February 11, 2020 - 17:12
Relating to the reading on "A Disability History of the United States", in both this class and my other one we've talked about protests of disabled folk throughout history. Specifically I've been thinking about the sledgehammer protests in the 80's in Denver where wheelchair users took to the streets and hammered their own curb cuts since the city wasn't helping them. On my own campus I've been thinking about forms of protest that would bring issues of disability into the light for everyone. I thought of the idea of having some sort of displays on campus that point out inaccessibility to people who wouldn't normally think about it walking around like myself. Someone responded in my BMC class with the fear that it would be too easy to avoid/ recognize and acknowledge which I agree is definitely a concern. So in response to that, I was thinking maybe of doing display types that make things inaccessible purposefully for people who are able-bodied or don't consider themselves to be disabled to have to experience an inconvenience they don't usually have to. Obviously this couldn't be a long term display if it was truly effective but maybe on a busy day there could be a plan between a student group and a building, the campus center for example, to create a protest display of some kind, such as a ramp that's too steep and blocks the entranceway, or having door handles be too high, something that may seem silly or extreme but accompany it with signage explaining that people experience things like this on the daily at Bryn Mawr. Or maybe have uncomfortable noise levels in a dedicated room, something to throw people off that they can't ignore.