collaborative process , rather than as a point at the end of a process.
5. We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert.
6. We believe that everyone is an expert based on their own lived experience , and that we all have unique and brilliant contributions to bring to a design process.
7. We share design knowledge and tools with our communities.
8. We work towards sustainable, community-led and controlled outcomes.
9.We work towards non-exploitative solutions that reconnect us to the earth and to each other.
10. Before seeking new design solutions, we look for what is already working at the community level. We honor and uplift traditional, indigenous, and local knowledge and practices.”
I think it’s possible to see that disability and a broader vision of human rights and inclusive communities is emerging and with insistence we can build accountable, accessible, and a collaborative society.
On a personal note many people are still suffering because we’re not “there” yet. As a boy and even in my twenties I tried to hide my blindness. I could scarcely see but tried to cover it up by pretending to be like everyone else. This was emotionally painful and physically impossible. Communities built on design justice will eliminate the need to make ourselves into people we can’t be.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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