Accessibility in Organising

1. Accessibility in Organising running disability-informed campaigns

2. Session breakdown A skill sharing session which will focus on the ways in which disability issues interact with the campaignsyou are planning and running. We will be exploring both where campaigns can more explicitly consider disability issues in order to include disabled students, and how the standpoint of disability-related concerns can provide both insight and resources for a whole variety of change-making in the university. This session will also enable officers to run more accessible campaigns and events, and equip them to write access statements.

3. Session breakdown Skills: • Writing access statements • Techniques for more accessible meetings and communications • Using the Equality Act in your campaigns Knowledge: • Understanding what different access needs exist and what  accessible practice is • Recognising where different issues and campaigns intersect with disability Resources: • Accessibility in Organising: A DSC Zine Guide • To Boldly Go Where Everyone Else Has Gone Before: Wheelchair Step Free Access in the Collegiate University

4. Intro: models of disability

5. Intro: accessibility & ‘reasonable adjustments’ • Making environments, spaces, education, activities, etc. accessible to everyone, as opposed to putting the onus on the disabled person • The Equality Act 2010 requires institutions and service providers to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ so as not to disadvantage disabled people • Three elements of this for us for today: • How do we make our events and campaigns as accessible as possible to as many people as possible? • When we’re campaigning/changemaking, • What can we do for disabled students in particular? • What can disabled students/a disability rights framework or perspective do for our campaigning?

6. Intro: the Equality Act 2010 & ‘reasonable adjustments’ • Designates ‘protected characteristics’ against which it’s illegal to discriminate directly or indirectly • Defines disability as a ‘mental or physical impairment’ which has ‘a substantial and long-term adverse effect on one’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’ • Difficult to legally enforce, but useful as a tool to pressure bodies which care about their reputations (e.g. the uni) • Legally requires institutions and service providers to make anticipatory reasonable adjustments for disabled people 7.2 The duty to make reasonable adjustments requires education providers to take positive steps to ensure that disabled students can fully participate in the education and enjoy the other benefits, facilities and services which education providers provide for students. This goes beyond simply avoiding discrimination. It requires education providers to anticipate the needs of potential disabled students for reasonable adjustments. - ‘Equality Act 2010 Technical Guidance on Further and Higher Education’

7. Activity: access statements Split into groups and discuss what sections/elements/considerations might come as part of an access statement template for different events! • Small organising/committee meeting • Larger organising forum/assembly • Social event, party, etc • Panel/speaker event • Training event

8. Activity: access statements • Step-free access? (Ramp? [What kind of ramp, how steep?] Lift? Level access? Is it by an alternative route? • Wheelchair access? (Raised thresholds? Doorway widths? Turning space? Automatic doors? Is it by an alternative route?) • Steps? (How many? Handrail?) • Seating? (How much? Padded/unpadded?) • Bathroom access? (Wheelchair accessible bathroom? Gender neutral bathroom? How close by? Automatic handdryers?) • Sensory environment? (Music? Overlapping conversation? Background noise? Echoey spaces? Lighting specifics? Scents? Food? Distance to hear/see? Temperature?) • Hearing loop? BSL interpreter? (Request in advance?) continued….

9. Activity: access statements …continued • Designated quiet space? (How close by, how big, is it intended for silence or just lower stimulation levels?) • Transport? (Parking? Blue badge parking? Where? Bus routes? Taxi fund? Walking groups? Signage to location?) • Video? (Subtitles? Closed caption? Audio description?) • Printed material? (Large print? Paper colour?) • Food options? (Allergy information available? Dietary requirement options? Alcohol? Free water easily available?) • Nature of event? (Formal, informal? Access breaks? Is moving around impromptu, lying down, attending but not participating actively, etc ok? Strict timing/structure?) • Remote access? (Streaming, Skype-in, live minuting, recording/minutes to post after?) • Content? (Potentially triggering content? Content warnings?) • Anti-discrimination/safe space/zero-tolerance/other behavioural policy?

10. Activity: disability-informed campaigning Pick a campaign you’re running/planning/interested in and split into groups based on these. • Cut the Rent • Decolonise • Boycott the NSS • Preventing Prevent • Hidden costs • Living Wage • Liberation activism (LGBT+, women’s, BME…) • Divestment/disarmament • …?

11. Activity: disability-informed campaigning How can your campaign explicitly consider disabled students?- Cut the Rent might consider the additional rent costs disabled students often (illegally) face for accessible accommodation. - Widening Participation initiatives might consider lower school attainment in the context of disability in particular How can a disability rights framework, disabled students’ experiences, etc., provide useful input to your campaign?- Student welfare campaigns and inclusive education campaigns can use the Equality Act 2010 to argue that introducing certain provisions for all students would constitute compliance with the duty for anticipatory reasonable adjustments for disabled students - Campaigns can get more people involved by diversifying tactics to allow for a greater number of access needs

12. disabled.cusu.cam.ac.uk facebook.com/CUSUdisabledstudents disabled@cusu.cam.ac.uk