Thoughts on International Persons With Disability Day
What price will future you pay for deciding accessibility isn't important today?
You’ll have to excuse the lack of varnish today. After a day yesterday where I forgot I even had disabilities, they are now back like the weasels of Toad Hall, swinging from the bodily rafters and giving my pain centre a hell of a going over.
It’s a special time of year, International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). Well, for me, anyway.
Us disabled people usually celebrate spring with a slew of invitations to be visible in workplaces come December 3rd. By slew, I mean we might get asked for one or two thoughts. By visible, I mean today is not the day they choose to look away.
The luckier ones even get asked to speak in exchange for exposure dollar, cupcakes, and the opportunity to be in a room with the inevitable bored sod that eyes us with a curious disdain.
“She’s not catching, is she?”
“Only if you engage her in conversation. Beware! She might feel welcome and stay.”
As I sit aching at my desk and chair pondering the funding I couldn’t get to cover the expense because I couldn’t plan my latest diagnosis six months in advance, the pile of record requests for my NDIS application and the impending neurology bills reminds me not to be too controversial here.
Today, on the day of “amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future”, I cannot afford to rock the boat and talk about:
the continued lack of accessibility online
the world that is built socially, structurally, and systemically from an unrealised and unrealistic position of health
the impact of rolling back working from home is having on a group already facing 45% unemployment
how unsafe and demeaning it feels to have to beg – or thank you – for basic accommodations
the sincere lack of disability representation at manager, let alone C-suite level.
But I will say this – it might look like my problem, the disability community’s problem, a problem <waves functioning arm vaguely> over there.
However, disability is a club you can join at any time. And 70% of you will by 70. It is luck, not your green smoothies, definitely not your mythical good genes, that have prevented you from understanding this already.
And if I can be so bold as to give you one bit of advice:
Don’t leave it until you understand the need for accessibility and inclusion on a personal level to make changes. Make it a priority in 2025.
Because it’s not worth the price future you will pay for leaving it to people with disabilities to make meaningful change in accessibility and inclusion. Trust me when I say this to you, by then, it’s too late.
Image: black square with white script - What price will future you pay for deciding accessibility isn't important today?