Left Unity is committed to being inclusive: What can you do to ensure your Left Unity group is accessible to all?
People in Bolivia fighting for disability rights
Merry Cross from DPAC lays out ground rules to make meetings accessible for all.
First your publicity needs to state explicitly that you welcome disabled people and will make every effort to meet any access needs. If you don’t do this, disabled people will assume it is NOT the case (which is the norm) and probably won’t even bother enquiring.
There are many, many different access needs, including those for people with mental distress and learning difficulties and there is no point in trying to make provision for all of them prior to someone stating they need them. We’ll come back to that.
There are, however, some basic steps that it is good to take. When someone joins the group, ask them if they have any access needs and if so, ask them to state clearly and in as much detail as is necessary, what those are. Then you and the group do your very best to make the necessary provision. The people who make the requests will also usually be the best people to ask about where to look for any necessary equipment, materials or services. Don’t ask them to do the work involved or pay for it though!
You may as well start out finding wheelchair accessible venues for meetings as these are helpful to many people, not just those who use wheelchairs. But try to find somewhere where there is a wheelchair accessible toilet as well as meeting room. Equally there is not much point in the venue having flat access etc if there is no parking for disabled people anywhere near. Try to have at least one or two chairs that are of a different design to the rest (e.g. a secretary’s chair or an armchair) because we’re not all built the same. Venues will often help with that if asked.
You may find that a venue has its own Loop System for people who use hearing aids, but if not, the group could buy a portable loop reasonably cheaply from the Royal National Institute for the Deaf. This would give you greater freedom to change venues too.
Remember that not everyone can cope with meetings – or cope with the entire meeting sitting with everyone else. Try to find ways that people can be involved and contribute without physically attending meetings. The internet is extremely helpful in this respect, so try to make it clear that you understand that not everyone will want to do that on any publicity you create.
Also try to vary the time and day of meetings a little to cater for people who may not function well in the evenings, for example, or can’t get away at weekends.
Finally, don’t panic! There is always someone, either in your own community or here in the organizing committee of Left Unity, whom you can turn to for help.
10 comments
10 responses to “Left Unity is committed to being inclusive: What can you do to ensure your Left Unity group is accessible to all?”
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Merry:
Thanks for this; people who are not disabled cannot be reminded too often.
I appreciate this point ( among the number that you make…)
“Equally there is not much point in the venue having flat access etc if there is no parking for disabled people anywhere near.”
The committee planning the Notts People’s Assembly had a choice of two venues for its event to be held in a few weeks. Once you got inside both building, wheelchairs could be used. While one venue had no parking of any type close at hand and was located on a very steep hill, the other was on flat land with lots of off-street parking, which included at least five disabled off-street parking spaces.
The committee chose the first venue.
As someone whos reading and thinking about LU and has found himself recently disabled I found the above from Merry thoughtful and a clear signal that disabled people are welcome and not an after thought.
Just found this article. Thankyou Merry. It would of come in very useful a few weeks ago, the first two meetings I attended for our main LU group were extremely inaccessible to anyone with a mobility problem. The first meeting I didn’t use my chair as I knew it was in a basement cafe down a large number of steps, no disabled toilet. As I knew about the layout of the cafe, I wore my back and leg braces and crutches, we had to get a taxi straight to the door, I had to sit on the floor for most of the meeting and people didn’t seem to acknowledge the fact that I was disabled no one offered me the more comfortable seating and not knowing any one I didn’t want to make a big deal about it. I thought the people organizing our small meeting of about 13 people might have taken into account that there could be disabled people wanting to join. I had even talked about some disability issues regarding the bedroom tax. After the first meeting I unfortunately presumed that they would be more aware of access issues regarding mobility at least, but sadly no. The second meeting was even worse. It was in a small narrow pub where toilets were in the basement, there was no disabled toilet again this time I had to use my chair as we had been to another meeting and a demo before. (I had thought that it was to much to putting on a meeting straight after this but I was determined to go). It was two flights up a narrow steep staircase, the room was small and very hot with incredibly poor seating. one of our group even had an epileptic fit. I understand that people who are not disabled do not think about certain things and do not consider checking out venues but if they want to be organizers of meetings I think it is a fundamental issue that they need to look into, they need to be aware that not everyone is the same and people have different needs, as you state they should ask the people in the group who have differing needs for advice. This time I hope they have learned about inclusivity. but I’m going to put it up on our LU page anyway. It might be a good idea to put it back up on the main LU facebook page again, and even maybe at the doncaster meeting to include a talk about this subject Merry. Luckily the smaller LU group I’m involved with seem to be more aware of these matters.
If Julie tells me which group she belongs to I’ll be sorting this out. Whilst I understand that finding cheap or free meeting rooms is a challenge, this is definitely not OK.
I’m grateful for the article. I needed a friend to be with me at a meeting. Julie also had someone with her. As she wrote – she said nothing, nor did her friend. “no one offered me the more comfortable seating”, I had asked for the seat I was in because of a shoulder problem. No one made an issue of this, just gave me the seat. Julie came late and sat on the floor, her friend sat on a chair. From her postings she seems very lucid and literate, so, as I am too aware myself, we need to think bigger than ourselves and balance access with input.
As Merry Cross says, people should be asked, but surely tiny, unfunded groups of people who have not come together before cannot organise like the pro’s with so few free venues. I’ve had to accept I cannot attend some meetings, and would like a more coherent web structure, but if a group can provide me with a voting choice, great. I certainly don’t think the interests of anyone is being ignored by LU. I treat this as my access and input, and my physical and mental needs should, at least for now, take no more, or less, presidence over my political/idealogical/policy needs. This is only my opinion, but the meeting observations are acurate.
i agree lloyd and i have written to merry separately, as it is a learning curve for people who are new to setting up meetings. i definitely think it will help other groups setting up if a talk is given about access and inclusivity especially for those with less visible disabilities and health problems. i don’t think the meeting was intentionally inaccessible, but it would be good to help other organizers be aware of these issues as many of the groups are small and people are not experienced in these matters.
ps. i was not late to the second meeting which was worse for access, were you at that meeting lloyd i can’t remember? i would also like to say that i am not in a position to be able to put my politics before my disability, and at the first meeting i started off by sitting on a chair but they were to high so i had no choice to but to sit on the floor. however being inclusive to different needs is something we are all going to have to learn about. i think it is positive that these issues are highlighted early on in LU.
I am absolutely sure that everyone involved in Left Unity is overtly aware of the need for equality, diversity , inclusivity and access for every section of the community. Logistically there have been major issues in that funds have not been provided for meeting rooms and hence meetings have been organised with all the best intentions to get something going as quick as possible. To organise something to meet the needs of everyone with no funds is impossible. I was at both events and I believe every effort was made to try and help and support people to be part of that meeting in an open and inclusive way. Yes the venues were not ideal but rather than criticism at this stage we need support and unity to find effective ways to move forward.
it’s not critisism julian i have said repeatedly it’s inexperience and that is why we could do with a talk to be given at the doncaster meeting to make all people aware of differing needs. these are important issues to get right at the beginning of left unity if we are going to make sure left unity is open to everyone, the suggestion is to check venues before making meetings and also to ask other people in the groups who might know more accessible free venues and understand about all kinds of access for differing needs to assist with this. we ALL are on a learning curve. i have just given an accurate account i did not blame anyone, in fact i said it was due to inexperience, but we should have realized after the first meeting and i should have said something. i just thought it should be raised after i had read merry’s article it will help every group to understand what is involved in organizing meetings!!!!! also i don’t think it is about awareness people might be aware but they still might not understand or know what is needed. do not take this personally, many people haven’t got the experience of organizing or knowing what is needed. this will be true of many of the small groups around the country. it is a positive it doesn’t have to be a negative.
meant to say this is not a personal criticism as i said at the second meeting it is from inexperience.