Post by @linguacelta@toot.wales

2026-09-17 18:16 UTC

But, here's the thing. Accessibility isn't just about us "disabled" people with our totally weird shit going on. It's about the millions of people who need to wear glasses, or who maybe are starting to need hearing aids, or their joints are a bit creaky. There's a narrative of accessibility as an extraordinary thing, needed by a minority. This relies on the average person's certainty that they aren't disabled. You're either disabled, or you're not disabled yet. Accessibility is for all of us.

Replies (3)

@joshisanonymous@h4.io 2026-09-17 18:22

@linguacelta@toot.wales I had a similar thought when I recently saw a post complaining that autism is described as a disorder. I'm pretty sure every human being has a "disorder" of some sort or will at some point, so while I get that it's good to not stigmatize these things, I think it's more about not treating the word disorder with stigma rather than trying to get things to no longer be called disorders.

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@mpe@hcommons.social 2026-09-17 18:41

@linguacelta@toot.wales I'm totally in agreement with you here, but was recently v interested in the "existential anxiety" model proposed by Harlan Hahn. Please do ignore this (obv) if not interested as I don't want to be That Guy. That is: the problem is that this "it can happen to anyone" means that people see only a deferred threat to their future, mirrored in those with disabilities in their present. 😩 Then, as a result, as Elizabeth F. Emens notes, "The fact that disability could happen to anyone does not, however, mean that nondisabled people will relate to disabled people, or disability rights, with empathy." That's a pretty grim spiral. We can be ignored/minoritised out of indifference or ignored out of fear. Emens, Elizabeth F. ‘Framing Disability’. University of Illinois Law Review, no. 5 (2012): 1383–442. Hahn, Harlan. ‘The Politics of Physical Differences: Disability and Discrimination’. Journal of Social Issues 44, no. 1 (1988): 39–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1988.tb02047.x.

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@peterbrown@mastodon.scot 2026-10-11 17:22

@linguacelta@toot.wales 10% of adult males have a red green colour blindness which means red on a black sign is almost impossible to read. And anybody with slightly impaired vision will find it impossible to read the labels on modern taps and shower controls, especially as washing your face or taking a shower is an activity in which glasses are generally not worn.

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