Why Embarking on Accessibility Work in the Digital Rights Community is Important
Karen Reilly is our new accessibility consultant and will be working on improving our online entities, as well as creating educational materials on accessibility for the broader digital rights and Internet Freedom Community.
The global pandemic has highlighted many inequalities, and they all intersect with justice for people with disabilities. Most recently, disability activists have been fighting to be heard in discussions about access to medical care. It has been tough to watch politicians and journalists debate about the value of someone's life based on age, chronic illness, or developmental disabilities. This is even more alarming when one considers how national origin, race, gender, and socio-economic status impact who ends up with a disability, and whether a disability cuts off access to education, jobs, and full participation in a community.
During the pandemic, while the Internet Freedom and digital rights community has been debating how technology is being used by governments in their healthcare goals, there was a visible lack of contribution to these conversations from people with disabilities, who would have tremendously enriched our analysis. Part of this is because they have been left out of our community spaces, whether intentionally or not.
Digital Rights Intersects with Disability Activism
As digital rights defenders, we need to be aware of how our work intersects with disability activism, considering the role technology plays in this community. Unfortunately, most technology-focused activists aren’t as aware as they could be, and currently lack a nuanced understanding of how disability issues and surveillance intersect. Take, for example, wearable healthtech.
To a non-disabled person, it may offer nothing more than privacy violations. However, to someone with a chronic illness, it may offer evidence of symptoms that a doctor isn’t taking seriously based on a patient’s words alone. This doesn’t mean that disabled activists are advocating for widespread surveillance. In fact, they understand surveillance all too well considering that insurance companies go as far as hiring private detectives to follow them in an attempt to find excuses to deny insurance claims. However, wearable healthtech is like any other technology tool we use, it can help or harm you depending on who has access to your data.
There are many reasons why digital activism should include disabled people, but the pandemic made it clear that accessibility needs to be center to all of our work. Not only is it the right thing to do in regards to our inclusivity and equity goals, but it also adds a wealth of knowledge and experience that enhances all of our work. I have to say that as a disabled person, it has been frustrating to see the recent shift on remote access and accessibility as a reaction to the needs of non-disabled and neuro-typical people. However, recognizing this disparity can present an opportunity to build better spaces and tools, and better include people who have needed remote access all along.
Important Accessibility Facts for Community Organizers
The following are important facts we should all be aware of, so that we can improve our community spaces.
Between 15% to 25% of people in the world have one or more disabilities. A lack of accessibility leaves many people behind, and it’s not always easy to tell who is missing.
Conferences should have information about accessibility on their event pages. It can take a lot of energy and time to ask for accessibility from conference organizers who make excuses. It's disappointing to get many signals that you are not welcome in a community because of neuro- diversity, different ways of communicating, or disability.
Conference organizers may not be able to plan for every accessibility need, but showing that thought is going into accessibility shows that the chances are higher that someone is willing to find a way to meet some needs they had not thought of before.
Not all disabilities are visible. People without disabilities often have a picture in their mind of what a disabled person looks like, and their reaction to someone with a less visible disability can range from annoying disbelief to dangerous harassment. It's much better to be reassured that conference organizers are aware that a lack of visibility doesn't mean a lack of disability. People can need support with mobility without having visible mobility aids like braces, crutches, or a wheelchair.
Mandatory accessibility features for some people, like captions, can make conferences and websites more enjoyable for a lot of people. People who speak multiple languages can benefit from captions. For some people it is easier to follow spoken content if they can follow along with captions. Using the captions to make a transcript can help people with lower energy levels to catch up, whether they have a chronic illness or were jetlagged that day. Having microphones in a room can help whether you are hard of hearing or are just far away from the person speaking.
Not all disabilities are permanent. Injury or illness can change your support needs at the last minute, in ways you may not expect. Disabilities and chronic conditions can change from day to day. Ambulatory wheelchair users, people who use wheelchairs to save energy or deal with changing pain and mobility levels, are one example of how disabilities aren’t static.
Because disability justice starts with acknowledging that there should be "nothing about us without us," we are now working with an Accessibility Lead who has been using technology for accessibility for over two decades. We are also acknowledging that having one or more disabilities does not mean understanding all disabilities. So this is an invitation. If something we do is inaccessible, please let us know. Are there things you wish the Internet Freedom community knew about accessibility? Let’s start some discussions!