Shoes for the Barefoot

Once upon a time, improbable as it may seem, RantWoman took a course in international business. For some reason there was frequent mention of a particular brand of shoes and a particular salesman. This salesman was shipped off to some remote location where he was welcomed by a whole bunch of natives who all showed up barefoot. The salesman did not run away screaming. Instead he embraced local custom as a huge marketing opportunity.

There are a lot of barefoot natives in this narrative. Unfortunately, this is RantWoman we're talking about, not some starry-eyed optimist shoe salesman. RantWoman is going to come right out and enumerate a few MODEST successes and some spectacular "how NOT to organize an accessible event" moments. RantWoman is going to do this with inner blowtorch alight, in a spirit of love and truth though HOPEFULLY not personalized disdain for anyone's efforts. Or at least RantWoman hopes the shoe salesman with the sense of opportunity lingers SOMEWHERE in the vicinity.


RantWoman here is writing of an event. RantWoman is doing the best she can to include only elements that might come up in planning any meeting but there is one illustrative comment which is to be taken in context of RantWoman's themes and no further. Also, RantWoman was on the verge of offering to help organize this event, but others already jumped in.

The location:
Inquiries went out in advance: the Meetinghouse or a house? RantWoman came down FIRMLY on the side of the Meetinghouse. The house was chosen.

--The Meetinghouse is large enough to do retreat exercises in several places with good audio separation, even if everyone who should be invited comes. The house is more or less large enough for half the number who might come. It turned out to have enough separate spaces for small group exercises for those who came, about half the total who were supposed to be invited.

--The Meetinghouse is centrally located with excellent bus connections and decent pedestrian amenities. The house, lovely as it is, is much further from RantWoman. Bus service is comparatively good and met other RantWoman errand needs anyway, but the last couple blocks of walk from the bus stop have no sidewalk.

--The Meetinghouse has okay access for wheelchairs and walkers. RantWoman was unsure of the house because of another circumstance; RantWoman did not ask but has the impression the house was less friendly to wheelchairs and walkers. Oops well, the Friend who uses a walker probably wouldn't come, especially for the whole six hours anyway. RantWoman is pretty sure no one even asked her though!


The timing:
--At least two people who should come have small children. RantWoman has not had a chance to ask whether a late afternoon-evening timing was one factor in keeping both of them away.


--RantWoman generally would have preferred starting and ending earlier in the day.


The Format:
--An initial draft agenda included one of those pair off and answer questions exercises. RantWoman kind of went ballistic and told the planners that lots of people speaking in pairs in close spaces would be very, very difficult for RantWoman. MERCIFULLY RantWoman was heard and the agenda was changed to doing the same exercise in small groups. RantWoman likes this MUCH better for both auditory and community-building reasons.

Unfortunately, it did not occur to either RantWoman or the planners that during breaks, everyone would immediately pair off in the cramped space and start all kinds of chatter. RantWoman could not deal with the pairings. RantWoman was grateful for some silent spaces but the breaks definitely did NOT feel like breaks and RantWoman rather quickly wound up with a headache.

RantWoman has not previously thought to be fully present about the hubbub at breaks point so MAYBE she will just collect data for the future, for instance because her grumble list is already too long.


The Print:
--Mention was made in advance of a longish writing exercise. RantWoman pointed out that she would not be able to interact with others' offerings unless the writing were done in advance. RantWoman has clerked planning committees for events where writing is requested and has found such requests very helpful and successful, but this was not tried for this event.

At one point Friends each were invited to write responses to a query on a postcard. The postcards were shuffled and RantWoman managed to cope with someone else's handwriting and decided not even to engage about not having any choice as far as features that made her postcard easily identifiable. On the contrary, RantWoman responded with Worse Auntie's views of sudoku so everyone knew--and laughed--anyway.

--RantWoman made her customary request to have things she was expected to read emailed to her in advance. Instead, the day of the retreat RantWoman was delivered of one thing in small print and another in larger print but a difficult serif font. RantWoman is the sort who might fiddle with printed material more than once in a day. She quite resents that she can no longer do that. Sometimes this leads her to get holier than thou on ecological grounds: if most people are going to recycle things anyway, WHY does everyone need a copy? Make fewer copies and let everyone share RantWoman's partial use experience.


The attitude:
--RantWoman was the youngest person present at this event and RantWoman is pushing 50. RantWoman was, by a long shot, not the youngest person who might have been expected to attend. RantWoman has even more to say about this point and the content of the event. Alas, RantWoman has finally hit a wall and decided what she has to say is unsuitable for her blog. Comments on two themes will go in a cover email calling the blog item to people's attention.

--There was an agenda review; after a break, an important change was made. Points for everyone adapting.

--RantWoman is used to doing workshops where it is helpful to set norms in advance, to check in about hearing, lip reading, ability to interact with interpreters, people who need to move away from interpreters, gender and cultural points, and a slew of other access concerns. Sometimes it is also valuable to take into account when people new to the process need orientation to key concepts such as, say , confidentiality, a topic RantWoman means not to do more than mention here.

--RantWoman is also used to workshops where it is explicitly assumed that people will NOT necessarily think the same way and often there are steps taken to articulate some standards of respectful interaction, invitation to questions and parking lot for matters outside the agenda of the day. This, um, was NOT that sort of workshop.

Speaker to RantWoman "RantWoman, I am really not interested in your thought process."

RantWoman to herself, thinking of disregard for her concerns about the location, even more distress over the work of arriving in the rain with no sidewalks and sundry pedestrian safety menaces, and the bleeping print "Really? I hadn't noticed."

Second speaker "RantWoman, we want to hear other people."

By that time, RantWoman's nerves were so fried and RantWoman had collected so much data that she opted just to shut up. RantWoman wrote one email shortly after the event. RantWoman is now interacting with minutes of a meeting discussing this event. RantWoman concurs with gushing about the Friends getting together to talk about community spiritual life part, but RantWoman is to be true to the Light she is given about a whole bunch of things that really need to work better.



RantWoman congratulates the event planners above both for PARTIALLY hearing RantWoman's concerns and for at least not cramming down RantWoman's throat any outrageously WRONG "help," for instance related to dangerous street crossings where split second decisions can be lethal.


But just to show that it CAN be done, that accessibility can be increased by asking what matters and then DOING IT RIGHT, not cramming an inadequate alternative down Friends' throats, here is a LOVELY post about someone who gets it.

http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.com/2011/02/accessibility-ally.html


On further accessibility front, RantWoman THINKS it is progress that someone on the current planning committee for a cyclical event gets the point that there have been problems about the venue and service dogs on more than one occasion. In fact, there have been problems not only with the venue but also with other Friends' interactions with the venue about service dogs. The repeated problems have been kicked to a standing committee as well as the planning committee. RantWoman is still a LITTLE fretting that the continuing process will somehow manage to do not what is needed but some pale approximation. Probably RantWoman needs just to TAKE A CHILL PILL and let things play out or at least wait and post after more observation.