Fresh Fridays: Accessibility and Inclusion in Community Engagement
Fresh Fridays

Fresh Fridays: Accessibility and Inclusion in Community Engagement

By October 18, 2024October 21st, 2024No Comments

This month’s Fresh Friday session brought together a panel of experts to discuss the critical topic of accessibility and inclusion in community engagement with a specific focus on disability justice and multilingual spaces in community meetings

Facilitator and Panelists: The session was facilitated by Ali Steinberg of One Neighborhood Builders and featured panelists:

  • Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu, Founder and Director of Project LETS
  • Quinten Foster, Director of Transgender Whole Healthcare, East Bay Community Action Program
  • Eloi Rodas, Community Organizer, One Central Providence, ONB

Defining Accessibility and Inclusion

 The discussion opened with panelists defining what accessibility and inclusion in community engagement meant to them. Foster emphasized the importance of valuing diverse needs while being open to  improvements: “I think inclusivity [includes] not only being invited to the table, but also having your needs and your opinions value. Recognizing that we can’t necessarily get everything perfect and having our community be open to continual efforts around improving things and making things better so that all people with all different types of needs can access whatever it is that we’re trying to do collaboratively.”

Strategies for Accessibility and Inclusion in Meetings

Panelists shared practical strategies for making community meetings more accessible. Kaufman-Mthimkhulu encouraged attendees to think beyond checklists and universal accessibility and consider the individual needs of people with disabilities.

Kaufman-Mthimkhulu also noted the importance of transparency when community meetings are not accessible: “So being clear and transparent around like these are the ways that we are practicing access, and these are the ways we’re not. And I think that makes folks uncomfortable sometimes to be honest about what we’re not doing. But for example, as somebody who was a mobility device user, I would rather know before I show up out of space that I can’t get in because there’s a flight of stairs, and then I can choose to do something else with my time.”

Rethinking Public Processes for Inclusivity

Panelists discussed the barriers people with disabilities and who speak languages other than English face when participating in public meetings, as well as the positive impact making things accessible has on everyone’s ability to engage fully

Rodas emphasized this by stating “We used to be able to testify via Zoom and that was taken away. That doesn’t just affect people with disabilities, but also effects people that have multiple jobs, that have different hours of work that have to take care of their families.”

Addressing Resource Constraints in Accessibility Efforts

The conversation touched on the narrative that accessibility efforts are often hampered by resource constraints.  Kaufman-Mthimkhulu emphasized that accessibility is not a choice: “Accessibility services are one of those things that cost money, which means that we have to be prioritizing that in our budget the same way that we are prioritizing payroll or we’re prioritizing other things that feel like really core and essential parts of our organization. Access has to be in there.”

Accessibility in the Context of Racial Equity

A key point of discussion was the intersection of accessibility with racial equity. Panelists discussed the complex relationships between community members with marginalized identities  and the police.

Kaufman-Mthimkhulu discussed the intersections of disability and racial justice “We know that at least 50% of people who are killed by police are disabled. When I’m doing my work in community mental health with people who are in psychiatric hospitals, people who are incarcerated, mental health and disability is always part of the equation. And racialized people are dealing with disability at extremely higher rates.”

The session concluded with a robust Q&A, allowing participants to engage directly with the panelists and delve deeper into the nuances of accessibility and inclusion.

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