Disability Discourse
Beyond the Ramp: Accessibility Planning for Customer Spaces
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rebecca Muir
Public libraries have a long tradition, and a valued part to play, in providing a range of services for their diverse communities. However, when it comes to equal access for community members regardless of ability or disability, the conversation in Australia has frequently stagnated around providing ramps, space around collections to navigate, or the provision of different collection types or media. Australia is not characterised by a strong literature base around library services for people with disabilities which, coupled with a lack of legislation and an adage of “do more with less”, means that public expectations of access for people with disabilities is not high. Further, public libraries themselves are often faced with complicated decisions as to where to allocate funding across the whole of the community served – with the result that people with a disability may be shut out of a key structure that ironically works to build social justice, equity, and autonomy. This may especially be the case where a person has an invisible disability, meaning that they must declare their disability or themselves as ‘disabled’ or never receive assistance. Using an interpretive paradigm with qualitative interviews with people with invisible disabilities, this paper aims to broaden the Australian conversation beyond the “accessible ramp” to look at the information behaviour, needs, civic engagement, and social inclusion of people with an invisible disability.
The Myth of a Normal Brain: Rewiring Conventional Thinking and the Benefits of Embracing Neurodiversity
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Leena Haque
Ever considered how hard it is to concentrate in classrooms or in work meetings because the patterns on the walls are alive? Why do the words in an email begin to dance and whirl the closer you get to a deadline? What if you couldn’t find the words to properly explain why you do things differently to everyone else? What if you preferred to explain things using pictures instead? Neurodiversity is a relatively new term and focuses on the positive attributes associated with hidden disabilities, such as autism spectrum conditions (ASC), AD(H)D, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, Tourette’s and Learning Disabilities to name just a few. The future of workplace diversity is not what you think but how you think. Diversity as a term for employers covers several groups of individuals and considers different genders, ethnicities, religions, sexuality, and disability. However we feel that although these many groups are represented, diversity in the workplace hasn’t yet properly understood the need to represent those people with neurological differences. This study offers a unique opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds to connect and learn about these differences in a unique way and understand that there is a huge amount of untapped potential being overlooked by society in general. It is important to have a diverse workforce. Most organisations recognise this need and can understand the benefits that a diverse workforce can bring. We believe Neurodiversity brings different perspectives from different backgrounds to provide diversity of thought, resulting in real creativity and innovation.
The Invisible Hate Crime: An Exploration of the Underreported Violent Crimes Against People With Disabilities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Judith Babnich
This paper examines those facing hate who are often forgotten, people with disabilities. One such example is Jennifer Daugherty from Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. Ms. Daugherty suffered with intellectual disabilities. She was kidnapped by six men and women ages seventeen to thirty-six. Over the course of two days she was brutally beaten, sexually abused, and strangled to death. The National Crime Victimization Survey by the Bureau of Justice indicates that people with disabilities are victimized at least 2.5 times more than those without. This author's research includes a discussion of the groundbreaking book Disability Hate Crimes: Does Anyone Really Hate Disabled People? by Mark Sherry and several other key resources.
