uodsp: FW: Removing the Barriers to Participation for Disabled Scholars; Convention Arrangements

[Audrey Medina]

Hi all, I'm forwarding an article that came across the Ken Pope email list.
Let me know if you'd prefer that we only forward announcements to this DSI
list. Thanks very much.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Pope [mailto:ken at kenpope.com] 
Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2015 7:26 AM
To: Ken Pope
Subject: Removing the Barriers to Participation for Disabled Scholars;
Convention Arrangements

The *Chronicle of Higher Education* includes an article: "Removing the
Barriers to Participation for Disabled Scholars" by David Perry.

Here are some excerpts:

[begin excerpts]

We know academic conferences matter. When they are affordable and
meaningful, they provide opportunities to network, improve our CVs, and
allow those of us mired in teaching and bureaucracy to reconnect with our
scholarship. But not if you are disabled, in which case the barriers to full
participation are many, stubbornly hard to remove, and likely not even
visible to conference organizers.

If you know any disabled academics, then you almost certainly know someone
who has encountered obstacles at conferences. In the last month or so, I've
communicated with dozens of academics with all types of disabilities -
including wheelchair users, people with hearing or vision loss, and people
with intellectual disabilities like Autism and psychiatric disabilities such
as bipolar disorder. They all had many bad stories to tell about
accessibility at scholarly meetings, and those stories are especially worth
telling as we approach the 25th anniversary of the Americans with
Disabilities Act.

Some conference organizers just don't think about disability. Others are
outright prejudicial, dismissing these needs as imaginary or trivial.
Fortunately, there are people trying to make a difference by demonstrating
ways to make conferences accessible to all.

The core problem here is that conferences involve a set of normative
activities that most academics take for granted and feel are mandatory to
the enterprise. We go to new spaces, whether campuses, hotels, or convention
centers, and learn to navigate them quickly in order to find exhibit halls,
presentation spaces, food, lodging, and restrooms. We often must move
quickly from location to location. In sessions, we sit in rooms often with
bad lighting (either very dim or extremely bright). We listen to talks,
process information aurally, and look at images. We engage in both planned
and impromptu social networking, often over food or drinks, making our way
through loud and crowded reception areas.

Every one of those activities, and likely some I've missed, potentially
present accessibility challenges.

If we are willing to think about accessibility, however, solutions are
possible. I interviewed - over an Internet chat program for accessibility
reasons - Stephanie Kerschbaum and Margaret Price. Kerschbaum, who is deaf,
is...a disability studies scholar at the University of Delaware. Price, an
associate professor of English (rhetoric & composition) at Spelman College,
identifies as mentally disabled. In a column on the need for name badges at
job interviews, Price wrote, "I've received a range of DSM diagnoses,
including major depression, severe anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), agoraphobia, and borderline personality disorder." Both professors
agreed in this interview to disclose their disabilities.

In fact, disclosure of disability is a topic they study. Price is involved
with Composing Access, a website that evolved out of a tipsheet on making
conferences more accessible. In 2013, the two scholars organized a
conference on disclosure in higher education that many of the people I spoke
with for this essay described as the most accessible conference they had
ever encountered. 

<snip>

Both professors have personally experienced distinct barriers to
participation. Many meeting organizers, Price said, simply refuse to
consider simple accommodations even when asked, as if somehow their
conference format is inviolate. "We've heard an amazing array of reasons and
excuses for not doing simple things toward access," she said. "People will
come up with the most creative rationales for showing images without
describing them."

Another simple accommodation for someone who is deaf, like Kerschbaum, would
be to provide a printed copy of a paper (especially at small conferences
where hiring interpreters might prove too expensive) that's being read
aloud. I get why. My conference papers are usually works in progress and the
idea of handing out a permanent copy to someone, especially a stranger,
makes me uncomfortable. But my comfort is not more important than someone's
ability to participate fully in the conference.

For Price, the problem is that too many academics simply don't understand
that her needs are real. "When I advocate for my own needs at conferences,"
she said, "I often find that the needs themselves are ridiculed or
dismissed" - with people telling things like: "Well, everyone needs rest,"
or "Well, no one likes crowds. We just have to deal with it."

I heard much the same comment from many other people with hidden
disabilities for whom the need for a quiet space wasn't just a preference,
but a mandatory accommodation in order to make participation at the meeting
possible.

<snip>

In setting up the format of the disclosure conference, the organizers sought
to build access, as Kerschbaum said, into the "infrastructure of the
conference (financially - by sponsoring interpreting, captioning, and other
access moves that can be expensive)." The idea was to set up the meeting in
such a way that participants would be able to be responsible for managing
their own access needs. That way, the full burden of accessibility didn't
fall on the organizers. The whole culture of the conference changed, and
everyone took some responsibility.

That was critical when, as happens, one person's accommodation becomes
another person's barrier to inclusion.

<snip>

There is no simple list of rules a conference organizer can follow that will
resolve these issues for all participants equally. The key is to be
flexible, to make accessibility a priority, and make it clear that attendees
should feel comfortable asking for what they need.

<snip>

The Society for Disability Studies (SDS) works very hard at accessibility
and this year launched DAFT: the Digital Access Facilitation Team. DAFT was
intended to make the annual SDS conference accessible to people who could
not be physically present. 

Other good models can be found outside academia, including the feminist
science-fiction convention WisCon and its emphasis on universal design in
all its complexities.

Last October, I hosted a successful conference at my university that
attracted 50 participants. Despite being a disability-rights advocate and
journalist myself, it never occurred to me to think about accessibility at
my own event, and I'm ashamed of that now. My website had no accessibility
statement, not even the bare minimum inviting attendees to contact me to
request accommodations. I can and will do better. I suspect your scholarly
organizations, whatever they are, can do better, too.

Disability is diverse. For the deaf participant, access to the spoken text
is critical. 

The wheelchair user may be more concerned with ample time to move from
session to session and the need for clearly -indicated accessible restrooms.


Another person may need a designated quiet space or a safe way to signal
that they are not able to engage in casual chit-chat. 

That diversity is a strength. It may take some creativity to make your
conference accessible, but the first two steps are easy:

1) Make it known that accessibility is a priority.

2) Then listen when disabled people tell you what they need.

The article is online at:
<http://bit.ly/KenPopeAccessibilityForDisabledScholars>

Ken Pope

DISABILITY RESOURCES IN PSYCHOLOGY TRAINING & PRACTICE:
<http://kpope.com>

"[T]he good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating
in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our
common life."
--Jane Addams (1860-1935), founder of U.S. social work profession, women's
suffrage leader, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize  


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