Disability Inclusion To Continue After The Pandemic

As part of March’s theme of intersectionality in the aromantic community, I want to talk about disability inclusion. The World Health Organisation estimates the global disabled population at 17% - that’s 1 in 6 people. The response to the global COVID pandemic has demonstrated that disability inclusion in possible and can be implemented in a matter of weeks. Previously, when disabled individuals asked for inclusion, including remote access to education, work, resources and entertainment, we were told it wasn’t possible. Yet, as soon as it benefitted ableds, society became accessible from home, and without the ableist stigma of being burdens or having “special needs”. We must retain many features of the pandemic that enable disabled people to have full access to society.

My main disability is fatigue, so I can only brush upon the requirements of other disabilities such as neurodivergence. I also have access to the Internet, which many disabled and other marginalised groups do not due to poverty. Please reach out to other disabled people to see what access set ups can improve their quality of life, and follow Disability Tags on social media. Disabled Lives Matter, and I call upon you as fellow aromantics to help End Ableism.

Screen Readers

Screen readers for blind and visually impaired people (or like me, get light trigger migraines) to identify and pronounce words. But they are not intuitive. Camel Tags are for compound hashtags. #ThisIsWhatAromanticLooksLike. If Camel Tags are not used, then the screen reader either tries to read the whole thing as one word or pronounces each letter individually, and it’s unintelligible. Keyboard smashes are read as individual letters, so if you’re going to use them please keep them short!

Screen readers also read left to right (in English), then top to bottom. So if you have a meme of, “People with disabilities” on the left on multiple lines and “People with aromanticism” on the right with multiple lines, leading to the central handshake underneath “Annoyed that living costs are based on two people sharing a bed”, the screen reader will say, “People People with with aromanticism disabilities”.

Images

Not everyone can see images as intended. Some can see text on an image providing there’s enough contrast, but screen readers can’t see it. Screen Readers have no chance of reading closed captions within a video. “Alt Text” and “Image ID” is a description of the images. Often Alt Text allows for more words than some social media sites, but this is balanced against not all technology being capable of reading Alt Text so it’s better to have numerous replies describing the image.

If you see a published image or video (even a thumbnail preview), please add the text describing the image rather than asking the poster to. The poster may have disabilities that make it difficult, so doing it yourself when you see the issue is preferable.

Content Warnings

The world can be scary, and if we are told in advance what to expect in a piece of media or a presentation, then we know if it’s safe for us to access. Content Warnings or Topic Warnings include emotional triggers, such as racism, ableism, homophobia, sexism, violence, blood. You can specify the nature of the content after the general [CW Ableism, Medical Trauma]. Physical triggers include flashing images in videos and gifs, which may trigger an epileptic seizure. The warning can come at the beginning, and/or just before the content itself. Please turn off autoplay on media, as if it contains flashing images and it starts playing before we can read about the content, it can kill.

The correct way to tag flashing images is “flashing” and “flashing images” so people can block that. If it’s tagged “epilepsy” or “seizures” then people looking for information about these topics can be exposed. Exposure to mental and physical triggers can take a long time to recover from.

Words Count [CW Ableist language}

Bias is the first step to genocide in the pyramid of hate. Ableism bias is using historical or contemporary diagnoses of mental and physical health conditions as a derogatory term, even affectionately. “Idiots in love” “That’s crazy” “You’re insane” “That’s lame”.

There is also using diagnoses in a casual way, which undermines the severity of how disabled people are affected. “That crippled me”. “Even a blind person can see that” “Are you deaf or something?” “You need therapy”. This stops disabled people from getting recognition and help for their conditions.

Please use exclamations without using ableist language, and do not undermine disabilities by casually mentioning them. If you see others doing it, please tell them why it’s wrong.

Font

Comic Sans is easier for Dyslexic people to read as the letters are unique so there is less opportunity for the brain to muddle them.

Dyslexic people have created fonts that are Dyslexic friendly – Open Dyslexic (free) and Dyslexie.

Remote Synchronous and Non-Synchronous Events

More commonly, accessing things from home but at a specified time, and is not available afterwards. These are Zoom meetings, livestreaming, and Instagram stories. Going out for events is detrimental to me, because of overstimulation, overexertion, and the risk of encountering triggers. It takes energy and assistance for me to put outdoor clothes on, arrange and pay for transport, plan in advance if the building is wheelchair accessible (if there are lifts in well-lit areas and that the lifts are fixed immediately), where the disabled toilets are in relation to the event hall, check the food on sale for allergies, check if the wheelchair spaces are next to rubbish bins or at the back where I can’t see over everyone’s head. I’m expected to sit still rather than stretch and lie down as my body requires. As there are other people there, I’m at risk from migraines triggered by perfume and aftershave. When they announce mobile phones should be turned off during performances, I risk my life in delayed response to emergency calls.

At home, I conserve energy by dressing in comfortable clothes, lying down and stretching, turning the camera off so people don’t see me move (disturbing others), going to my personal toilet when necessary, eating food I know is safe for me throughout the event rather that specified intervals to manage by blood sugar, save money and mental energy as I don’t have to arrange transport, don’t risk migraines from uncontrolled scents, have a good view, can take medication and apply temperature compresses. I control my environment, so I can relax and put more energy into enjoying the event. I was excited to watch a film ‘at’ the cinema when everyone else could, rather than having to wait for it to come onto DVD. If there is participation, the moderators can look at numerous text questions and pick one, rather than waiting for one mic.

But, my health is unpredictable. I can have the best sleep ever and still wake up with post-exertional malaise which means I can’t be either awake or coherent for a live/synchronous event. This means I need events to be accessible after the event, without a time limit (Instagram stories…). This allows me to pause when my concentration lapses, or rewind if I fall asleep. This content needs transcribing beyond auto transcription. In Zoom meetings, there are multiple voices interjecting, and auto software doesn’t know which to prioritise so will pick the loudest parts of each person. If people have cameras off or poor image quality, no-one can see the gestures that replace speech and the software can’t transcribe either. Live captions, CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation), Interpreters for sign language and other languages are needed.

Once non-synchronous events are routine, so is the acceptance of delayed response for questions and submissions. It allows for flexible attendance, knowing the work will be done without harming people’s health or preventing inclusion of disabled people. I’ve been in fandom Secret Santa’s and they have always asked if I might need a Pinch Hitter due to my unpredictable health (they get two stories – one on time and mine when I can finish it).

Access without Gatekeeping

When I was at University, Student Support could do nothing for me until I had a medical diagnosis. I was treated as a healthy abled student for three years as a result of gate keeping. Gate keeping is also encountering a step at a building and the staff saying they will fetch a ramp. Any toilet or elevator that has a sign to request a key is gatekeeping. This means disabled people are at the whim of ableds permitting them access, rather than accessing any part of a property unaided. Physical and virtual spaces must be fully accessible to disabled people without question or proof of requirement.

Please keep access features that became widespread during the pandemic going after it’s subsided, and continue to End Ableism.

Papo Aromantic