Accessibility Is Not "A Nice Thing To Do"
A few years ago I was in New York City with my mom and my sister and we were going to see the ballet. I had just come back from my first Society For Disability Studies conference and I was growing to be more aware of how the world perceived me as a disabled person. As we were going to our seats, a lady in front of me turned to me and said, "you know they have to take out two regular seats for one accessible seat, it is such a nice thing for them to do. Something about that conversation made me uncomfortable in the moment, and it is stuck with me all of these years, but I could not quite put my finger on it until after the recent blizzard.
Trying to get around DC after the blizzard has been quite difficult as a wheelchair user because even though most of the sidewalks are now shoveled, many of the curb cuts are still covered. When I hear conversations around making sure the curb cuts are free of snow, I often hear people encouraging others to shovel the curb cuts because it is a nice thing to do. That is true I guess, it is a nice thing to do, and I am eternally grateful for everyone who has ever shoveled a curb cut and made my day a little easier, but there is another side to that reality and it is something really important to talk about.
The truth is, accessibility is not "a nice thing to do". Accessibility is a necessity. Even more than that accessibility is a right. When we frame access and accessibility as "a nice thing to do" it becomes an act of charity, and even an afterthought. When we talk about accessibility as an act of kindness or a nicety we eliminate its absolute necessity. It is absolutely nice for a stranger to shovel a curb cut to help somebody out, but the actual act of having a clear curb cut to use is so much more than a nice thing, it is an absolute requirement for many disabled people to go about living their daily lives. Without shoveled curb cuts I would not be able to get to work. Without shoveled curb cuts I would not even be able to leave my apartment complex.
Having an accessible shower in a hotel room or an accessible bathroom in a public place is not merely a nice bonus, it is the very thing that allows me to live my life with the same dignity that everyone else naturally expects. Doorways that are wide enough for my wheelchair to go through, elevators, and ramps are not nice conveniences that make everyday life a little easier, not for me.
For me, they go so far beyond that. They are the reason that I am able to exist in the world outside of my home. They allow me to be a fuller part of our society, so in that sense of course I am grateful for them, but I do not think of them as nice things because I know the truth. I know that ramps, accessible bathrooms, accessible buses, curb cuts, and many more things people today often take for granted do not exist because of niceness.
Accessibility is not kindness, and access is not charity. These things were hard-fought and won by activists and advocates who chained themselves to buses and crawled up the steps of the Capitol building. Access is not niceness, and it is not a gift, it is a war with countless battles whose victory is still incomplete. Public transportation is still not fully accessible. Accessible taxis are a dream still left unrealized in most of the world. Accessible housing is difficult if not impossible to find. There are still many buildings, even in this great nation's capital that I cannot access as a disabled person. When we think of accessibility as "a nice thing to do”, we ignore the reality of life for many disabled people.
We do not think of general snow removal, access to public transportation, or access to public restrooms as nice things to have or nice things to do, we expect them. We do not think of the ability to access sidewalks or enter buildings as a courtesy or privilege, they are a right. Why should that be any different for disabled people? My disability does not stop me from having the as right to move about freely in the world. When we think of access as nothing more than a nice thing to do we not only forget how much it affects the daily lives of so many people, but we also degrade the value of those lives.
Disabled people have as much right to access the world as non-disabled people, and making sure that this is possible should never be considered charity, or simply a nice thing to do, it should be a priority. When it comes to blizzards , removing snow from curb cuts should not be left to concerned citizens, or nothing more than an after thought.
Access should be an absolutely unforgettable part of the protocol, not "a nice thing to do,"
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Image description: a curb cut leading in to a mound of snow]