SCAC Blog
An Accessibility Challenge for the Seattle Arts Community
By Louis Mendoza, Manager, The Washington State Fathers Network, a program of Kindering.
As a new member of the Seattle Cultural Accessibility Consortium (SCAC) steering committee, I have two challenges for the arts organizations in town: make Seattle a national leader on accessibility to the arts for people with disabilities and publicly announce your accessibility initiatives.
In the last quarter of 2020, I was pleased to see two Seattle Times articles about improving the local arts experience for underserved populations. One, about improving arts experiences for people who have disabilities, was titled, “How Embracing Universal Design Could Make the World Better After COVID-19”. It profiled Elizabeth Ralston’s work with the SCAC to support arts groups as they expand their accessibility efforts. The second article was titled, “Seattle Theater Leaders Work Toward Anti-Racism”. What struck me was that while both articles were about improvement efforts targeting specific populations in our community; one effort is being driven by the organizations themselves, the other is being propelled forward by outside influencers. It left me wondering,
“Why are these equally important needs being addressed differently?”.
I won’t attempt to compare the importance of the two matters or the two historically marginalized communities that the articles spotlight. Anti-racism work is incredibly important and must continue. It’s the difference between the two approaches that I question. Why is one an internal approach, while the other is external? We know that intersectionality within communities of Black, indigenous and people of color as well as people with disabilities means that the issues of racism and lack of inclusion and accessibility interact and are related.
Darren Walker, CEO of the Ford Foundation put it so well when he said: “Just like race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, and immigration status, living with a disability is an intersectional identity. We must understand how the inequalities faced by people with disabilities interact with the larger ecosystem of oppression that marginalizes women, low-income people, communities of color, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people.”
Given this intersectionality, the ideal approach would be to address both issues within the same effort.
The article on universal design offered the following: “If you have never thought about accessibility before, you likely will in the future. Today, 26% of people have some kind of disability, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says, and that number is expected to increase with the aging of the baby boomer generation.” This CDC infographic confirms the statistic; that’s 1 in 4 adults living in the United States. In addition, the World Health Organization stated in December of 2020 that over 1 billion people live with some form of disability. According to the United Nations, that makes people with a disability the world’s largest minority.
Given the above figures, it’s in the best interest of organizations to take the initiative to address access for those with disabilities. From the standpoint of a potential patron and considering that people might not attend art events on their own, the number of people who could attend would increase if access was improved.
To be clear, I know the issue is recognized. I’ve been in some of the workshops on accessibility that are offered by the SCAC and I’ve seen the large numbers in attendance and robust interest. However, the issue of increasing accessibility in the arts is being driven by a small organization with one staff member and a very small budget.
Having the issue led by senior leaders of arts organizations would make an incredible difference. According to the article, the local anti-racism work within organizations is getting national attention and I believe this is because organizational leaders are driving the work. It’s far more effective and lasting when the change comes from within.
To repeat the challenges, in addition to making Seattle a nationally recognized leader in anti-racism work in the arts, local arts organization leadership should seek that same recognition for their accessibility efforts. And, these efforts need to be publicly announced. By doing so, the arts organizations will be acknowledging the importance of the 1 in 4 adults in our community and letting them know that they are welcome.
Seattle Times Feature!
Check out the article “How embracing universal design could make the world better after COVID-19” by Naomi Ishisaka, featuring our own Elizabeth Ralston, at the Seattle Times
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Welcome to our website! We are delighted to bring important tools and resources to you. We want you to succeed in your accessibility journey so that your constituents can be fully included and engaged.
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Happy learning!
From,
All of us at the Seattle Cultural Accessibility Consortium
Connecting arts and cultural organizations with information and resources to improve accessibility for people of all abilities