Accessibility at Direct Actions

Enable Access in More Places#ouridentitywork

About Me

Matthew GilboyArtist/ActivistDisability JusticeChicago@mfgink

About Talk

● #ouridentitywork● how identity interferes● impact through better

positionality

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Vocabulary

Sure, we’re talking about the same things

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Examples of actions

● Non-violent: sit-ins, strikes, workplace occupations, blockades, hacktivism

● Violent: political violence, sabotage, property destruction, assaults

● Mediated action: electoral politics, diplomacy, negotiation, and arbitration

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Models of Disability

● Social: centers the lived experience of ableist resource allocation, construes ableism as systems of oppression that privilege the perceived lack of special needs

● Medical: centers the biological impairment and its remedy, limits ableism to animus toward that condition and special needs

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Identity Work

● Work done in service of compliance with social control to avoid oppression

● Work done by people with marginalized identity markers to mitigate risk

● Work done by people with marginalized identity markers to comply with prevailing expectations

Linguistic Minorities

Linguistic minorities: sub-cultures of spoken/written expression within a dominant culture where communication needs are secondary to assimilation/conformance within dominant paradigm (e.g. AAVE, ASL, ESL)

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Cognitive Minorities

Cognitive minorities: sub-cultures of thinking and expression within a dominant culture where conceptual/expressive needs are secondary to assimilation/conformance with dominant paradigm (e.g. Neurodivergence/diversity/Queer, Mad Pride communities)

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

“Special Needs”

● Planning typically involves a degree of anticipation of needs of participants (e.g. food, restrooms, space/shelter, PR documents, municipal negotiation)

● “Special Needs” are generally understood as specific design requirements for planning that broaden the ability of people to participate

“Beyond Ramps”

● The reach of the Disability Justice movement is popularly limited to cures and access measures; ramps, braille, cochlear implants

● This severely limits its impact to rudimentary resource allocation based on human needs

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

“Nothing About Us Without Us”

Decision-makers are typically white, able-bodied males who have a degree of unexamined privilege, making decisions for entities that report success metrics evaluated by similar individuals, generally uninformed by as much as survey, let alone oversight of people with disabilities

Enabling Access

How we plan to have participants participate

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Logistic: helps people decide

● Where & Wheno Access Points: address transportation and partial

participationo Segmentation of Action: break action into different

parts● Why

o Who/what is focus of actiono Impact of attendance

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Purpose: understanding participation

● Identify who is planning the action, and how to be involved

● Informs participant of likely context and tactics and conduct

● Identify a code of conduct participants should conform behavior to

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Purpose: understanding participation

● Identify how to escalate breaches of conduct and emergent problemso When unwanted behavior arises, crowd control will

disrupt the crowd centering the focus of the actiono Organization needs to cull behaviors and enforce

advertised level of disruption● Identify private/public elements of agenda

o Maximize public to minimize impact of exposureo Agendas help crowd manage anxiety

Centered Groups

● Inform participant of who is focus, address who needs space and who needs to restrain taking up space

● Identify primary language and cultural context being supported and make action plan to facilitate thato E.G. Have english chants during actions passing

through spanish speaking neighborhoods led by spanish speakers in spanish; have english speakers respond in spanish

o E.G. avoid white folk leading chants that are AAVE

Collaborating Communities

● Inform participant of people involved● Understand the baggage that comes with certain

groups’ involvemento Some groups are thoughtless and recklesso Some groups are unaware of privilege differentialso Some groups assume any actions’ participants are

willing to be arrested

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Enmeshed Communities

● Hosting communitieso Identify a need and reason to be in a

neighborhood/communityo Identify a way to engage the

neighborhood/communityo Support the community, or know if you are infiltrating

● Solidarity request and specific askso Identify & say how out-groups should behaveo Identify & say how out-groups can support action

Accessibility Best Practices

● There was a list here● It was folded up into the above bullet points

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Risks - Typical Consideration

● Likelihood of arrest?● Likelihood of battery?● Likelihood of aggressive action, unlawful behavior, or

civil disobedience?● Likelihood of police brutality irrespective of behavior?● Likelihood of group’s antagonism of police?● Participation of Action Medics and NLG Legal

Observers?● Likelihood of spontaneous changes to route/conduct?

Risk Mitigation

● Designated arrestees● Segmentation of action into low/high risk

portions● Organization-designated police negotiator● Agenda provided to help people understand

emotional/physical energy management and biological needs

Following Up

What minimal access looks like

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Personal Impacts● Plans action with no escalation management / Wonders why generalized

anxiety disorder is unmanageable #accessfail● Attends action after action / Lack of energy fuels clinical depression

#accessfail● Reads depressing article after article & agonizes over every controversy /

Drinks until the cluster seizures start again #accessfail● Fixates on whether he’s a good ally or not and serving the needs of

efforts / Ceaseless self-scrutiny undermines gains made in self-actualization #accessfail

● Fails to identify focus of action and the objective / Complains about never accomplishing anything #accessfail

Group Impact● Plans action while planning to drive there / No public transportation folks

show up #accessfail● Plans a march to demand affordable housing / No wheelchair users show

up #accessfail● Plans a demonstration about medical access without agenda / No

#mentalhealth folks show up #accessfail● Plans action without conduct guidelines and people instigate unplanned

CD / At-risk folk stop attending group actions #accessfail● Plan action about Prison Industrial Complex / Ignores Medical Industrial

Complex activists #accessfail

Reflection

Opening up and Sharing #AccessFails

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Access

● How do these issues engage stereotypical “access requirements”?

● How do these issues expand the scope of “access requirements”?

● How do these issues identify unexamined access barriers?

● How is organizer identity shaping expectations of access?

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Underlying Issues

● How do these issues present themselves in your regular lives?

● How do these issues get disregarded in your organizing?

● How do you address these issues in your self-care regimen?

● What expectations do you have about self-care by others?

● How do your actions enable/disable others?

Critiquing Access

● How do your actions assume everyone has the same access as you?

● How do your actions assume everyone can make the same sacrifices?

● How do your actions inform participants’ self-care?● How are your actions impacted by serial disablement of

participants?

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Structuring Access

● How do your actions disable participants?● What disablements are acceptable or necessary?● How can necessary disablements be segmented to

provide partial access to your action, if total access is unfeasible?

● How do you facilitate community accountability to better understand your actions’ disabling elements, and their impact?

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork

Thanks

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/mfgink/amc-radical-access

My Site:http://www.mfgink.com

@mfgink / #ouridentitywork