4/9/25 - Fake accessibility, disability and death, fashion and identity
I am finally getting around to planning for some kind of biweekly or monthly stand-alone post, just for this newsletter, by me and maybe eventually some guest writers, on disability issues and ideas. If you have any thoughts on this, please let me know in the comments, or by email at: apulrang@icloud.com.
The Dangers of Fake Accessibility Efforts
Christiane Link, The Accessible Link - April 8, 2025
"It's worse to pretend to care about accessibility than to do nothing at all. This fake effort is harmful because it makes organisations and their stakeholders believe the organisation is making a difference when they aren't. It also silences disabled people who want to participate in society, use services and live an equal life. When they raise concerns, they are often told that something has already been done - the performative action - even if there wasn't any real change."
The context here is transportation agencies in the United Kingdom. But the concerns apply just as well to a broad range of efforts focused on disability "awareness," "inclusion," and "accessibility," basically anywhere. This is one of the reasons why at least some disability activists don't like "disability awareness" initiatives and events. Talking about disability issues is important. And quite often, what people don't know about disability can hurt us. But "greater awareness" isn't a substitute for lasting changes in laws, regulations, and practices when they are needed to make disabled people's lives better, fairer, and freer. And lightweight, one-off discussions about disability within a company or public agency can and often are cynically used as a cover for inaction.
Actually, the Dead Do Care
Alex Green, (Un)Hidden: Disability Histories and Our World - March 16, 2025
"And that’s why we have to look at these places, including institutions, prisons, the health system, and schools, where death isn’t just a natural consequence of being alive as a disabled person, it’s a hurried along prospect—whether that be thanks to family, friends, governments, co-workers, psychiatrists, or others—because disabled lives are so often seen as not worth living. How many times have you seen an in-memoriam that says, “We hope he’s up there, as in life, slamming into everything that isn’t bolted down in his wheelchair?” Never. Instead we get wording that death frees someone from their wheelchair or “cures: them of their autism. Too often, we are not given the dignity of being our full selves in death after already being denied it when our hearts were still beating."
Many of us who have disabilities think about death all the time. But in a way, maybe we don't think about it or talk about it enough. How do we process our feelings when disabled people we know – personally or by reputation – die? How did our place in society change when the COVID pandemic revealed how expendable we seem to be in some other people's eyes? What was being disabled like before modern medicine, when far more of us died young, or barely even lived? How do we really feel when people around us talk about death as some kind of blessing or liberation for disabled people? How do we sort out our personal feelings about "assisted suicide" or "medicaid aid in death" from what we think public policy should be on this issue? There's a lot to think about aside from our own day to day survival and mortality.
Fashion, identity, and the need for community
Sinéad Burke, Wellcome Collection - March 18, 2025
Source: Rebecca Cokley’s Facebook page
"I deliberately picked clothes to portray my professionalism, or that showed I wasn’t a child, despite only being able to shop for kids’ shoes. Clothes became a way to code-switch, to tell people who I was, not despite my disability, but because of it. While I fell in love with fashion’s potential for storytelling, it became clear early on that fashion did not love me back."
I often wonder how my teen and adult life would have been different if I had the opportunity to explore quality clothes, smartly assembled with me and for me. I sure could have used a fashion mentor like Sinéad Burke.
Action Alerts
Opportunities to take action on disability issues ...
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