Disability Activism Accessibility Introduction to Disability Studies 230

Disability Activism & Accessibility Introduction to Disability Studies 230 November 9, 2020 Joanne Woiak

Agenda • Disability rights activism • Section 504 protest in 1977 • How did the activists frame the problem of disability discrimination? • How was the political action mobilized? • Who is represented & who is not, in telling this history? • Disability accessibility • • Americans with Disabilities Act: successes and gaps Questions about accessibility and accommodations Universal Design Collective Access

1964 Civil Rights Act • The law barred discrimination in public life based on race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender. • voting, access to businesses, schooling, employment, federally funded agencies… • Why was disability NOT included among the protected groups? • Francis & Silvers chapter on the history of the Americans with Disabilities Act • Political reasons • Single-issue politics vs. “watered down” – compromise other efforts • Perception of costs $ to create accessibility • Conceptual reasons (next slide)

Conceptual barriers to disability rights (Francis & Silvers) • Disability as tragedy, individual, medical problem – not as a minoritized & oppressed group. • To include disability “would transform the goal from creating opportunities for socially exploited people to providing assistance for naturally unfit people… Some of the affirmative measures required to remedy…were not encompassed by traditional civil rights standards. ” • History of how disability was used to disqualify people of color and women from citizenship rights, and how minoritized groups disavowed disability: we are normal so we deserve rights. • “Civil rights advocates emphasized the similarities of excluded people to the dominant class… in order to highlight the arbitrariness of their exclusion. But disabled people require that their differences by acknowledged and accommodated. ”

Reclaiming disability “These legislative coups would not have been possible without activists’, artists’, and scholars’ insistence on new ways of considering disability. ” • P. Auslander & C. Sandahl, Bodies in Commotion, 2005

Section 504: Enacting disability rights The first US federal disability rights law was Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. • Prevent any qualified disabled person from being discriminated against or excluded from participating in any program that receives federal funds • E. g. accessible buildings, jobs, schools, health care • Political organizing & coalition building • 1977 sit-in protest for 26 days in San Francisco federal building

Disability activism: representing the 1977 sit-in • Official documentary from archival footage (18 minutes), “The Power of 504” • An alternative telling on Drunk History, “Judy Heumann fights for people with disabilities” • Crip Camp (2020) • Featuring Judy Heumann

Framing disability rights in the 1970 s: race & disability analogies • Susan Schweik, “Lomax’s Matrix: Disability, Solidarity, and the Black Power of 504” • Frames provide meaningful reasons for why a social movement’s demands are valid. • The Section 504 organizers drew upon the successful civil rights movement tradition: • Singing “We Shall Overcome” • Rhetoric of rejecting the doctrine of “separate but equal” • Imagery of chains & “going to be set free”

Mobilizing disability rights in the 1970 s: intersectional activism • Mobilizing a social movement • Cross-disabilities • Complex coalition of additional activists & causes who made the protest successful • Black disabled activist Brad Lomax a leader at 504 sit-in • Identity differed from the “severely-abled” image of the Black Panther Party • Photo of Huey Newton • Black Panther Party & disability activism • Worked together on Center for Independent Living, health activism • BPP model & knowledge of political (militant) activism

Framing a movement: Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) & the concept of dependency • If people morally “deserve” rights on the grounds they can be productive citizens, then who perhaps does not qualify for rights or have their rights respected? • If to become a full citizen (qualify for rights) it will cost society “extra, ” then are rights thought to be a form of charity rather than equality?

Americans with Disabilities Act (1990): legislative history & purpose • Grassroots lobbying for years by 180 disability groups • Including ADAPT Capitol Crawl • Bipartisan support • House vote 377 -28; Senate 91 -6 • Signed into federal law July 26, 1990 • “The continuing existence of discrimination denies PWD opportunity to compete on an equal basis and pursue opportunities for which our free society is justifiably famous, and costs the US billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses resulting from dependency and non-productivity. ”

Americans with Disabilities Act: protections & remedies Title I: employment • Reasonable accommodation for persons otherwise qualified to perform essential functions of the job. • Modify facilities, hours, equipment. . . • Only if “readily achievable” (not expensive) • Complaints with EEOC, or federal court (DOJ) Title II: public services, programs, transport • State and local government (504 covers federal) • Complaints DOJ, DOT, private lawsuit Title III: private entities accommodation & services • Reasonable modifications of facilities and services; provide in the “most integrated setting appropriate” • All new construction must be accessible • Litigation by DOJ (few cases) or private lawsuit (no monetary damages)

Limits of the ADA as protection against discrimination • More power held by the covered entities, than by the protected class • Key language: • • “reasonable modification, ” “readily achievable” “undue burden”… Employer determines “essential functions of the job” Therefore, who has power and what messages are sent about disability? • Enforcement is case by case through the courts • Not proactive. Depends on disabled person taking action to defend their rights. • Variable rulings, many major ones have narrowed the protected class.

1999 -2002 court cases narrowed the ADA’s protections • Sutton v. United Airlines • Pilots who are myopic • Employer’s policies say they are too disabled to fly • but Supreme Court says since they wear glasses, they are not disabled enough for ADA protection. • Toyota v. Williams • Carpal tunnel syndrome • She claims the employer fired her for having the condition – affected her job performance • but Supreme Court rules that since she can still do “everyday activities, ” she is not disabled enough for ADA.

Successes of the Disability Rights Movement • Many civil rights protections, such as • Access to education, public transport, employment… • Independent living movement • Centers for Independent Living (Seattle – Alliance of People with dis. Abilities) • Disability service agencies, such as • Vocational rehab • Higher education offices of student disability services

But what are some limits of Disability Rights? • Leaves out people who cannot access rights through the legal system. • Most often centers people with mobility disabilities, marginalizing others. • Doesn’t include other ways disabled people experience oppression besides ableism.

N. Kagendo Mutua, “The Semiotics of Accessibility & the Cultural Construction of Disability” • Meanings of the ramp sign 1. Access enter here 2. Accessibility US as a society grants & values access 3. “Sense of censored access” Restricted freedoms, inconvenience, confinement (p. 111) • • What does the ramp at the rear of the building signify to “majority culture”? What does it signify to a person with a mobility disability? Why does she compare Kenya with the US, regarding disability rights and accessibility? Who holds power & resources to “command an audience”(p. 106) for their needs & definition of access?

Accessibility on/of our campus and our teaching Think of examples to answer each of these questions: 1. Your physical path (travel) to UW or a classroom: • What disadvantages did you face? • In what ways was it relatively easy for you (privileges)? 2. A teaching method or classroom set-up you’ve experienced: • Who benefits from it – who is included? • To whom is it not accessible – they are excluded or restricted?

Disability accommodations at UW Seattle • 2014 total campus enrollment: 45, 000 • Estimate of how many UW students identified as disabled: • 7% (3150) - though nationally figures are 10 -11% • How many were registered with Disability Resources for Students for approved accommodations with medical documentation: • 3% of UW students (1350) • DRS info 2020: serving over 2, 400 students “In addition to serving students with physical and sensory disabilities, DRS works with students who have: • Psychological diagnoses such as Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar, or PTSD • Learning disabilities such as ADHD or Dyslexia • Chronic health conditions such as HIV, cancer, traumatic brain injuries, food allergies or diabetes”

The accommodations approach to accessibility • Non-discrimination requires allowing “reasonable” modifications/exceptions/alternatives to those who need them. • Problems: • Accommodations can be stigmatizing. • Still focuses on gatekeeping - fit the protected category. • Prove you are “disabled” (or disabled “enough”) to be eligible.

Reactions to these campus accommodations?

How to ensure equity and accessibility? • If a rights-based approach and an accommodations-based approach to inclusion of disabled people in society have limitations, what alternatives and/or supplements can you imagine?

Our syllabus policies on access & accommodations • This building is not kept scent-free. Please do not wear fragranced products to class, in order to keep the space more accessible to those with chemical injury or multiple chemical sensitivity. • The instructor is trying to create an inclusive learning environment. If you anticipate or encounter barriers participating or demonstrating your learning because of any aspect of how the course is taught, I encourage you to contact me as soon as possible so that we can discuss options for accommodations and/or modifications. • We can work in conjunction with Disability Resources for Students (011 MGH, 206 -543 -8924/V, 206 -543 -8925/TTY, uwdrs@uw. edu). • Note that while this is directly applicable to students who are registered with DRS, you do not need to disclose a disability or provide an accommodations letter to discuss modifications. Please feel free to talk with me about any aspect of accommodations or accessibility.

Privilege: advantages experienced because of one’s social identities • Unearned advantages • “Myth of meritocracy” • Peggy Mc. Intosh: “invisible knapsack” of daily things you don’t have to think about when you have privilege • Conferred dominance • Systematic process by which those presumed to be part of the dominant group all gain those advantages • Mc. Intosh: “‘white’ skin in the US opens many doors for whites whether or not we approve of the way dominance has been conferred on us. ”

Privilege: “the system is set up that way” • Nondisabled people don’t have to think about how the system is set up, how the environment built, how society is organized. • Taken for granted as “natural” ways to do things. • E. g. stairs vs. ramps • Could society be organized so that more/most people don’t have to think about it? • Don’t have to request accommodations or other modifications to standard ways of doing things?

The concept of Universal Design • “All new environments and products, to the greatest extent possible, should be usable by everyone without the need for adaptation or specialized design. ” • North Carolina State Center for Universal Design • UW DO-IT • If everything were designed at the outset to be accessible across a full range of human difference, rather than fixing it later: • No/fewer accommodations would be needed. • Eliminate the distinction between disabled and nondisabled by creating environments that don’t disadvantage anyone (don’t segregate users). • Some of the principles: offer flexibility, multiple ways of doing a task, multiple modes of presentation.

Universal Design: features that respond to specific needs can also mean improved access for everyone • OXO brand Good Grips • based on Universal Design • originated by a disabled person & her designer spouse • What other examples can you think of? Who has their access improved by it?

Universal Design: some problems • What if different needs conflict? Does one size fit all? • Will a focus on UD detract from the availability of accommodations for those who need them? • Do disabled people get to participate in the design phases? • Does the rhetoric or practice of UD let society off the hook? • Compare: illusion of the “post-racial society”

Disability Justice: principle of Collective Access • Not shameful to have access needs • Disability is diversity • Collective Access is sharing responsibility for creating accessibility • Including when larger systems fail to do so • Mutual aid within a community • Care networks • Our current system is profit driven, intended to benefit the few and exploit the many • Disability Justice understands that we need to dream together of another system where all of our minds and bodies are valued.

Mia Mingus, “Changing the Framework: Disability Justice” • “How Our Communities Can Move Beyond Access to Wholeness” Accessibility is concrete resistance to the isolation of disabled people. Accessibility is nothing new, and we can work to understand access in a broad way, encompassing class, language, childcare, gender-neutral bathrooms as a start…. As organizers, we need to think of access with an understanding of disability justice, moving away from an equality-based model of sameness and “we are just like you” to a model of disability that embraces difference, confronts privilege and challenges what is considered “normal” on every front. We don’t want to simply join the ranks of the privileged; we want to dismantle those ranks and the systems that maintain them.

Mia Mingus, collective access & interdependence, continued • “How Our Communities Can Move Beyond Access to Wholeness” … we want to question a culture that makes inaccessibility even possible. Just because disabled people are in the room doesn’t mean there is no ableism… With disability justice, we want to move away from the “myth of independence, ” that everyone can and should be able to do everything on their own. I am not fighting for independence, as much of the disability rights movement rallies behind. I am fighting for an interdependence that embraces need and tells the truth: no one does it on their own and the myth of independence is just that, a myth.