Abstract
In 2019, as the global COVID-19 pandemic hit, universities around the globe were forced to go online practically overnight, and to consider the access needs of all their constituencies. Disability studies activists and scholars were delighted with these digital access gains, but feared losing them as things returned to (inaccessible) “normal.” This workshop uses Georgetown University as a case in how to bring those access gains with us as we return to in-person and hybrid learning, and how to use the experience of covid to raise awareness about accessibility beyond its simplistic legal definitions. This means rejecting neoliberal ‘performative access’ (often enacted on university websites in diversity, equity, and inclusion statements that do not correspond to the access realities of the university’s actual instruction.) Moving beyond awareness to action, this workshop proposes six concrete, evidence-based steps universities across the globe can take to increase post-covid accessibility for people with apparent and non-apparent disabilities (mental, cognitive, and physical), and the benefits to the entire university for so doing. Drawing on the principles of Universal Design and Mia Mingus’ concept of “access intimacy”, this workshop will help scholars and administrators create meaningful, flexible, and permanent accessibility regardless of the resource limitations/national and local discourses around disability.
Presenters
Jennifer Natalya FinkDirector, Program in Disability Studies; Professor, English, Disability Studies and English, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA, District of Columbia, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
ACCESSIBILITY, DISABILITY, COVID, POST-COVID, DESIGNING FOR ACCESS, UNIVERSAL DESIGN, NEOLIBERALISM
