Making spaces
accessible to people with invisible disabilities:
While others have covered making spaces accessible to people
with physical disabilities, I want to tackle the invisible ones. Many people in our society live with
invisible disabilities. In the US alone
it is estimated that 10% of people are living with an invisible disability and
96% of people with a chronic illness are living with a disability. This means that more then likely you know
someone who has one.
Examples are, but are not limited
to:
|
Arachnoiditis
Lupus
Epilepsy
|
Personality
disorders
Primary
immunodeficiency
Psychiatric
disabilities
Reflex
Sympathetic Dystrophy
Repetitive
stress injuries
Temporomandibular
joint disorder
Transverse
Myelitis
Ulcerative
Colitis.
|
Let’s start
with the easy stuff:
Do not judge people by
their disability. We are not our
illness.
Have seating available. I
have been to so many activist meetings that have “floor only” seating and on a
“first come first served” basis. Have
chairs available, and a variety from hard surfaces to cushy ones and make sure
people know that they’re not “first come first served,” but that they are
reserved for people who need them.
People with chronic pain may need a cushy chair and people with other
conditions may need a hard backed chair or else they may not be able to get
back up again. Sitting on the ground and
being able to stand back up is a luxury, never forget that.
Watch your words.
Describing things as “schizo,” “psycho,” or “bipolar” are not cool (for
example, there are a ton of words you can use that slur the disabled but they
are too many to mention – if you think it can offend DON’T USE IT). I just heard someone describe the weather we
were having as “bipolar.” DO NOT DO THAT.
That is screwed up beyond belief and reinforces the stigma against
people with mental health issues. Do not refer to anyone as a “crip,” “gimp,”
“wheels,” or “blink,” etc. even if they do themselves and definitely don’t use
that to describe them to anyone else.
Don’t ask
stupid questions. This kind of goes hand in hand with the above, but
ffs DO NOT ask someone personal questions about their disability. If someone wants to share their life they
will, but DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DO THE FOLLOWING AND CALL PEOPLE OUT
WHO SAY THIS:
- ask someone how they “got” their illness
- tell someone with a mental health disability that they can “snap out of
it”
- ask people
if they’ve tried X remedy instead of medications, chances are they have
- ask anyone
with PTSD what their traumatic experience(s) was (were)
- at any
point talk to them in a patronizing manner
- act like
you know what it’s like to have a mental health disability b/c you (and this is
a real example) “felt depressed once too”
- act like
you are an expert at their disability b/c you read up on it
- DO NOT ASK
US PERSONAL QUESTIONS. WE ARE NOT PUBLIC
PROPERTY. NOTHING makes this OK. Not “If you don’t mind me asking,” etc. If we wish to share this information we will,
but invasive questions from strangers are not welcome.
- Don’t
yell. Some people are very sensitive to
loud noises and it can trigger others.
- Do not
stand behind people – this can be very triggering.
This list is not exhaustive. Again you should use your judgment. If you are unsure DO NOT DO IT: it is
probably rude.
Be aware of touching. You
may think that tapping someone on the shoulder from behind to get their
attention is A-OK, but trust me it can make someone jump out of their skin (I’m
guilty of this too). I’ve found that a
lot of people in the activist community are survivors of one sort or another
and have PTSD. One of the things a lot
of survivors don’t like is being
snuck up on or touched by random people.
I made the mistake of touching a friend of mine on the shoulder once to
get her attention and she nearly jumped across the kitchen. I wasn’t threatening her, I wasn’t a
stranger, but I took her by surprise and I touched her in a way that she was
uncomfortable with (tapping her on the shoulder from behind). Since people
don’t always know what will set them off, and are not always vocal about their
conditions it is best not to touch people you don’t know, even if you think it
is something innocuous like tapping them to get their attention. Just don’t do it. It’ll make everyone more comfortable. Take it like you’d take sex. ASK PERMISSION.
Control the
environment. If it gets too
hot, too cold, too drafty, or too stuffy it can cause problems for people with
certain disabilities or chronic illnesses.
It can aggravate these conditions and sometimes cause the onset of
certain symptoms.
Do not touch a
Service Dog without asking. A Service Dog is
working. Petting it without permission
may be distracting it from it’s designated tasks and create a problem for the
owner. Many Service Dogs are also
trained not to sniff/acknowledge people when in their vests/when they are
working.
Invite people to ask for help if they need
it, and don’t treat them strangely if you think that any request is “weird.”
Act like their partner is their “handler”
i.e. talk to their partner instead of them. Each person is still a person
no matter if they have a disability or not.
Talking to their partner/friends instead of them is a disgusting thing
to do and dehumanizes them. DO NOT DO
THIS!!!!!!!!
