This Is What Ableism Looks Like
A real-life example of what ableism and micro-aggressions look like in action
Rather than one or two overt, obvious, significant incidents, those of us who are both marginalized and privileged often experience a multitude of micro-aggressions. These wear away at us until we lose our patience with society’s ableist crap, and then people wonder why we’re “freaking out” over a minor inconvenience.
Newsflash: It’s no longer minor when it happens every damn day.
This week is Hearing Awareness Week, and I think rather than promoting awareness about hearing loss, we need to make Hearing people more Deaf Aware. More importantly, we need to make larger corporations and institutions more Deaf aware.
Aware that we, Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, exist in the world.
Aware that we, Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, deserve equal access.
This is a much larger issue in which our society has decided people should find their own solutions, rather than expecting corporations to make their services accessible.
The responsibility is on the larger institutions, corporations, organizations, and government bodies to ensure their services are accessible.
The onus should not be put on individuals to devise their own accessibility strategies, one at a time, so the businesses don’t have to make any changes. That’s foolish, inefficient, and ableist.
Read my full article in An Injustice!