Limitations of Traditional Disability Justice/ Disability Rights Movement
- Ignores Intersectionality
- Race, Religion, Gender, SES, Immigration Status, Cultural Values
- White-male-hetrosexual-Centric. White-privilege centric
- (eg: Parallels in Psychology Research which is WEIRD-centric: Western Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic Countries)
- Power/Status-Centric
- Centered around people who have achieved status through legal framework,
- Why: Rights have to be won by litigation. So unequal access to rights across the board. You don’t sue, you lose
- Mobility-Impairment Centric
- Access needs as beyond architectural barriers.
- All mind-bodies unique and essential
- All mind-bodies have strengths + needs that must be met
- All mind-bodies are Powerful, despite complexities
- Mind-Bodies are confined by & cannot be separated from our intersectionalities.
- Connectedness
- Interdependence
- Relational & transformative framework.
Sins Invalid. 10 Principles of Disability Justice
- Intersectionality
- Leadership of the Most Impacted
- Anti-capitalist Politic
- Commitment to Cross-movement organizing
- Reorganizing wholeness
- Sustainability
- Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity
- Interdependence
- Collective Access
- Collective Liberation
1. Intersectionality
Impacted by White Privilege,/ Colonial legacy
Intersectionality is not about who is suffering the most but about who is impacted in which areas.
- Within our own intersectionality we experience privilege in some areas and oppression in others; varying across context.
Me --> Autistic + ADHD + other medical/sensory/mood/communication issues + South-Indian descent + Tamil Hindu Iyengar Brahmin + vegetarian + multilingual etc.
- Recognize Disability is not a vacuum.
- Collaborate on overlapping issues
- What else?
2. Leadership of the Most Impacted
- System impacts are not equal.
- People most hurt by the system often have a better understanding of what all is wrong with that system.
What Can be Done
- Prioritize the more marginalized voices
- Be aware of hierarchies within disability
- Eg: an unspoken hierarchy means unequal access
- What else?
3. Anti-capitalist Politic
- Disabled Mind-Body is anti-capitalist
- Why:
- Capitalism = Survival of Fittest
- Competition towards wealth accumulation, land acquisition for the ruling class.
- Therefore:
- By definition the “non-normative” mind-body of disabled people are invalidated.
What can be done
- Rethink Worth of an individual beyond as beyond productivity. Eg: some may not be able to “contribute” in the traditional sense due the more significant disability and THAT’s OK!!
- Work on issues that are exacerbated by capitalism Eg: homeless disabled, health care, poverty
- Access at times has a “price tag” in capitalist society- so either need to be creative with solutions or organize funding sources.
- What else?
4. Commitment to Cross-movement organizing
- A relational and transformation framework of Disability Justice means we need to think about disability and ableism in many different ways
- Learn from other movements
- Paraphrasing what Stuart James, Director of CIL said during class visit to Ed Roberts Campus, Spring 2018 Sem.
- “We need to learn from the Gay Rights movement which in just 30 years has become mainstream. “
What can be done?
- Disability does not exist in vacuum
- You can reach out for allies in unlikely places.
- Eg: Reproductive justice is Disability justice. , Climate Justice is Disability Justice
- Mixed movement organizing (“nurturing old ways & inventing new ways)
- What else?
5. Reorganizing wholeness
- Disabled people are whole people
- Everyone is a living breathing thinking individual with emotions, sensations, perceptions and quirks.
- Reject capitalist notion of worth of an individual as tied to his perceived “productivity”
- Recognize & support: “We all struggle together” imperfectly
- What else?
6. Sustainability
- Transformation needs to be deep, longlasting and sustained.
- But Transformation does not happen overnight.
- Disabled mind-body needs to be paced according to the “spoons” available to us.
- “Rest is resistance, Survival is resistance, Anything else is extra”
- Group effort, flexible schedules/ deadlines
- Avoid Burnout
- What else?
7. Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity
- There can be NO Disability Justice, unless there is Disability Justice for all.
- “Honor insights of all community members”
- “We are trying to break down barriers”
- Means working together. Collaboration
- Connections that cross living, advocacy and education.
- Eg: autism + deaf have communication access as a common issue.
- What else?
8. Interdependence
- State Solutions → they control our lives
- Interdependence → we control our lives & help each other. (Our interdependence with other humans & nature was already part of our unconscious before western colonization.)
- Check ins
- How to ask for help & communicate needs
- Share spoons
- What else?
9. Collective Access
- Access Needs are not shameful / not a favor
- Access Needs are not fixed - depend on context and environment.
- We can share responsibility for our access needs.
- Needs community, shared responsibility and creative out-of-the-box nuances.
What Can be Done
- Pool resources
- What else?
10. Collective Liberation
- Disability justice is a vision.
- Moving together is what gets us to liberation
- We are all survivors. “Listen to the Canaries”
- “We honor the longstanding legacies of resilience & resistance” for all non-conforming mind-bodies.
- Recognize: “moving together does not mean we move in the same way;” we are still valued in any way we move.
- What else?
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