#AccessibleAdvent Day 7! We all live online these days, so it’s extra-important to ensure that your online platform/presence is accessible. Does your website meet access guidelines? If not, what can you do to ensure that it does? Here’s a great resource: https://webaccess.berkeley.edu/resources/tips/web-accessibility

For Day 8 of #AccessibleAdvent, we’re talking one of my favourite things: HASHTAGS! If you use hashtags on social media, make sure to capitalize the first letter of every word in the hashtag. This makes your hashtags much more accessible for screen readers!

Day 9 of #AccessibleAdvent! Try to minimize usage of all-caps when you post on social media. Screen-readers often default to reading all-caps as acronyms. When your whole post is in caps, it’s confusing! (This is def one I have to work on, as we all know I like my Twitter yells.)

It’s #AccessibleAdvent, Day 10! Today we’re back in the physical public space. When you use a public washroom, please try to *avoid* sprinkling water around the towel dispenser/hand dryer as much as possible. Don’t shake water from your hands onto the floor—this is a trip hazard.

(If you have to wring excess water from your hands before heading to the paper towels/dryer, do it over the sink as much as you can. This makes everything safer.) #AccessibleAdvent

For #AccessibleAdvent, Day 11, here’s one thing we artists can do in particular: commit to only doing events that take place in accessible locations.

This is complicated, I know. But it’s also easy. Every time you perform in an event that’s in an inaccessible location, you are helping to further a system that excludes. We all need to push for change. We ALL need to stop & say: it’s for everyone, or it’s not happening.

Is total accessibility easy? No. A location can be physically accessible & also still inaccessible to other communities. But commit to learning & advocating for MORE accessibility wherever you go. Use your platform/privilege to say: I’m shouting abt this until we figure it out.

It’s Day 12 of #AccessibleAdvent. Here’s one for all of us: let’s commit to only attending events and/or shopping in businesses that take place in accessible locations. If disabled people can’t get into a space, none of us should be there.

This is also complicated, I know. None of this is easy! The key is to always, constantly, be looking for solutions. If you have an inaccessible event space, consider switching to a venue that’s accessible. If you shop somewhere that’s inaccessible, ASK them what they’re doing—

to make their shop and/or space accessible in the future. Do they have an accessibility plan? Is it publicly posted? Do they offer online shopping/delivery as an alternative to in-store browsing? Support accessibility with your dollars and your purchasing power. #AccessibleAdvent

The thing is: disabled people want and deserve to be treated equally in the consumer space. If you are a retailer OR a consumer, you should be consciously choosing a path of accessibility, and working toward it in all of your business decisions.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard variations on “Oh, we considered making our shop accessible, but we don’t get too many disabled customers.” Newsflash, friends: you don’t get disabled customers in your store because they can’t. Get. In. Wake up and pay attention!

A store or space does not have to check ALL of the accessible boxes at once. (That would be ideal, but I get that it’s unrealistic.) so when you shop, look for what’s accessible (stair-free entry? Automatic doors?) and what’s not (stairs, small spaces, no delivery, etc). And

...try hard to spend where the accessibility is. Encourage your local shops to think about accessibility in important and innovative ways. Remember: the best way to move the needle is when we all do it together. #AccessibleAdvent

It’s Day 13 of #AccessibleAdvent! Here’s some disability etiquette: please don’t touch a disabled person (or their assistive device) without their consent. Even if it looks like they might need assistance. *Always* ask if someone might need help first.

A disabled person’s mobility or other assistive device is a part of them—to touch either their person or their device without asking is to touch without consent. Please be respectful of this and understand that disabled people deserve bodily autonomy as much as anyone else.

#AccessibleAdvent Day 14 is all about language. We can make the world much more accessible for disabled people in particular by using language that isn’t ableist; language that is careful and considerate and specific.

(TW: ableist language) How often do you use words like “lame” and “stupid” and “moron”? You might think these are just off-the-cuff words that don’t mean anything, but they have a specific history that’s deeply rooted in eugenicist ideas around who is a “worthwhile” person.

Most of us know not to use the “r-word”, but phrases like the above used all of the time, whether in reference to people or even just to things. Think about these words & consider whether you can use language that’s more specific (& not hurtful!) to get at what you want to say.

Consider what phrases like “tone-deaf” and “blind to” imply to people from the d/Deaf/HOH and blind/visually impaired communities—that they equate blindness and deafness with ignorance. Can you find other words for what you need to say? How can you work to be better?

ALSO: what about ableism in mental health language? How often do you say, “that’s crazy/they’re crazy”, etc? Even if you don’t mean anything explicitly hurtful by this, language like this still causes harm. Please choose differently. #AccessibleAdvent

For more insight into ableism in language, check out this wonderful resource from @autistichoya: https://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html?m=1 #AccessibleAdvent

#AccessibleAdvent, Day 15! Today is all about letting go of any preconceptions you might have about what disability “looks like”. Invisible disabilities exist, and even visible disabilities can change in presentation. You are not the disability police. Don’t act like it.

Please refrain from judging whether someone looks “disabled enough” to be in an accessible parking spot/in accessible seating/using an assistive device. NEVER accuse someone of not being disabled in the public space (or anywhere, really).

Here’s an example: I have a visible limp, but I can more or less access everything that a non-disabled person can. I *always* sit in the accessible section of the bus if it’s available. #AccessibleAdvent

I do this because I have terrible balance. Even though I walk unaided, as soon as I’m standing on a moving bus, things get very dicey. It is difficult for me to move to the back of the bus if it’s in motion so accessible seating is always safest for me.

I’ve heard stories of young people shamed for using canes and other mobility devices because they’re “taking space from those who need it”—well, what made you decide that this person doesn’t also need that space, friend? Who made you judge? Nobody.

We can all make a more accessible world by remembering that disability exists on a spectrum. Nothing is absolute. Guess what: blind and visually-impaired people use phones! D/Deaf and HOH people can also use phones, and not just for texting! Etc. etc.

Make room in your worldview for an understanding is disability that is much, much wider. That helps to build a better world for everybody.

‘Tis the season! For Day 16 of #AccessibleAdvent, here’s a request: please make sure that your recycling and garbage bins (and holiday decorations!) don’t block the sidewalk. Leave room for mobility devices to safely traverse communal spaces and sidewalks.

Day 17 of #AccessibleAdvent is all about sense around scents. The days of heavy perfume and cologne are behind us—and really should never have been a thing. Please be mindful of those with chemical sensitivities and consider adopting a scent-free or softly-scented lifestyle!

Day 18 of #AccessibleAdvent brings more social media savvy. Avoid posting too many emojis in a row (anything more than 3-4) and say goodbye to all the cats-made-out-of-dashes holding signs. They’re next to impossible for screen-readers to understand.

Day 19 of #AccessibleAdvent is all about dogs. *Never* pet a guide or support dog. Guide dogs that we encounter out in the world are working and shouldn’t be distracted.

(Also, this should go without saying, but please don’t get angry if someone points this out to you.)

#AccessibleAdvent Day 20 is all about gym! I’m biased—who forged a note in Grade 4 to get out of gym class? THIS GUY—but creating a fun and accessible physical activity environment is important for *everybody*. Teachers, please take note.

When I was in school, gym class was all about team sports—which you think would be good, but more often than not what it meant was competition. As a physically disabled child, I was immediately at a disadvantage, every single time.

What this taught me, very subtly, was that my body was different and I was existing in a system that was never going to change. I was *always* going to be at a disadvantage. It shaped me so much that I grew up thinking I hated being active, being “sporty”.

It wasn’t until I became an adult and realized there were so many other activities one could do—yoga! stretches! Pilates!—that were more suited for me that I realized I *like* being active and taking care of my body. But gym class didn’t teach me ANY of that.

So, teachers: think long and hard about the activities that you ask your kids to do in gym class. Plan activities that *everyone* can participate in. Try to frame competition, if you must include it, in fun and empowering ways. It will make a world of difference to many.

Day 21 of #AccessibleAdvent is once more about language. In past years, it was often thought “appropriate” to use person-first language (“person with a disability”) when discussing disability. But the disability community largely prefers identity-first (disabled person).

This is *of course* not always the case. If you’re unsure of how a disabled person wants to be referred to, just ask. But disability advocates support identity-first language in part because disability is an important part of what shapes us. It should be acknowledged as such!

When you insist on saying “person with a disability” & not “disabled person” (& when you speak over disabled people who say otherwise), you are showcasing that you must REMIND yourself, constantly, that you don’t actually think of disabled people as people in the first place.

When you say, “see the person first, and not the disability”, you are saying that disability is bad and takes away from someone’s essence, from who someone is. But disability isn’t a bad thing. Is it complicated? Sure. Is it painful at times? For many of us, yes!

But being disabled shouldn’t (and doesn’t) mean that I am somehow less of a person simply because I move through the world in a different way. Disability isn’t a bad word, and we shouldn’t shy away from it. We need to #SayTheWord, and in so doing acknowledge that there is...

so much that the *world*, and the world’s attitude toward disability, does to make life difficult for disabled people. Once we acknowledge that the flaws come from the SYSTEM, and not the BODY, we can work to change it.

Now—not everyone will agree with this. That’s fine! But consider the words you use to talk about disability. Listen to the disability community when they talk about what language and words they prefer, and use that as your model.

Remember: we make the world accessible through our language as much as we make it accessible through how we build and plan. Be a part of that change! #AccessibleAdvent

Day 22 of #AccessibleAdvent is once more about language! Do you use/were you taught to use the term “differently-abled”? Please reconsider. Like we talked about yesterday: disability isn’t a bad word. You can say it! The disability community prefers “disabled” by a wide margin.

“Differently-abled” is a euphemism that avoids talking about disability, and in so doing avoids looking at the many structural problems that create disability in the first place. It’s performative wokeness at its worst—“differently-abled” allows non-disabled people to THINK that

by using it they are affecting change, but nothing actually gets done in the usage of the word. When you say, “oh, they’re differently-abled so they can’t play hockey”, you aren’t stopping to think about whether it might be possible to create an accessible hockey environment.

It’s also just flat-out incorrect! I am disabled—there are certain things that I can’t do in the world built as it is. I am not “differently-abled”—I don’t get to see in the dark because I walk with a limp. I have no special powers. I don’t have abilities that are “different”.

Instead of saying someone is “differently-abled” and not thinking any more of it after that, try saying that someone is disabled, and then ask yourself WHY. Are they disabled because they use a wheelchair? Well—if all of the buildings have wheelchair ramps and accessible entry,

and the wheelchair user can access everything because the *environment* is built to suit them, then it’s the environment, in turn, that plays a large disabling factor when it isn’t built for access. Focus on that. Ask yourself THAT.

We often think of accessibility as something that requires a giant structural overhaul. While this is true, accessibility also happens in the ways that we build inclusive social environments. And those inclusive social environments happen when we *all* understand how the

world marginalizes the disabled body—how the non-disabled world leaves disabled people out of discussion by euphemizing over them, by ignoring issues that make the non-disabled world uncomfortable. Using the term disabled is a way of recognizing that we all

have a responsibility to build a more accessible world. Don’t look away from the issue. This needs facing head-on. #AccessibleAdvent