Dreaming of a more accessible post-pandemic world
By: Tanya Neumeyer
Tags: Disability Rights, Disability, Poet, Disability Justice, Dreams

One of the things I love about being a poet is that I get to be part of important cultural conversations. I’ve been in the room listening to the poets gather their first words after a celebration or after a crisis. It always feels like a privilege. I love the way that spoken word opens up space for important conversations. One of the conversations I’m listening closely to now is about what the new “normal” might look like.

Many of us are thinking of this time as a liminal space, as a time to evaluate what we bring forward with us into a post-pandemic world. As we notice how things are changing, I find myself wondering what conversations about disability might now be possible. Able-bodied people are experiencing new levels of uncertainty, loss of health, and lack of clear health information. These experiences might build a bridge between people with disabilities and able-bodied people.

Some of the impacts of chronic illness and disability include: not being able to work, feeling the impacts of chronic stress on the body, experiencing strain on financial resources, and a lack of funds for making more suitable arrangements.

The impacts listed here have already affected my life through living with arthritis. Unfortunately, huge numbers of people are now experiencing similar stressors because of COVID-19.

We have had to do so much to respond to the crises created by this pandemic. Protocols for travel and gatherings have changed in drastic and rapid ways. Workplaces are moving work online where possible. Arts institutions have put events online and made them financially accessible. The Canadian government has made emergency financial support available.

Changes like these have been fought for by people with disabilities for decades. As a result of the current changes, new conversations seem possible. I hope some of the new infrastructure created continues to be used where applicable. What might supporting people with disabilities on a long term basis now look like?

At the Toronto Poetry Slam, for example, we moved our poetry show online on March 14th and will soon have our 6th biweekly event online. When we return to the Drake Hotel, our home venue, I hope we will create a better and more accessible, new ‘normal’. The venue has no elevator and many stairs, so I will be advocating for our collective to offer a zoom room as an accessible space.

For those of us who had already lived with unique needs and great uncertainty in the pre-pandemic times, our modes of centring care in our lives might seem radical by conventional standards. Imagine what it might be like to need support to get groceries for the rest of your life. A need like this requires on-going care from a dedicated person or network of people. Receiving this on-going support is a layered and complex human experience. Communities of people with disabilities have created and are sustaining interdependent systems of care. Able bodied people had not necessarily been aware of this long standing work.

During the time of COVID-19, much of these resources and intellectual labour are being shared generously. Of course we all want to help each other out. I think that’s where the saying, ‘We’re all in this together’ springs from. I hope that the ‘we’ will be broadly defined enough to include people with disabilities. I hope you will do your research to learn where ideas for networks of care, care pods, and other forms of accessibility were originally developed. One of the best resources I know is the book Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.

There is no doubt that COVID-19 will have a long and devastating legacy. Experiences of grief, loss, and isolation are some of the difficult mental health impacts of this time. Isolation can result from needing care that is not structurally provided for. People with disabilities may experience some of the deepest moments of isolation during this time of wider isolation.

We need to think systemically to work to mitigate the impacts on the most vulnerable, including those of us who are immunocompromised, those with chronic illnesses, disabilities, mental health conditions, the elderly — and those whose experiences intersect with marginalization through race, class, sex, gender, family structure, trauma, and more. There are a multitude of needs that the most vulnerable require structural support with. For example, in Ontario access to assistive devices was somehow not deemed to be an essential service. This is unacceptable and requires the political support of able-bodied allies.

My friend Verlia Stephens says, “Centre the most marginalized and everyone benefits.” If we work to support people with disabilities, everyone benefits. If we continue to work to prevent isolation where possible, everyone benefits. If there are ways that the world has been made more accessible in this time, let’s work to ensure that those changes stay with us in a post-pandemic world.