P is for pride! You’re two-thirds of the way through the alphabet! What have you learned so far? Where can you use your voice? How do you understand our ableist world better? Today is the 31st anniversary of the ADA. Do you think we have accessible parity?
P is for privilege. We all have privilege of some kind, which goes hand-in-hand with intersectionality. Though I don’t have health privilege or financial privilege, I have the privilege of being a white woman with good healthcare, a loud voice, and education privilege. As a white woman in the medical system, I choose to use my privilege to point out untenable situations as much as possible and stick with that issue even after my problem is solved. I use my privilege to make changes. Another example of using your privilege would be complaining about an inaccessible situation as an able-bodied person.
Here’s an exercise for you: The next time you go to the store, take a walk from accessible parking to get a cart. Do you have to open any doors that don’t have an accessible button? Are there curb cuts so you can get inside the store? Can you visit the bathroom without needing help to open the door if you were in a wheelchair? How are the aisles? What do you notice?
P is also for pandemic. People with disabilities have had an interesting time during this global pandemic.
I’ll paint a picture for you:
You’ve got a job where you go into the office every single day. This involves putting on a face, wearing uncomfortable clothing, sitting in a chair that’s not designed for you, and dealing with temperature fluctuations from room to room. There are three snacks you aren’t allergic to so you have to bring all of your meals and never participate in “team lunches” because no one has ever listened when you’ve told them there’s nothing you can eat. At one conference, you literally eat plain lettuce and plain potatoes for 8 meals in a row. The air conditioning makes you sneeze and you catch e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g from your coworkers who come to work while not feeling well.
You have nowhere to go take a phone call about your latest test results. You can’t make it to therapy because it’s 20 miles from the office, and when you are having a bad pain day you stay home because your desk chair and the wild temperature fluctuations make everything worse, all the time.
Your boss is okay with you having so many doctors’ appointments but wants you to put them on a shared calendar so everyone knows when you’re not available. You spend all of your energy on work: getting there, staying there, doing the work, coming home, and recharging until you do it all over again. On the weekends, you just sleep to prepare for the next week of work. You are your job and cannot fully care for yourself. You get sick frequently and can’t keep up with self-care.
Then, a global pandemic hits, and suddenly all of the accommodations you’ve been asking for are given freely to people who have never asked and never needed anything before now. All of your meetings are virtual, camera optional. Conferences move online. Your apartment always has your favorite snacks and no one asks you if you are feeling okay because…you actually are. You haven’t had a cold in 19 months and have taken three sick days over the last 19 months. Previously, you had three or more sick days per month. You feel safe at home and like you can care for yourself. You develop a social life and are able to not only care for yourself, but participate in things outside of work other than sleeping.
How do privilege and the pandemic interact with each other?
P is also for pay disparity. Check out this article from the U.S. Census on pay disparity for people with disabilities: and this piece on how and why it is still legal to pay people with disabilities below minimum wage.