Doors and Stairs: An Experience of Accessibility

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PHOTO BY PETR Kratochvil on Public Domain pictures

Close your eyes for a moment. Picture yourself in the multiple spaces that you engage in daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. Consider your family, your circle of friends, your workplace, your community. In any of those places, do you feel othered? Othering is the practice of excluding a group of people due to characteristics that are different from the dominant group (Tarvainen, 2019). When you enter the world as a person with a physical disability, you are entering the world as an identifiable “other.”

Living with a physical disability has its challenges. Each activity of daily living (e.g., bathing, eating, cleaning, shopping, working) requires using your body. Each space that you engage in brings new and different barriers that you must navigate. Each person that you encounter offers a next opportunity to be gawked at, ignored, underestimated, and/or excluded. You become aware of the needs of others who must navigate this world with both visible and invisible factors that limit their access in a multitude of ways; you come to learn that physical disability may not be the most disabling condition. What disables an individual is not their medical diagnosis or physical limitation—it is the way the world treats them.

Moving toward an inclusive and accessible world and society requires a clear understanding of the scope of the issue. It requires clarity on what is meant by inclusive and accessible, which is an ongoing obstacle highlighted by Penchansky and Thomas (1981) who wrote: “The problem is not limited to the lack of a precise definition for access, or the multiple meanings given to the term; access also is used synonymously with such terms as accessible and available, which are themselves ill-defined” (p. 127). This pervasive concern exists within conversations about disability, physical and mental healthcare, employment and education opportunities, housing, transportation, and publicly funded financial support.

Within the framework of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and perhaps more particularly that of inclusion, there exists a further need for direct attention to barriers in accessibility. Defined as “the design, construction, development, and maintenance of facilities, information and communication technology, programs, and services so that all people, including people with disabilities, can fully and independently use them” (Hussein et al., 2023, p.2), this definition fails to identify who is responsible to ensure accessibility for all. This article proposes a simple intervention to help begin to bring attention to accessibility needs and to recognize our collective responsibility for ensuring the access and inclusion of people with disabilities.

Disability is the dynamic interaction between an individual’s health condition and the environment (“Disability,” n.d.). Through this lens, individuals with disabilities are limited by barriers imposed by society, including inaccessible environments, marginalizing social structures, and restrictive attitudes about disability. The social model of disability recognizes that disability is a natural part of life and that the challenges an individual faces lie within society (Owens, 2015). Society creates the barriers—physical, programmatic, attitudinal, and systemic—that profoundly limit the advancement of persons with disabilities. Under the social model of disability, it is the responsibility of institutions (e.g., government, business, academic institutions, and nonprofits) to adapt to the needs of people with disabilities, provide reasonable accommodations, and ensure accessible and inclusive products and services.

Now consider this scenario: A disabled person, Alex, in a wheelchair approaches a college admissions building with double doors. After using the push-plate button to open the door, the first set of doors swing open slowly, and Alex approaches the second set, only to find that the inner doors do not function properly. Alex turns around, leaves the entrance, and finds their way to a side door with functioning push plates. Alex, having gained access to the building, now needs to attend a student wellness meeting on the second floor and is faced with an elevator that is out of order. Alex emails the group to ask about rescheduling, which is not possible due to deadlines. As a compromise, Alex joins the meeting via Zoom from a small study room. Later that day, Alex tries to attend a free play being produced on campus. Alex again faces malfunctioning doors and relies on the help of a fellow attendee who informs Alex that the first level has stairs that would keep them from entering, but the second-floor entrance is wheelchair accessible. Alex navigates to an elevator tucked in the back of the building, and upon arriving at the second-floor entrance, Alex is shown to the last row of the theater, the only row with accessible seating.

 What are Alex’s experiences in these situations? Although Alex was provided physical access, was their experience equitable? How would it impact Alex’s experience if they were multiracial? Being relegated to the back of the theater and required, due to malfunctioning equipment, to utilize an alternative entrance can carry triggering reminders of inequality and oppression. The lack of accessibility for some may be seen as a minor inconvenience, while others may see it as overt statements about those that do and do not belong in spaces. While accessibility within the DEI framework is focused on physical access to spaces, Alex’s experience suggests that accessibility issues are also inherently entangled with perceptions and concerns about inclusion and belonging, for how one can feel included in a space they cannot access. As noted, accessibility is about having access to a space or an opportunity. Alex had to fight for access. Inclusion takes accessibility to the next level and requires that individuals are engaged with, listened to, and afforded equal opportunities once they gain access. Belonging, as defined by Prilleltensky (2020), is adding value and feeling valued, and it is an integral factor in increasing accessibility and inclusion.

We each have a responsibility to foster access, inclusion, and belonging. For people with disabilities, that includes fostering an accessible environment. When you are not a person with a disability, this may be hard to understand.

Here is a simple intervention to help you connect. For a designated amount of time (12–24 hours), the use of door handles and stairs is prohibited. By embodying their experience, this intervention, based in mindfulness practice (Jones et al., 2019) and empathy research (van Rhyn et al., 2021), is used to illuminate and bring attention to the daily accessibility issues faced by disabled individuals. This practice is highly adaptable to the needs and culture of academic, professional, and public spaces. On an organizational level, it can be utilized by maintenance staff to stay aware of possible malfunctions across the building or campus, helping them to stay ahead of concerns and increasing the engagement of people with disabilities in those spaces. On a community level, the practice can be adopted for a day by an entire campus or community to increase visibility and highlight needs across a broad area. You can take your connection to this experience further by answering the following reflection questions:

  • Overall, how did the experience make you feel?

  • Were you able to access the places, products, programs, etc. that you needed?

    • If so, how was that possible?

    • If not, how did that make you feel?

  • If you had to ask for assistance, what was that experience like for you?

  • Did you get looks or reactions from bystanders that made you feel othered?

Accessibility ensures everybody has the means or tools to reach the table. Inclusion guarantees a seat and relevant opportunities when there. And belonging focuses on developing supportive spaces where each person’s contributions are welcomed and valued (Howard, n.d). The intervention as proposed allows you to gain the vantage point of an individual with a physical disability. The disability experience of each individual is unique. You can adjust your understanding by considering other types of disability such as blind/visually impaired, deaf/hard of hearing, Parkinson’s disease, anxiety, cognitive disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, or any number of other disabilities that come to mind for you. Importantly, connect to how it feels to be faced with a man-made barrier—physical, social, or governmental—and what you can do to reduce or eliminate these barriers within the spaces that you occupy. Your voice and actions are needed.

 Please, explore the following resources on the status of people with disabilities, and consider how you can be an effective ally for accessibility needs.

 

References

Howard, J. (n.d.). What do we mean by accessibility, inclusion & belonging? InclusionHub. https://www.inclusionhub.com/articles/a11y-at-salesforce#:~:text=So%2C%20if%20accessibility%20ensures%20everybody,person%20feels%20welcome%20and%20valued.

Hussain, S. F., Vogel, A. L., Faupel-Badger, J. M., Ho, L., Akacem, L. D., Balakrishnan, K., Geiger, R., Gopal-Srivastava, R., Haynes, B., Hodges, M. G., Isler, T., Mathe, E. A., Misquitta, L., Sharma, K. R., Sid, E., Zigterman, J. L., & Burgoon, P. W. (2023). DEIA is essential to advance the goals of translational science: Perspectives from NCATS. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 7(1), 1–8.

Jones, S. M., Bodie, G. D., & Hughes, S. D. (2019). The impact of mindfulness on empathy, active listening, and perceived provisions of emotional support. Communication Research, 46(6), 838–865.

Owens, J. (2015). Exploring the critiques of the social model of disability: The transformative possibility of Arendt's notion of power. Sociology of Health & Illness, 37(3), 385–403.

Penchansky, R., & Thomas, J. W. (1981). The concept of access: definition and relationship to consumer satisfaction. Medical Care, 19(2), 127–140.

Prilleltensky, I. (2020). Mattering at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and politics. American Journal of Community Psychology, 65(1–2), 16–34.

Tarvainen, M. (2019). Ableism and the life stories of people with disabilities. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research 21(1). http://dx.doi.org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.16993/sjdr.632

World Health Organization (n.d) Disability. Recovered from https://www.who.int/health-topics/disability#tab=tab_1

van Rhyn, B., Barwick, A., & Donelly, M. (2021). Embodiment as an instrument for empathy in social work. Australian Social Work, 74(2), 146–158.

 

About the authors | Chenaniah (Chenny) Henderson (C’23; pronounced Ken.uh.nye.uh, or Kenny for short), is a lecturer in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Masters program at State University of New York (SUNY) Plattsburgh. Previously, he was a Rehabilitation Practitioner with Behavioral Health Services North. Working directly with a population with serious mental health issues in their homes and communities has given Chenny an appreciation for the perspectives and methods of positive psychology—helping clients, and now students, to lean into their strengths as a way to balance their focus on their struggles. Chenny serves in both the MAPP Alumni Association’s DEIA+ committee and the Faculty Senate at SUNY Plattsburgh. Outside of academics, he’s an avid gamer, anime fan, and the lucky husband of his wife, Joana. 

Elizabeth Jennings (C’17) serves as the Deputy Director of National Disability Institute (NDI). In this leadership capacity, she oversees operations, manages grants and contracts, provides guidance to multiple teams, and champions an inclusive organizational culture of belonging and mattering.

Elizabeth has worked in support of the disability community for the past 25 years. Highlights of her work include research on the financial status of people with disabilities, training on the interplay of employment and public benefits, and contributions to NDI projects that have advanced inclusion, facilitated employment, increased savings, and improved the banking rate of people with disabilities.

Elizabeth is a member of the class of MAPP 12 and an active alumna. She is passionate about fostering meaningful dialogues on workplace well-being, cultivating employee resilience, and championing interventions that nurture and amplify the unique strengths of individuals within the disability community.