How to Combat Inaccessibility
Education and becoming aware of an issue is the first step to creating change. We must be mindful of what others in our community need to meet these needs. Seminars, where people listen to disabled individuals, promoting disabled voices on social media, and representation within shows and movies, are just the start. Only 3.5% of disabled characters are regularly broadcasted. “This number continues to severely underrepresent the actual U.S. population living with disabilities as more than twenty percent of people in the U.S. have a disability” (Appelbaum). To truly create an accessible world, we must acknowledge that there are people with disabilities living in it. Becoming aware of different needs is just the start.
Many aspects of school should be addressed as well. Policies regarding accommodations should be easily accessible to students with disabilities. Curriculum changes in schools to address students with disabilities will not only make disabled students feel accepted and heard but also create an environment where able-bodied students can treat their classmates with empathy and respect. Students should be able to learn at their pace and make mistakes in a safe environment while being supported by their school.
Education within the workforce should also be implemented. Workshops during orientation for new employees will assist their ability to work alongside disabled individuals without creating a situation where disabled people have to advocate for their needs. It is not disabled people’s job to educate the public and to advocate for their accommodations. These needs should be automatically met and enforced.
The ADA is a federal law. Buildings are required to be ADA-compliant when it is “easily accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense” (Institute for Human Centered Design). There is never going to be a time when it is “easy” or “convenient” to renovate a building. But, when it comes to accessibility, buildings often lack key elements such as automatic doors, ramps, accessible stalls in bathrooms, and more. This is why government funding is needed to renovate these older buildings as business owners don’t have the resources or funding to achieve this independently.
There needs to be financial assistance concerning hospital bills. Insurance often doesn’t cover the medical equipment and treatments that disabled and chronically ill people need, despite this being something that benefits their quality of life greatly.
It is already illegal to discriminate against disabled individuals, but nothing is enforcing equal opportunities in this community. Enforcing this law would include annual check-ups on businesses and surveys from the public. There should be a re-evaluation of the ADA to ensure that specific action steps are ensuring disabled people can thrive in a society that was not made for them.
