Introduction
Making Movements and Advocacy Accessible was a break out session run at the FWD+Organise 2024 conference hosted by Australian Progress in Naarm/Melbourne.
In order to win on the biggest challenges facing society today, it’s critical we actively prioritise working in a way that’s inclusive and accessible for all people.
As a sector, we run thousands of events each year and communicate with the public at a vast scale. Yet rather than embracing inclusion, too often we impose unnecessary and harmful barriers.
The session was an honest discussion sharing best practice principles and takeaways to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of your next event or email-blast. The session was presented by:
- Jax Brown, Disability and LGBTIQA+ advocate
- Stephanie Dower, Access coordinator
- Jess Herne, Strategic Projects and Operations Manager, Australian Progress
- Lauren Hayes, Digital accessibility expert, was unable to attend the event but contributed notes that were shared by the other presenters.
This article is based on a transcript from the closed captions provided on the day.
About the Speakers
Jax, Stephanie and Jess introduced themselves to participants.
Jax
My name is Jax Brown and my pronouns are they/them. I’m on Wurundjeri country. So if you were seeing me in person, you would notice that I am a manual wheelchair user and I actually have rainbow spokes on my wheelchair because I do like to flag queer pride wherever I go. I’m queer and I’m trans and as well as being a wheelchair user, I’ve also got dyslexia. So when I think about accessibility from a lived experience perspective and when I do the consultation work that I do, I’m thinking about invisible disability as well as visible disability, of course, and intersectionality and how we can make disability justice and the disability rights movement more intersectional and inclusive.
I have been working across both the LGBTIQA+ and disability spaces for about 15 years now delivering trainings, doing a lot of public speaking and consultation both with the not-for-profit sector, with government and sometimes with corporates.
Stephanie
My name is Stephanie Dower and I am a 30 something year old woman. I am a power chair user and I primarily work in film and TV production. I have a lot of experience working as a consultant and in other roles across the disability inclusion and accessibility space. Hopefully through the work that I’ve done I’ll be able to share some practical tips and takeaways that hopefully you’ll be able to implement in your own movements, work, whatever you may do, or at least start the conversations around that. I think that the key is starting conversations: start thinking about this stuff and action will follow.
Jess
My name is Jess Herne. I’m the strategic projects manager and operations manager at Australian Progress. In the day to day of my job I hold a lot of our work around disability messaging, disability justice and also the behind the scenes work of running accessible online and in person events even when things like Melbourne’s 30 degree weather conspire against us.
We were going to have another speaker joining us today, the excellent Lauren Hayes, who is a digital accessibility expert currently living in Aotearoa. Unfortunately, Lauren is sick and is unable to join us, but has sent through some notes that the three of us will be drawing on when we talk to you today. Resting and recovering is a critical part of disability justice, so I want to name Lauren’s contribution to this session as well, even though they’re not able to join us online.
The Social Model of Disability
Jax
We thought that it would be good to start with trying to expand on and define what we mean when we talk about disability, when we talk about accessibility, and what we mean when we say disability justice.
So what do we mean when we say disability? We mean things like physical disability, cognitive disability, psychosocial, sensory disability, and other forms of neurodiversity. We mean what is happening for our bodies and minds, what we are experiencing, but more than that, we mean how the world is disabling us.
It’s important to know our history. In the 1970s and 1980s in the UK the disability rights movement started and it positioned itself in opposition or counter to the medical model of disability. The medical model says we’re defined by our disabilities, by what is happening for them under a kind of medical lens. So often we’re seen as kind of flawed or wrong or in need of fixing. The people that were the leaders of the disability rights movement at the time were thinking about how can we reframe the problem of disability from being a medical problem, or a problem with the body or mind of an individual, to being a social justice issue, to being a systemic problem. Something we need to change about the way the world operates and the way that people with disabilities are viewed.
So they came up with the social model of disability to counter this medical model narrative and the social model says that we’re disabled by the barriers that we experience in life. For example, the lack of accessible transport. We know that in Naarm only 25% of trams are fully wheelchair accessible, even though we see them zipping around our CBD. I still can’t get on a wheelchair accessible tram at a lowfloor tram stop and be able to get off that tram at the top of my hill, for example. I can’t catch that tram home.
So we mean the systemic issues, these very structural issues that limit the lives and opportunities of people with disabilities. We mean the fact that the employment rate of people with disabilities is half that of non-disabled people and it hasn’t changed in 30 years. We know from the Disability Royal Commission that we’re far more likely to experience violence and abuse in our lives.
All these things are the water that we swim in, are the ableism that we live with, and that we resist across our lives. Under the social model, we really redefined what we meant when we say “I’m disabled”. We’re not putting ourselves down if we choose to use identity first language of saying “I’m a disabled person”. We’re saying we’re disabled by an ableist world.
Disability Justice & Intersectionality
Jax
When we define what disability is, we’re really redefining it in those very political terms. Out of the social model and out of the work of the disability rights movement came the human rights model and came the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Then in North America, in Turtle Island, Patty Berne and Leroy Moore and others developed this concept of disability justice. Building on the social model and human rights model, they added an intersectional lens to enable people to think about how disability intersects and overlaps with other forms of oppression, such as race, class, gender identity, et cetera.
For me as a white person talking about these concepts, it’s really important to acknowledge the whiteness of the disability rights movement. Like many rights movements it really hasn’t acknowledged and brought to the fore the ongoing contributions of disabled people of colour. The so-called leaders of the disability rights movement have often been those with the most privilege in the room, often cis gendered white wheelchair using men who could articulate the structural issues that they faced, but then really didn’t allow space or time for people who were even more at the margins to articulate what our social justice issues are.
Coming back to the roots of intersectionality and Kimberley Crenshaw as a black African American woman thinking about the intersections of race and sexism in her life. Using intersectionality as a very political concept to get us to really think about the actions we need to take, the tangible things that we need to do to start to address our privilege, and start to create a more accessible and inclusive world.
The Role of Access Coordinator
Stephanie
To give you a little bit of context, I work as a producer in the space of film and TV production, but recently I have undertaken work as an access coordinator. This is a brand new role here in the Australian industry, but it has been going on for a number of years now in the US and the UK, so we’re finally catching up.
The role of access coordinator came about because for as long as I’ve been working in this industry, which is more than 10 years now, there have been many, many discussions and ideas around the need for better representation on screen, as well as the need for better representation behind the scenes. But there’s been very little conversation around how we actually do that. We all agree that we need better representation across the board, but how does that actually come about?
It’s an industry that’s traditionally quite inaccessible for many people. We’re talking 12 to 15 hour days, locations that are not easily accessed by car or any kind of public transport, large crews that can be very overwhelming, high pressure, all this kind of stuff. All up, very inaccessible. So how do we create space in an industry like that for more representation and participation behind the scenes?
That’s essentially where the role of access coordinators have come in. I think of myself as a communication conduit, a linking individual between the producers who are essentially the employers (producers, their production managers and the heads of departments) and then any cast or crew attached to the production that have access requirements in order to be able to perform their jobs effectively.
In my role I’m basically a resource available for everyone. I will often start my role with anyone who has disclosed that they have access requirements, I will sit down with them and have a private conversation, if that’s what they choose to have. We will step by step go through the entire filmmaking process, whether they’re involved in development, pre-production, production or post-production. We’ll outline what their role entails and work out what kind of support or access solutions they may need in order to do their jobs.
We gather that information and then through a discussion around privacy with them, we take the relevant information to heads of department or producer or production manager, so any relevant people that need to be aware of those requirements. We work out ways to embed access into their practice, so we’re not there to do anyone’s job for them. We want them to do the jobs that they’re there to do, we want heads of departments to be responsible for their departments. We want production managers to manage the production. We want producers to produce the projects. We want them to do it in an accessible and inclusive way. We’re there essentially to guide them in that endeavour.
We’re also there to help the wider team better understand what people with disability or the DDN (deaf, disabled and neurodivergent) community is and needs.
Individualised Support
Stephanie
One thing I tell producers or whoever I’m working with right from the get-go is respectfully ask questions because this is all individual. I myself refer to myself as a person living with disability, but I know I have many friends that use the word disabled and, yes, it’s all very individualised and so it’s important to respectfully ask the individual what their preferred language is in regards to themselves.
Something that is really crucial for the individual in the access coordination role is to have lived experience of disability. That creates a safe space for people to have those really in depth conversations around their own personal circumstances. It gives them a sense they’re talking to someone who already gets it and they’re not having to educate you while you’re talking through their access requirements.
In terms of applying a role similar to access coordinator (you may call it an access coordinator or come up with your own term) in other situations, it’s really important to embed accessibility and access solutions into our movements or our work. I am all for appointing a particular person or even a small team of people, to manage the access side of things. For example, recently I was in a reference group for some festivals and our first recommendation to the organisers was to have people available at the sites who are clearly marked as their accessibility team, so it’s very easy to identify who to speak to. It also shows that the organisers have already had this thinking. I know for me if I participate in a program or if I go to an event, if I see that this information is already available or that they’ve appointed particular people that I can speak to about this stuff, it already puts me more at ease. It gives you more confidence in what they’re going to be able to deliver from an accessibility standpoint.
Dismantling Ableism
Jax
I think what Stephanie is saying is true: creating a space where you can connect with that individual and hear about what their lived experience is and what intersections they’re bringing and what accessibility looks like for them is really key. But I also think alongside that, individual personalised kind of relationship building perspective, is the bigger picture of social injustice. This includes understanding disability history, understanding ableism and understanding how ableism as a system of oppression impacts us all. Trying to do the work of really dismantling that internally as much as you can and looking at how that’s then going to shape how you build social movements, how you create events, how you build campaigns, et cetera. I know that sounds very big picture, but sometimes I get a little bit concerned when we focus so much on the individual that we lose sight of actually the systemic and the structural. So I think we need to kind of find space for both of those complex conversations.
Guiding Questions for Accessibility
Stephanie
As an access coordinator I’ll be chatting to individuals with their own access requirements, but I also try to put myself into the perspectives of people living with other disabilities different to my own. Obviously I’m familiar with what most or a lot of wheelchair users require in particularly physical spaces. I’m not able to read the minds of every wheelchair user out there, so I come at it from my own experience and obviously learned knowledge over the years.
In terms of physical spaces, I particularly look out for wayfinding. Work your way through a physical space:
- Are there clear pathways, are there any steps or stairs that we need to be aware of?
- If there are barriers, what access solutions can we put in place?
- Where can we source portable ramps and other equipment?
- Are handrails needed? Some people might be ambulant, so they might be able to walk, but they may need a railing to hold on to while going up steps.
Another thing in a physical space to keep an eye on is people’s energy level.
- For people with chronic illness, is there adequate seating available for anyone who’s needing to rest? Networking events are often a room full of people standing up and there’s very little seating, so adding more comfortable seating can make a big difference.
- Moving more into the sensory category we want to be considerate of the noise levels. Where can we reduce that noise where possible?
- If we are not able to reduce noise, do we have an allocated quiet space or quiet room available when people need to go and decompress from that environment?
Jess
Guiding questions I use when it comes to organising accessible spaces:
- How do we run this event or space so that everyone who wants to can be there?
- How can we make sure everyone in the room is given the same information in a way they can process and understand equally?
- Is everyone able to participate equally in a way they feel comfortable with?
- Not just thinking about how you get there, but how do you get as much from the space as everyone else once you’re in there?
Acknowledging ‘Hidden’ Disability
Stephanie
People might be familiar with the Sunflower program. Non-visible disabilities, or some people call them hidden disabilities, can be overlooked a lot. This could be people who are neurodivergent or live with mental health issues or have cognitive or sensory disabilities. The Sunflower lanyard is an opportunity for them to have other people understand that they have some sort of non-visible disability going on and to be more mindful of that when they’re interacting with them. It’s a great way for people to not have to disclose every second of their lives, but again, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all just be decent human beings and not have to think about how we interact with everyone else around us? One day, one day.
Digital Accessibility
Jess sharing insights from Lauren
I’m sharing content from Lauren Hayes, who basically gave us three short-term accessibility wins and three long-term accessibility wins that we can all use in our campaigning.
Short term Accessibility Wins
1) Describe images and use your emojis sensibly.
When you are adding images to your social media, your website and publications, describe them either using alt text if you’re using a website or program that supports Alt Text, the text that shows up for someone using a screen reader when moving through a web page. If there’s not the ability to do that, put a written description of what the image or graph says in your main text. Keep it short, keep it a couple of sentences, and start with the most important information before moving to the least important. Think about the point this image or graph is meant to convey, put that upfront and then put the detail afterwards.
I know a lot of campaigners and organisers love a good emoji or 100 of them in our posts. Emojis do come with their own built in alt text, which is announced by screen readers. If you use them liberally, the experience that creates for someone using a screen reader is of having each of those individually announced, so it might be sun emoji, smiley emoji, sun emoji, leaf emoji, wave emoji and imagine if that went on for like 3 minutes rather than actually getting to the content of the call to action.
2) Start doing your own basic accessibility testing with a keyboard.
If you have the budget, you can hire someone to do a full audit of your website, all of your communications and the way they’re built. But if you don’t or if you want to get a sense of where things might be hard to navigate, you can disconnect your mouse and try navigating only using a keyboard. That gives you a sense of how easy it is to navigate your website if you’re just using that software. That’s using things like tab, shift tab, arrow keys, space and enter. Can you see where your cursor is focused on the screen or are you getting disoriented? Can you complete tasks, can you sign a petition, can you figure out how to volunteer, can you find out where the event actually is? If you’re encountering those keyboard traps, where are you getting stuck and why can’t you get out of those bits? Testing that is a really great way to pick up some basic accessibility bugs. You might not be able to fix them right now, but it gives you a good idea of how many issues there might be in your systems.
3) Make use of some automated accessibility tools.
Lauren named Wave accessibility insights and the contrast finder as good online tools that you can use. Those are great for giving you information about how accessible a web page is and also testing out some basic things. For example, if I put these two colours on a graphic, am I making something that is unreadable to folks and can I adjust my brand colours or my campaign colours to make it more accessible?
Longer Term Goals
1) Do a proper assessment of your digital platform’s accessibility.
That could be working with a consultant or accessibility company to meet what we call the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG. If you’re on a tighter budget, you can also do an accessibility review that looks at a specific platform or functionality that’s really important to your campaign or organising efforts.
To give an example of that, a couple of years ago Australian Progress hired Lauren to look through the platform that we were going to be using for our online conference. She told us where things were going to be tricky for a screen reader user and how we can write some documentation that helps people to get out of those traps. While we couldn’t rebuild the conferencing platform, we could give that information to participants and make sure they knew how to participate as a result.
2) Check if your software is accessible.
If you’re using third party software, have you considered if it meets those accessibility guidelines? That’s not only beneficial for the folks your campaign works with in the general public, but also sets you up to be better able to support disabled staff members or volunteers who might come and help out behind the scenes.
There’s a number of folks who do that sort of IT procurement work, but you can also find some of that information out by looking at online resources. For example, there is a really good resource that basically goes through all of the different form platforms that are out there, like Form Assembly and Typeform, and says how good they are or aren’t. Pro tip, last time I checked, Typeform is pretty bad on accessibility, so unless they’ve changed that, I would not recommend it and I would also recommend having a look at whatever you use.
3) Create a digital accessibility strategy for your organisation.
This information can’t live with one person. As you change pieces of tech, as your staff change, as the person who you’ve appointed as your access coordinator moves on to do other work, how do you ensure that digital accessibility and accessibility more broadly is maintained?
A strategy means that it sits alongside your work the same way that values and organising strategies are built into our movements. You often need a digital accessibility strategy to make sure that that work sticks around long term.
Disability Discrimination
Jax
Lauren’s final point, which I think is really important, is that accessibility is actually a legal requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act. So you’re doing it because you’re a good human and you care about folks being able to access and be part of the movements and campaigns you’re building, but you’re also doing it because it’s a legal requirement.
Competing Access Needs
Audience Question from Kai, YDAS
My question is about balancing competing access needs, which anyone that’s worked with disabled people has probably experienced. But for those who haven’t, it’s when you have multiple disabled people involved in situations and sometimes one person’s access need can impact another person’s ability to access or can act as a barrier. For example someone who is hard of hearing might need amplified sound, but that might impact somebody who has sensory issues around sound and their ability to engage. So I guess what’s your advice about balancing those different access needs?
Stephanie
That is a really tricky situation to navigate. Funnily enough, when we did our training for being access coordinators, we had about 12 people with disability in the one room and, yes, we had some competing needs. One person needed the room to be really warm and then the next person needed it to be really cool. So my only advice with that is it’s going to happen, there are going to be impacts on individuals, but I think it’s just taking things slowly, allowing spaces for people to move around and outside too if they need to. In our situation, the person who needed a warmer environment, stayed for a while and then they’d move to the quiet room for a bit, where we had a live stream of what was happening in the main room.
Giving people options is always my preference. Unfortunately, we don’t always have the resources that we need to create those multiple options. But where we can give people a choice in how they manage their own access requirements, that’s for me how to navigate that.
Jax
I think we’re on the same page, giving people options and trying to provide multiple spaces if the event is in person, for people to be able to have those different spaces and meet their access requirements there. Providing online options for people to attend is really, really important. We still live in a time of COVID being in the community and having impact on disabled people and health and mortality. Keeping online and in person options, which I know YDAS does with a lot of events, is a key part of disability justice and responding to community need.
Communicating Access Information
Jax
I also think it’s really important to be upfront about the access that you can provide and where you can’t provide something and maybe that’s an issue of money or funding or space availability or energy that the disabled organisers might have. I know I’ve run events in the past and people have asked for different things. At one show people asked for a bunch of beanbags to be delivered and that was a totally legitimate access request, but I was a disabled person trying to run an event and I couldn’t purchase and carry beanbags. So I had to say “Look, this is something that I’m unable to provide this time around. I take it on board that it’s totally a valid access request. I’m really sorry”.
Being upfront about having those conversations, that we can’t always meet the needs of people in the moment. I think people get nervous about naming the things that they’re yet to provide or can’t provide, so they don’t actually have that conversation. But disabled people really respond well to a frank and open conversation about what access is available.
Stephanie
Yes, if I’m going to an event or participating in something, I just want the information available to me, whether it’s on the website or via email communications or written communications, whatever it may be. Just tell us what you can offer then, yes, we get that onus of choice, we get that agency to decide whether it’s going to be accessible to us or not. We’re experts for our own access needs, so absolutely keep that in mind.
Jess
The last thing I’ll add: If you do have what you think is the solution in place, don’t be afraid to sense check it with the person whose access need it is designed to meet. Quite often there will be circumstances where you go “hey, you said this is your access need, here’s how we’re planning to do this” and sometimes they might come back and say “actually, that’s not quite right for what I need”. But because you’ve been more upfront with your communication, that gives you more space to course correct as an organiser.
When we were talking about this session earlier, the biggest thing we kept coming back to is access is always a thousand times easier to plan in advance than to do reactively. The more you can think these things through early, the more you’ll be able to adapt in the moment as things change, depending on the access needs in the room or in the Zoom.
Explore Further
- Making Advocacy Accessible – Commons resource collection
- Building Ambition and Growing Movements for Disability Justice: A Case Study
- By Us, For Us: Disability Messaging Guide
- Making Protest Accessible: Tips and Checklists for Actions
- TED talks on Disability Rights, Perceptions, Accessibility and Inclusion
- Disability Visibility: Stories and Podcasts
- Commons Librarians’ Recommended Resources for FWD+Organise 2024
- Other resources from FWD+Organise 2024