Edition transcript available here.

This program features our newest member, Danielle Whitaker from Atlanta who greets listeners before the world news written and delivered by Damayanti, WLRN’s youngest member from India.

Next you’ll enjoy music by Gaelynn Lea and her song “Someday We’ll Linger in the Sun” before Thistle’s interview with our guest Ellana Crew, a blind lesbian from Baltimore.

Then, enjoy Johnnie Mae Dunson’s song “I’m a whole lotta woman” that leads into Robin Long’s interview with Tara Ayers, a disability rights activist and long time producer of women’s cultural events, theater and concerts.

Finally, we are happy to feature another stellar commentary by our resident female-separatist, Sekhmet SheOwl.

Please listen, like and share widely! We are a grassroots feminist community powered podcast that relies on our followers for ever wider audiences and distribution.

As promised in the podcast, here are Tara Ayers guidelines for including people with disabilities at events. Thank you, Tara, for the interview and for your work!

Access/Disability Inclusion at Marches and Rallies

by Tara Ayres with input from the Bay Area disability community

1. Can’t start the week before the event. Access needs to be baked into all of your planning
2. Outreach should include information about disability access, whatever that may be for your event
   1. All written materials, including website and Facebook, other social media
   2. Press releases
   3. Flyers/posters
   4. Include disability-centric organizations, listserves and venues in your marketing.
3. Is your website accessible to screen readers?
   1. In general, graphics are not accessible to screen readers, so they need to have text descriptions or image descriptions attached.
4. Are there people with disabilities on your organizing committee(s)? We have a saying in the disability rights movement: Nothing about us without us. We need to be included in organizing events.
5. ASL interpreters at rallies.
   1. It should go without saying: you need to provide this
   2. You need to budget for this
   3. Your interpreters should be certified in ASL
   4. Check with the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) to find qualified interpreters: http://rid.org/about-interpreting/hiring-an-interpreter/
6. Speakers with disabilities at the rallies
   1. Not just wheelchairs, but: Is the stage going to be ramped?
   2. Speakers who are literate about disability justice
   3. Consider intersectionality: your disabled speakers shouldn’t (all) be white. People with disabilities are predominantly people of color.
   4. Are you asking all of your speakers, whether or not they have disabilities, to consider disability in their speeches?
7. Fragrance-free areas at the rallies so that people with environmental illness/chemical sensitivities can attend
8. Create designated smoking areas or exclude smoking from the rally so that people with respiratory and environmental illness don’t have to be exposed to cigarette smoke
9. Is the march route accessible? Hills? Barriers?
   1. Are you considering independent access? No one should need to be pushed if they’re usually independently mobile.
   2. If there will be barricades between the sidewalks and the street, how will people with mobility impairments access the march route?
   3. If providing vehicles, are they lift- or ramp-equipped?
   4. If providing volunteers to help, are you training them on disability issues?
10. Is there a designated accessible seating area so that folks who need to sit aren’t trapped behind standing people?
    1. Is there an accessible path of travel to get to the accessible seating?
    2. Is the accessible seating clearly marked/blocked off?
    3. If the rally/gathering is on grass, is there a paved path of travel to the accessible seating?
11. Is there engaged space for those who can’t march, but want to participate?
    1. Consider creating official accessible viewing areas along the march route where people can display signs, etc.
    2. Partner with Marching With Me so that people with disabilities can participate remotely: http://www.sufferingthesilence.com/marching-with-me
12. Ensure that there are wheelchair accessible portable toilets, and that they are placed so that wheelchairs can actually access them.
    1. Accessible toilets should NOT be positioned up against a curb so that one has to step up to get to them.
    2. .Accessible toilets need barrier free, clear space in front of them so that wheelchair users can get into them
    3. .Consider placing signs that say that they are reserved for people with disabilities. Accessible portable toilets often have smaller receptacles for waste, so they fill up faster.
13. Are disability rights issues included in peace keeper training? At a minimum, peacekeepers need to be trained on disability etiquette. Ditto for any other volunteer training that you do.
14. If there are written materials/programs, are they available in large print? Braille? Electronic format?
15. Be careful of what you prohibit
    1. Backpacks carry food and medication and are medically necessary for many of us
    2. It’s prohibitively expensive to buy special, clear backpacks for one event
    3. There are safety and privacy concerns with clear backpacks. No one needs to see my wallet, cell phone, meds or sanitary supplies
16. If you are providing information to out-of-town visitors about food and lodging, are you including wheelchair and disability access in that information?
17. If you are assisting with finding community housing, are you working to find wheelchair accessible housing? Fragrance free housing?