By Katherine Schneider, for the CVPost
On a daily basIs, I encounter biases against people with disabilities. Ironically, several this week are events about bias.
Such events on my radar this week include these:
- The initial plan for the Feb. 4 Transit Equity Day observance did not include paratransit (supplied locally by Abby vans). Transit Equity Day is held on Rosa Parks’ birthday each year to affirm that public transit should be safe, sustainable, and equitable for all people and all communities.
- The Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibit on “The Bias Inside Us” is almost entirely visual and the exhibit’s “implicit bias” examples are mostly visual. The exhibit is scheduled to be at the Pablo Center at the Confluence from Feb. 26 to Mar. 27.
- This year’s community read, Jennifer Eberhardt’s Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, discusses implicit bias using mostly visual examples.
- United Way’s 21-week equity challenge omits consideration of other inequities like gender, GLBTQIA, disability, age, etc.
- The Wordle game on the Internet is inaccessible to screen reader users (like me), because it relies on color to distinguish right and wrong guesses.
In each of these situations, I had to decide what, if anything, I should do after recognizing the bias in favor of sighted people (“sightism,” perhaps). The options for responding to such bias include:
- Hurt and anger; head-shaking and walking away. This response is easy but accomplishes nothing.
- Tell someone: this can range from complaining to a sympathetic friend to Facebooking and getting some “likes.” It doesn’t take much energy and may help me feel better, but doesn’t produce change.
- Figuring out some action to take: What small and achievable change do I want? Who could make that happen? Who else do I need to ask to help?
- Implementing the plan. This may take repeated asking and may only achieve partial success . . . if I’m lucky.
- Celebrating successes and thanking those who helped:
So . . . thanks to folks at Eau Claire Transit, Abby vans, rose distributors at the Career Development Center and REACH, and County Board supervisors, the 2022 Transit Equity Day observance does include paratransit. If you’re a public transit rider or driver, be sure to smell the roses on Feb. 4. Victories are sweet!
Updates on other issues may follow if I get anywhere.
P.S. Someone did create and post a screen reader-friendly version of Wordle, so I can Wordle with the best of them! Thanks, coder!
To read previous installments of “The Corona Chronicles,” click here.