The Power of INACCESSIBLE Signage

[jesse_the_k]

For both my personal benefit and as an advocate, I’ve spent many years framing my disability positively. I was fortunate to encounter the social model of disability in the late 1980s, which taught that my disability wasn’t my problem, but our society’s unwillingness to flex.

But relentless optimism is making me cranky. The latest was yet another person with the grand idea to crowd-source accessibility info! with an app! Oh wait! this time Google is asking us to contribute our experiences.

This is a massive waste of time.

Instead of telling people what’s accessible, let’s signpost the places we CAN’T get into, the services that DON’T take our needs into account.

Back when 1960s advocates were pushing access, framing inclusion as a “positive move,” something that people could advertise with a wheelie blue¹ was an effective tactic.

The sales of wheelie blues skyrocketed in the early 1990s in the US, because the ADA required public accommodations to post a wheelie blue if a place was “accessible.” As I witnessed, many places just posted the symbol without changing anything else.

BUT IT’S BEEN DECADES!

It is time for public accommodations to signpost things that fail us. Name ’em, shame ’em, blame ’em.

What should the international symbol of inaccessibility look like? Not only will this be a great sticker to make our mark on the planet, but it's an opportunity to unglue "disability" from "wheelchair use."

---

1. the “international symbol of accessibility” a stylized outline of an occupied wheelchair in a square using blue and white ↩︎

Comments

[kaberett]

Yep. I am increasingly assuming venues have level access unless they explicitly say otherwise, and just showing up and letting it be awkward for *them* if that's not the case.

[jesse_the_k]

Maybe this is a British thing...I dno't get awkward reactions.

Most folks don't seem to give a fuck that I can't access a place. It's the "licorice shrug" Stephen Kuusisto nails so well:

https://stephenkuusisto.com/2018/05/03/the-ableist-shrug-at-licorice-university/

[sasha_feather]

Agree!

[jesse_the_k]

💯 💯 💯 💯

[julian]

A person in last year's Disabilities Studies class did (a smaller, temporary version of) this for their final project, as a public art/public protest kind of thing (in Harvard Square, among other places).

Also, yes.

[jesse_the_k]

Ooooh! Got any more breadcrumbs re:this person's identity or project name?

[julian]

The project is, actually, on a non-Lesley site, so, here! https://inaccessiblity.weebly.com/

I don't think her name's on there? Anyway, Sydney Mansfield.

[jesse_the_k]

Super! Thanks!

Interesting that she chose the positivist approach as well -- "this way for the inaccessible entrance."

[bibliofile]

The best of both worlds!

/ironic

[jadelennox]

Thoughts: 🍆🤥💀🙅‍♂️🤦‍♀️🖕

(Emojis: Eggplant, pinnochio nose face, skull, man gesturing no, woman facepalming, middle finger)

[jesse_the_k]

Ha ha ha ha ha gasp chortle crash

[bibliofile]

For the US (& maybe Canada), I like the middle finger. Unforunately, that's not a worldwide symbol. But a blue&white emoji would work so well.

[jadelennox]

Yeah, I am often annoyed at the emoji committee at the unicode consortium (how many problems in text and internationaliztion are not yet solved? and how much time goes into freaking emoji?) but I was even so startled that there one one finger but not any of the other synbols for fuck you. There's a victory hand (✌️) which I guess could work in theory.

[sovay]

As I witnessed, many places just posted the symbol without changing anything else.

My mother who now has (after really needing for years) a disability placard was just complaining about this—if a parking lot says it's accessible, then you shouldn't have to go the long way round to get into the building.

[jesse_the_k]

Once you start seeing this stuff, it’s very hard to un-see it. May there always be enough parking spaces!

If it’s not too intrusive, what was the inciting event for her to get the permit?

[sovay]

If it’s not too intrusive, what was the inciting event for her to get the permit?

She realized she was not going out places because the thought of walking from wherever she had to park the car was so grueling and painful that she was just staying in. She was going to work and she was making family occasions like birthdays and that was it. Now that she has the permit, she is going to movies and museums and plays and taking my niece to parks and meeting friends. It's been huge. (But also full of discovering that there is not enough accessible parking and some of the places that say they are, kind of aren't.)

[jesse_the_k]

I'm glad it's made such a difference. It's wonderful when people realize there are better alternatives!

[sovay]

It's wonderful when people realize there are better alternatives!

Yes.

(She's taking her grandchild places. It's great.)

[monanotlisa]

I like the idea of shaming businesses. I frankly admit it's what I do a lot nutrition-wise (though I also believe in carrots, i.e. praising businesses that do pay attention).

Inaccessibility warnings: If you come up with one, or a system for it, I'll be happy to join, be on the lookout, and crowdsource along.

[jesse_the_k]

Do you find that nutrition-related folks care about being shamed? What methods do you use? Social? Direct complaints?

[wohali]

Of course, I agree.

But I am commenting to say I LOVE YOUR POST ICON FOR THIS POST. :D

[jesse_the_k]

Ha, yes. The inimitable JackShoegazer made this, and I don't know if it actually exists someplace or he just thought it up. Looks like something very British.

[ismo]

This is a brilliant idea. I had no idea how inaccessible many places are until I started going around with my mother and other people who need accessibility. So many times, things that are supposed to be accessible turn out not to be. It would be great to have a warning.

[jesse_the_k]

It would be.

The emotional labor of going somewhere and discovering it doesn't work is frustrating.

Pre-ADA, one had to telephone ahead for everything. And it seems to be coming around to this again.

[jazzyjj]

I have 2 examples of this, from 2 former coworkers at different jobs. Back in about 2000 when I worked at the headquarters of a disability-related organization, somebody from the White House contacted us and asked if we wanted to go hear then outgoing President Clinton speak at a school on the south side of Chicago. We phoned the school to ask if they were accessible for wheelchair users, because one of our coworkers was a wheelchair user and still is but she's no longer a coworker of ours because the organization went belly-up. But anyway, the response from the school was yes they were wheelchair accessible. Mind you it was cold and snowy out that day. So when we got to the school, she had to be carried down one flight of stairs due to no elevator. Breathing apparatus and all. The other example is from a more recent job. A former coworker and his then girlfriend had gotten tickets to a concert, or some party event. I forget what exactly it was now. He unfortunately passed away suddenly while sitting at his home computer one evening a few years back, but he was a wheelchair user. She is also a wheelchair user. They had called ahead to ask whether or not the venue was physically accessible. Again, they were told it was. But when they got there, they ended up not being able to participate in the event due to inaccessibility. He and I were in conversation over lunch on the next work day, and he said they were both pretty pissed. I didn't and still don't blame them.

[conuly]

But relentless optimism is making me cranky. The latest was yet another person with the grand idea to crowd-source accessibility info! with an app! Oh wait! this time Google is asking us to contribute our experiences.

We don't need a Disability Green Book, ffs. We need people to follow the damn law.

[jesse_the_k]

Amen!

Some days I want to have a picket shouting "Fire codes are not optional. Neither are building codes!"

[oracne]

Yes.

[jesse_the_k]

Indeed!

[davidgillon]

For an inaccessibility symbol, I'd simply take the Wheelchair Symbol and stick a diagonal bar through it, just like traffic signs.

[jesse_the_k]

...that's definitely sensible.

I must admit that a wheelie symbol with a noose suspended over a campfire is what comes to my mind.

Off-topic!

[sovay]

What is your icon from? It looks like it should be Derek Jarman, but I'm pretty confident it isn't.

Re: Off-topic!

[jesse_the_k]

It's a very young David Hewlett, in a wacky movie about an artistic family in the Bronx. One of his sibs paints humans, so he's her canvas.

Where the Heart Is, directed by John "ZARDOZ" Boorman.

[conuly]

Too much potential to be read as a racist slur, there.

[jesse_the_k]

Good point, thanks.

[chanter1944]

I would love a Braille representation of a symbol like this, but I’m guessing it would more easily be done in relief. How about, on the subject, a crossed out eyeball for blind and VI access fail?

[jesse_the_k]

Crossed-out or (even more graphic) deflated?

[sovay]

For an inaccessibility symbol, I'd simply take the Wheelchair Symbol and stick a diagonal bar through it, just like traffic signs.

I like that, ouch.

[sasha_feather]

OK, can we get some? Can we start stickering?

[bibliofile]

Also, maybe just a red international ban symbol to paste onto whatever wheelie sticker that might already be there.

ETA: Or some flames! As long as we're going through custom shapes.

Oooooh

[jesse_the_k]

A transparent red "no" circle would be such a multi-purpose sticker!!!!!

In fact, it probably already exists...

/runs to search.

Re: Oooooh

[bibliofile]

I've found the plain ban/no sticker, but only a full round (e.g. on Zazzle). A cutout shape would be optimal, but no way am I doing those by hand with my Xacto knife.

I bet folks at The Bodgery (local makerspace) would know, because I've heard one of them discussing making custom vinyl stickers.

Re: Oooooh

[bibliofile]

transparent decal may be the thing you're thinking of? I was focusing on opaque vinyl.

Re: Oooooh

[jesse_the_k]

decal is indeed the word I needed, thank you.

[toft]

I really appreciate your writing; I have learned a lot from you about how accessibility works and does not work, and what I can be mindful of when organizing events.

[jesse_the_k]

<3
<3
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