There was one discordant note to the Reclaim the Night march I went to last Thursday. The organisers had done a really good job of planning the after party. There was food, and a space for a debrief, as well as performers and a party.
My problem was that the bar was on two levels, and the food and debrief part of the after-party was up a steep flight of stairs.
I say ‘my problem’ of course it wasn’t actually my problem. My legs take me up and downstairs with relative ease – and I jumped straight in to help set-up the food. It wasn’t even really a problem for my friend Betsy, although stairs are an obstacle for her.
The women for whom that flight of stairs would have been a problem weren’t there in the first place.
I’ve been struggling with accessibility in activist movements, and where my limits are, for as long as I’ve been an activist. Most groups I know aren’t in a financial position where they can pay to hire space, so we meet wherever we can get a free room. Sometimes, but not always, that’s been accessible. Sometimes, but not always, I’ve objected.
But I’m limited when arguing for accessible spaces, because I know it’s not arguments that convinced me, it’s experience. It’s because for years my friend Betsy couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs. Where we went for coffee, where we went for a drink, where we went to the movies, where we bought CDs, whose flat we met up at – these decisions were all influenced by the number of steps in front of the building. I see a set of steps and part of me notices it as an obstacle.
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The women for whom that flight of stairs would have been a problem weren’t there in the first place.
Thanks for the post, and for noting the above. I firmly believe that access issues for those who use wheelchairs or have trouble walking won’t become rare until nondisabled people begin to refuse to use inaccessible venues. If you can’t get there to protest the inaccessibility, someone has to be the ally.
What Bean says also works for Deaf folks and interpreters. Another expense, of course, unless you can find an ASL interpreter eager to join your cause. But outreach like this significantly expands the idea of what “taking back the night” means, I think.
More generally, from my college experiences in organizing rallies and protests and such, I found amazing allies in local union organizations, though it was they who were bright enough to approach us to expand their reach, not the other way around.
Those are really good ideas – I suspect we generally have a smaller organised groups than you’d have in similar sized cities in larger countries, but we do have the advantage of being in the capital, which would be the easiest place to make contact.
One of the problems I have with this, is that marches are fundamentally inaccesible events. It’s hard to push for the organising meetings, or after-party be accessible, when you know the event itself may not be.
I was thinking of trying to organise something like – if you can’t walk that distance then we’ll provide transport. Either take a truck (which can have it’s own uses), or wheelchairs. Obviously this would be for people who usually use crutches or can’t walk long-distances, because people who use wheelchairs will have less problem with the march and more problems with the steps.