I don't know if two articles qualify as a "PR blitz" yet, but this is the 2nd article I've seen in 2 weeks interviewing disability cops in higher ed about "what disabled students need", which is actually about what abled-led institutions choose to require.
It is likely not just a coincidence that these articles are coming out in June...not just because of freshmen students preparing for Fall, but because the 34th Anniversary of ADA is coming on July 26.
Abled-led news media fails us all by not talking to disabled advocates & activists about #ableism in Higher Ed. @disability
Such BS...how can you do research that doesn't question whether the way accessibility is currently being offered is the problem?
This reads more like "Given that we don't want to follow legal bare minimums, how can we put the onus on disabled people & blame them when they 'fall short' as intended?"
A mistake many people make is thinking that ADA can only be met through offices of rationing & policing. No. That is how the ableists running UC choose to deny accessibility as the default and make ppl have to beg & eventually sue for accessibility.
Pushing for more funding for these offices is still granting their premise that doing things this way is being accessible to the public that funds UC. It isn't. #Ableism#Disability#UCAccessNow@academicchatter
🧵 What is this? After pushing UC for 4 years now to quit designing buildings where inaccessibility is the default, a main entrance to a building is wheelchair accessible?
Ah, there's the UC Davis we know. Unnecessary steps because you weren't specifically PAID to do your duty under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act nor to actually make a public university accessible to the public.
🧵 Even before I formed @ucaccessnow, I persisted through campus channels trying to get them to acknowledge that cycle racks ALSO have to be accessible, not car parking spaces. After months of brick walls with UC and my union, I got a meeting with the head of UC Davis TAPS, who
proposed that instead of making all cycle racks accessible, I give them a list of my classes & they'd install accessible racks with "blue badges" at each bldg I had a class in.
I told them this was not a sensible solution. Not only would my classes likely be in different bldgs each quarter, making an inefficient use of funds & labor doing bespoke installations, but abled ppl (often NCAA athletes!) 2/? #UCAccessNow#Accessibility#Cycling#CycleParkingAudit
with upright bikes these racks were ostensibly made for, prefer the end spaces and take them first. They prefer the end spaces because these racks aren't even good for the bikes they prioritized: narrow upright bikes for typical-sized adults.
The inaccessibility of the cycle infrastructure at UC Davis was only one of many ableisms here & I went on to form UC Access Now, release the Demandifesto, and #UCAccessNow#Accessibility#Cycling#CycleParkingAudit
launch a form so coalition members & supporters throughout UC could pressure the Governor, the Board of Regents, and every UC chancellor to finally make the University of California accessible to the public that built it - including disabled ppl.
UC has stonewalled every step of the way. It has cherrypicked ideas from the Demandifesto and from our activism, implemented them without working with us
Worse, non-activist disability groups within UC are pulled in to give it the veneer of being UC just happens to be doing for the disabled community at UC and some folks within the disability community have been happy to take credit for UC Access Now's work and put UC's approval on their CV.
This is UC strategy. Ableist power does not want student-led activism to get credit or it will beget more.
Rationing out the space is both ableist and car-centrist. It says that disabled people's needs are "special" and must be rationed & policed by the university's Disabled Students Center & Disability Management Services and UC Davis TAPS...not that UC has multiple legal and moral obligations to make things accessible by default.
It also says that space must be maximized for drivers -
not only untold square yds of dedicated single story auto parking space, but UC Davis driving employees parking on sidewalks blocking egress to & from bldgs simply because the abled drivers of air-conditioned vehicles want to park them in the shade of trees or don't want to walk 15 feet further to legal safe parking.
This is the 3rd installation of more accessible (but still not the equitable solution) cycle racks at UC Davis that I know of.
IT IS DUE to work I & later UC Access Now did.
UC Davis TAPS has never notified me when these are installed nor credited my work as the impetus. They would not have installed these without a lot of hard work (including the damage to my health) from me.
This is why I & @ucaccessnow want all cycle racks to be accessible designs, accessibly sited. Here we have a twofer - for-profit micromobility that was given carte blanche on campus & in town without offering accessible vehicles nor a just plan for dealing with bad actors...like the people who parked at the new rationed "oversized cycle parking only" racks.
On the same trip, saw SPIN cycles dumped in the middle of the mixed-use path, parked at the end spots which are the only spots on these inaccessible #DavisCA racks where trikes, quads, and bakfiets can fit, and parked blocking egress from disabled auto spaces.
Don't ration accessibility; it's nearly guaranteed selfish people & corporations will take it. Build everything as accessible as possible.
Compare the speed with which businesses & institutions are adopting AI (despite its inaccuracy and lack of ethical provenance) to the footdragging that makes businesses & institutions inaccessible even 34 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law.
I don't want to hear a fucking word about accessibility being an "undue hardship" ever again.
University of California is holding its annual survey of undergraduates. It surveys on several subjects, including "campus climate for diversity and inclusiveness". This is especially important for disabled undergrads to weigh in on, IMO. If there are freeform comment fields, make sure to fill them with anything you want them to know that they're NOT asking you about.
This excerpt from a DEI survey shows the attitude: In their view, it's not up to the university or the department to do the work to be as accessible as they can be by default (highest common denominator accessibility). It's up to the disabled person to take on the labor of fighting for our rights and they'll "accommodate" us if we take it up the chain (they don't).
Even the word "accommodation" betrays that they like inaccessibility to be the norm, from which they may occasionally deviate if you do the work, fill out the forms, and beg.
I took a ride later today than usual. At least part of it was in the dark. I wish I'd known we were this close to the Coffee Center on campus opening. I'd love to have brought some UC Access Now labels to helpfully point out the ways this new building's infrastructure is still inaccessible. #UCAccessNow#Ableism@disability
UC's attitude towards disabled people is clear in things like this.
This July will mark 34 years since ADA became law. UC doesn't do bare minimum compliance (not full accessibility & inclusion, just legal compliance) until they decide they need to do seismic upgrades. Then "ADA compliance" is piggybacked on that.
It's the very last thing listed. Whoop-de-doo, ADA "compliant" restrooms.
Are there places in the Fediverse where folks who are longtime disabled (i.e. having done some of the work of dismantling their internalized ableism) who are into pan-disability activism are hanging out exchanging ideas and tactics?
Most of what I see is discussion within silos of one's own disability group (ME, blindness, autism, etc.) and or COVID discussion [all of which is great, but I'm looking for more pan-disability stuff to supplement]
At least 3 things missing from UC's Global Accessibility Awareness Day event:
The idea that there's any accessibility issues beyond the type digital technology tools could potentially help with
and
Actual diversely disabled UC community leading the event.
Statement up front as to what accessible options are available for this event.
Keeping the emphasis on digital tools allows abled people to continue their hegemony by simply training to be "experts" on accessibility, keeping jobs & control in abled hands. It allows UC to keep refusing to hire human captioners, human notetakers, as well as keep NOT addressing making things as accessible as possible as the default at UC.