(RantWoman)
August 23,
2019
Hi Friends
The
conversation Sunday is not going to be all about disability and
accessibility—UNLESS Friends are open to extending the time I am present and
starting that conversation in detail. However, to seed the conversation over
the next month and in September.
Some
principles about disability important to me:
Access needs
to happen whether any specific person or committee is available or not.
Nothing about
us without us: it is not access unless the person making the request agrees
that proposed measures address the request.
It is
important for more than one person in a community to understand some basics of
physical accessibility, accessible event planning, alternate formats, digital
accessibility. Everyone does not have to know everything; the goal is shared
work! Many things that increase accessibility and inclusion are easy to learn
and easy to do while having huge impact. Other points about physical
accessibility are important for some renters and for daily community life.
It does not
have to be perfect to be better than nothing. At the same time if someone is consistently
desultory about for example providing documents in alternate format when requested
AND, my understanding, repeatedly speaks
against my presence in Meeting for Business, a Friend may expect to be called
out by name instead of simply in
reference to a specific issue.
Help
create the Ad-hoc Committee on Disability
The Clearness
Committee to create an Ad-hoc committee on Disability is NOT at unity about a
number of questions:
o Would new members of the
proposed committee be welcome if Friends are led? My view: YES, There is plenty
of work for all of us.
o How should we approach our
work and what should we prioritize?
Reasonable
Accommodations requests
To aid that
discernment, here are a number of reasonable accommodations requests including
requests for specific instructions from Meeting for Business:
Keep trying:
The most important request I made a long time ago: keep trying because I do not
know what will work. I aim to mention measures that have worked as well as
things that have spectacularly not worked.
Create some
Meeting guidance and a resource list about accessible events, requests for
documents in alternate formats, and physical accessibility.
Make it easy
for committees to access the mic system now used in Meeting for Business when planning events such as introduction of
the QuEST Fellows or events at Meeting sponsored by a specific committee.
Consider whether and under what terms it would also be valuable to advertise to
renters the Mic and PA system we have.
To support the
work of the Clerk, please instruct the Clerk, by the end of calendar year 2019
to take advantage of opportunities to learn about blind person in meetings
issues by attending one or more of a list of meetings I have explicitly invited
her to attend.
In light of
difficulty expressed about recruiting recording clerks and frustration
expressed by past recording clerks, please instruct the current Recording Clerk
to participate in some discussion of minutes with an eye to what issues related
to disability are presented clearly and what issues are absent or poorly
presented. Past recording clerks and
other interested Friends will also be invited.
End the
ongoing harm to the community of excluding me from Meeting for Business. I am
happy to discuss a number of things that I hope will make the experience more
productive for everyone. I am happy to discuss my view about a single standard
of truth in different realms and I am aware that there are points one might
argue. But the discussion needs to happen and needs to happen with me in the
room.
End the
ongoing harm to the community of excluding me from the UFM email list. I can
live with the guidelines as they are with one observation: on another Meeting’s
list reply/all has sometimes, for example in the event of a death or some
medical events, provided a rich window into community connections including
information I find valuable. Humbly, I do not care whether I am the only person
raising this concern: I face LOTS of
barriers to making and maintaining connections, and I find these exchanges
extremely valuable. So SOME flexibility about the guidelines would be a gift.
Thank you all
for reading and holding these comments and for responses as you are able.
In Light and
faithfulness.
(RantWoman)
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