So I am really fortunate at the moment. I have a workplace where you can actually talk accessibility and they make an effort. This is totz awesome.
They recognise the value like they recognise any other workplace well being issue. Which is marvellous.
Lack of workplace accessibility is not a neutral act. It says loud and clear that people with disabilities are not welcome. It is an act of ableism.
Some previous workplaces were filled with comments like…
“Oh it’s too expensive for one person”
“We can’t tailor to everyone’s needs”
In the second example you come to learn that everyone is not everyone, it’s just you – the disabled (every)one.
In the past I’ve had to take time off, lose all the fun things in my life to deal with lack of accessibility issues. My disabilities have relatively easier fixes than some (lighting, sound, access to quiet, room to stim), but they can be expensive too. But like most people with disabilities I’ve had to pay a greater price so to speak, in loss of independence and constant discrimination.
It can be much worse for wheelchair users and people who use mobility aids and I am aware I am privileged in comparison. So I am using this privilege to advocate for accessibility for all, not just me.
Other people I know constantly pay the price in not being able to access a workplace at all, even if they have the skill to work in it.
A study in the UK found that people with disabilities spend more money on general living costs than most people just to do things other people take for granted. Key findings were:
- On average disabled people face extra costs of £583 a month
- On average, a disabled person’s extra costs are equivalent to almost half of their income (not including housing costs)
- 1 in 5 disabled people face extra costs of more than £1,000 a month
- Disabled people’s money doesn’t tend to go as far. On average, £100 for a non-disabled person is equivalent to just £68 for a disabled person.
Emerging research shows this is a global phenomenon and it certainly reflections my experience. More than 60% of my wage goes in necessary measures to keep myself working.
I can’t just live anywhere in a house cause I like it – there are certain features I need to live and stay well enough to work.
The ultimate price many disabled people face is homelessness and/or welfare dependence and you know how the bean counters of the world view the costs of welfare and it’s not positive (which is completely unfair of course).
The people complaining about the cost of disability pensions are usually the same people whining about the cost of accessibility modifications. Yet they fail to see that this economic rationalism is ableist structural inequality at it’s best.
So…the consequences are…
Can’t access an accessible workplace, can’t work, end up on a pension. The pension is inadequate and can result in worsening poverty, homelessness and poorer health outcomes.
Can work but workplace is inaccessible and leads to long periods off work, lower productivity and periods of poverty and homelessness while you recover.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Yet I got to tell you that stairs suck for all of us at some point in our life (even for the ableds). With an aging workforce and later retirement ages, stairs are a false economy. Inaccessibility is a false economy.
The fact is our environments are often disabled, not us.
The fact is accessible environments are often better for everyone.
The costs of making a space accessible are short term costs, the costs of inaccessibility are permanent and a burden on everyone – the person with the disability is not the burden.
The fact is that accessibility and working with someone to achieve it, is not expensive, it is priceless.
Accessibility benefits everyone (and I mean everyone).
*I have used “people with disabilities” and “disabled people” interchangeably to reflect different ways that people in the community prefer to be referred to.
Jacci Pillar 