I recently had the opportunity to read an excellent article (In These Times, October 2021) written by A. A. Vincent, a disabled writer and editor from Chicago.
The title of the article, "Imagining an Accessible Future" is hopeful, as it implies an accessible future is possible. But it is also mildly disturbing, because it implies we must imagine this future, even now.
Issues raised by Vincent include "access intimacy, an elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone else truly 'gets' your access needs."
The opposite of access intimacy, he writes, is "access hostility," which is "access grudgingly granted with resentment, disbelief, demands for repeated explanations, proposals of alternate arrangements that never work.
One of the least understood results of this hostility is self-doubt in the disabled person, who is put in the position of having to defend and justify their position. As Vincent notes, the doubt and discomfort from reacting to access hostility make the eventual access "pointless." The hostility is just as much a problem as difficult access.
The author wraps up his article by stating, "I want disabled people to be treated as human beings - because we are. Disabled people can make this society better, are making it better, and are integral to a truly thriving society. May we all contribute to a better imagination."
