access

The Crip Camp Revolution: Making Spaces Accessible

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The common American student has very little exposure to disability studies in public education. This lack of curriculum is unacceptable and narrows the minds of young folks across the country. Many of those who do know about disability studies are living it first-hand. Imagine what it’s like as a student who never sees their own experience taught about in the classroom; how isolating that would be. There are dozens of methods that can be used to accurately portray disability studies, but all come from a place that centers disabled voices. Crip Camp is a documentary produced by a disabled man about disabled people. It is the perfect film to introduce students to the world of disability.  

 Crip Camp retells disability through the lens of a revolution—the revolution of access. What begins with a couple of disabled kids at summer camp (Camp Jened), leads to a national headline celebrating the triumph of a 28-day sit-in in a Berkeley Federal Health, Education, and Welfare building. The documentary tells the story of how those kids went from singing songs with a bunch of hippies, to sleeping on federal grounds in protest of their federally sanctioned mistreatment in the US.  

Camp Jened, where it all started, was a revolutionary space. It was a crip space that allowed campers to be fully themselves. Keywords for Disability Studies defines “access” as “the power, opportunity, permission, or right to come near or into contact with someone or something”. Camp Jened was accessible. It provided power, opportunity, permission, and the right for the campers to be unapologetically themselves; and that is why it is revolutionary. This disability revolution was not because of pity for non-disabled people, but rather, because of impassioned, driven, and brilliant disabled folks themselves. Crip Camp is highly relatable, not just for disabled folks, but for any high schooler looking to make a difference.  

Crip Camp provides a deviant perspective of disability. It portrays disabled kids and adults in a way that is anti-normative. It successfully tells a story of disabled high schoolers as they are (which again, is revolutionary). This exposure is essential for high schoolers, as mainstream media often portrays disabled folks as inspirationporn or pity parties. The documentary accurately depicts the campers at Jened in a way that humanizes them, much unlike how they were treated outside the camp. It features segments of their patience, sexual exploration, messing up, desire for popularity, and daily needs through a disability studies lens.  

Accessibility, like that within Camp Janed (and that portrayed throughout the entirety of Crip Camp), is worth fighting for. The advocates in this film bring the audience on their journey of fighting. The revolution is not going to be handed over, Crip Camp tells a story of fighting for justice in a country that claims freedom. Several events are included in the documentary, including the month-long sit-in, the “capital crawl” in demand for ADA, and countless other protests; these events are historic markers to progress in our country. They are hopeful, encouraging, and ideally leave activists hungry for even more! Crip Camp pushes the limits; the limits of spaces, of people, of government. And I push you to use it in your classroom.  

Interplay: Or My Evolving Understandings of Dependency, Access, and Accommodation in the Context of ENG 401 and Disability Studies.

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A) My current understanding of disability studies: The completion of this Composite Essay has brought me to consider what I know at this time about disability studies, based on my three weeks as a student in ENG 401. This far into our course, I understand disability studies to be the academic interpretation of disability, especially in play with society, beginning with the principle that disability exists as a social construct and not a physical condition. A disability may stem from various physical or mental impairments, but those do not inherently make someone disabled. So, disability studies would strive as a cause to re-educate the public through disability awareness, and establish more equitable systems in society for those who are disabled.  Personally, I subscribe to the social model of disability, which proposes that disability arises from social barriers as opposed to physical impairments. I resonated with the model after reading the chapter “Reassigning Meaning” by Simi Linton from Claiming Disability, one of our Week One assigned texts. Something I find particularly relevant to my understanding of disability studies from this chapter is the way Linton regards disability terminologies, which she claims “have been used to arrange people in ways that are socially and economically convenient to the society” (Linton 9-10), and this precedes even their definitions. In my experience, becoming aware that American society is not inherently designed to accommodate disability, at first, carries a charge of blame to it, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where or to whom. While perhaps our lawmakers have work yet to do, I think Linton’s observations illustrate an important point; that disabled people are a minority, and that societies unfortunately trend towards expediency to accommodate the largest number of people with the least resources. So, the minority status of disability is central. I think this helps to get at the definition of disability studies, too, because much of the focus of disability studies is in identifying gaps in accessibility, which helps institutions to avoid oppressing the disabled and lowering their quality of life. On page 12, Linton writes that “a premise of most of the literature in disability studies is that disability is best understood as a marker of identity”, and I like to extend this to disability studies as well, which approaches disability as a highly integrated facet of the self as part of the whole bodymind. So, disability studies, in short, is a sociocultural understanding of disability as a construct, with an emphasis on equity and inclusion and in resistance to the classic, medicalized understanding of disability. Or that’s what I know of the topic so far in this course.

B) What I would like to see more of as the quarter continues: Our class had a discussion last week on what topics we would like to pivot towards as the quarter drags on, and I maintain interest in disability and masking, workplace discrimination, and crip theory. As well, I would appreciate further instruction in rhetoric, because I felt my writing skills get stronger almost immediately after reading the Grant-Davie text. Having the language to articulate someone else’s argument in abstraction from the text has been a massive insight for me. I know that the rhetoric is secondary to the disability studies focus of the course, but it has been what’s stuck with me the most so far. Of course, the three topics below are also things I would like to revisit further into the quarter.

C) Three concepts with significance to me thus far: For the third part of this composite piece, I’ve selected three topics that have been on my mind, and in my journal, recurrently this quarter. I’m going to discuss dependency, access, and accommodation, because I think these topics are similar in a lot of ways, but distinct, and they identify some of the social ‘rubs’ of disability. The topics are highly interconnected in the adult sphere of disabled life: for example, graditations of dependence requiring improved accessibility and accommodation to manage, improving access helping to manage dependency, and accommodations which improve access in society. Social opinion is heavily enforced by these topics, which are often subject to public scrutiny, as there’s usually a democratic process to expanding access/accommodation using public funds. I am interested in the way each topic feeds into the next, and with my interest in theory, have been priority topics for me thus far in the course.

Concept one: Dependency

I’ll start with dependency, which I view as one part of disability that society is not capable of ignoring, and has an obligation not to dismiss. Unfortunately, the responsibilities of providing economic support, additional needed care or technology to those who would require them has poisoned society’s understanding of dependence as anything other than a social problem. Eva Feder Kettay, who authored the chapter “Dependency” from Keywords for Disability Studies, wrote that many scholars of disability acknowledge, contrary to this, that “what undermines the ability of disabled people to flourish is the view that being self-sufficient, self-reliant, and self determining is the norm, and the only desirable state of persons in a liberal society” (Kettay 54). Dependency isn’t a lack of independence; rather a state of recurrent need for assistance in some way. Viewing those who are dependent as a sunk cost invites the incorrect assertions that teaching independence “ultimately saves public expenditures because the provisions sought are less costly” (Kettay 57). Dependency is a relationship which can be managed, and managing dependency allows those needing care to “select and optimize the opportunities that such acknowledgment makes possible”, growing synergistically with those involved in their care to where both parties feel respected and understood (Kettay 58). I wanted to address dependency first because dependency seems to be the line at which society takes issue with disability. As well, society’s understandings of both access and accommodation are both intimately informed by understandings of dependency, and what dependency looks like, and what it allegedly costs to the public.

Concept two: Access

Second to dependency, I believe the concept of access is a helpful foil, and is a topic that has dominated our class discussions this quarter, so is worthy of notice. Chapter three of Keywords for Disability Studies, by Bess Williamson, is all about access. Williamson defines it access in a few ways: as “ the ability to enter into, move about within, and operate the facilities of a site, and is associated with architectural features and technologies, including wheelchair ramps, widened toilet stalls, lever-shaped door-handles, Braille lettering, and closed-caption video”, but also acknowledges the figurative aspect of access, the “set of meanings linked to a more inclusive society with greater opportunities for social and political participation” (Williamson 14). The type of access I had considered over the quarter so far would be access in society; to jobs, resources, experiences, states; so, the first kind Williamson mentions. It’s this kind of access that the disabled are not privy to in whatever regard which sets the field of ableist privilege in society. I agree with Williamson that besides representing a type of social liberty, access and accessibility convey “arguments about rights and opportunities” (Williamson 15). Access is in this way a positive skew on the elimination of opportunities, but must not mandate “overcoming the reality of barriers” (Williamson 17). Access is not achievability, but availability. It’s through examining access that accommodation can be taken, anyhow.

Concept three: Accommodation

As mentioned twice above, I view accommodation is the praxis of access. I would have said walking into this class that accommodation was a goal of disability advocates outright, but today I would say that it is part of a customization process that some disabled people elect for and pursue to achieve better social inclusion. I was surprised that Keywords for Disability Studies’ chapter on accomodation, by Elizabeth F. Emens, only really acknowledges accomodation in institutional terms. Although the term first “gained prominence as a keyword in disability politics and theory through legal discourse” (Emens 18), it has since gone on to describe the set of manipulable parameters an institution can customize to better suit the needs of an employee, student, customer, client, etc. therein. As something that exists between institution and individual, accommodation is an intensely litigated topic, and Emens believes that to some scholars it will “always be too limited a model”,  because it’s “grounded in antidiscrimination principles” from its origins in the courthouse (Emens 20). I think that accommodation is central to disability studies because it exists in the liminal space between exclusion and inclusion, so when accommodations are available there is an additional responsibility that they must be freely and readily given. Part of my own frustration with the institutions who helped to manage my disability when I was young were the inconsistencies in delivering accommodations. To our class, the topic of accommodation is treated almost as an option to rectify the exclusion of societies which are ableist by design, and has so been a third and final focus of mine this quarter.

Conclusions:

I chose to discuss dependency, access, and accommodation because of how connected they are to each other, and to public conceptions of disability in society, one concern of disability studies. As the quarter progresses, I do expect my understanding of these topics to change, and something I would be interested in is revising this essay at the end of the quarter and measuring my academic growth on these topics. I’m grateful for the chance to be in class every day, growing my understanding, and I hope my empathy, but I am by no means a definitive authority on any of these topics. 

Works cited:

Linton, Simi. (1998). Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. “Reassigning Meaning” pp. 8-17. New York University Press.


Adams, R., Serlin, D., & Serlin, D. (2015). Keywords for Disability Studies (Keywords). Chapters by: Emens, Elizabeth F., Kettay, Eva F., Williamson, Bess. “Accomodation”. “Dependency”. “Access”. New York: NYU Press.

“An Unshamed Claim to Beauty in the Face of Invisibility”

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“Sins Invalid”, while the name of the documentary that ENG 401 viewed in class last Friday, is also the name of the disability justice visual-and-performing-arts troupe starring in that film. Based in the Bay Area of San Francisco, Sins Invalid is experienced similarly to an onstage lookbook: it is a performance that explores beauty, desire, the body, and identity through disability, paying careful respect to the intersectional lines of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Over the 33 minutes of the film artists Cara Page, Seeley Quest, Maria Palacios, Nomy Lamm, ET Russian, Antoine Hunter, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Rodney Bell and Mat Fraser are interviewed about their performance and the motivations behind their various creative expressions on stage. Since 2006, the group have performed on a rotating basis, and are allowed to choose their own acts. A single performance offers everything from slam poetry to aerial gymnastics, all with a focus on the beauty in self-realization among the disabled, and letting go of the ableist myth that our fullest lives and disability are mutually exclusive things.

Chapter two on “Ability” from Keywords for Disability Studies, by Fiona Kumari Campbell, posits that ableism “is useful for thinking not just about disability but also about other forms of difference that result in marginality or disadvantage” (Adams et al. 14). Sins invalid, which is run entirely by disabled people of color, makes this a focus of their work within the disability facet of the performance. Seeley Quest’s performance as “Carrie”, a pregnant foster youth, exemplifies these “forms of difference”, and demonstrates the avenues by which disabled people are too often taken advantage of (financially and sexually in Carrie’s case) when they are not adequately accommodated by the systems in which they must live.

The next chapter of Keywords for Disability Studies, “Access”, by Bess Williamson, adds that our modern pressures to accommodate the disabled “[follow] the logic of the ‘social model’ of disability, which shifts attention from the impaired body to the surrounding environment” (Adams et al. 15). Williamson means here that the social model of disability sees disability as defined by society, not the way someone is born. This reminded me most of the performance of Mat Fraser, who spars with an imaginary foe onstage as audio clips of derisive comments play in the background. As the comments continue, Mat falls and convulses on the ground, unable to get up, with blood streaming from his mouth. I believe at this moment Mat intended to show how the impairments of stigma, judgement, and low self-esteem themselves become a barrier, perhaps equal to or sometimes greater than the physical challenge presented by a given disability.

Personally, I enjoyed the film for its intimacy in subject, because to me it proved another level of sincerity and frankness in a discussion on bodies. How can that not include love, sex, and romance? However, I also noticed the uneasiness in the class when the nude bodies came on screen. In this country, it’s more acceptable to show a video of a shootout than a female nipple in most circumstances, so I understand their reservations. But, I think that awkward feeling is partially intentional on the behalf of Sins Invalid, as it makes us consider what should be normalized (like the scene where Mat washes himself onstage) for the human body in society, and also reconsider what bodies we do see onstage most frequently and why.

I would rate this documentary four stars because I thought it was a bit poorly produced for a documentary about a performing arts crew (you’d think they’d have better cameras in 2013), but the amount of time spent interviewing the actual artists and not the company was refreshing to me. Aesthetically, and in terms of the message, absolutely a five star film. If nothing else, Sins Invalid is a beautiful performance, and I think the artists important work bringing justice to all “forms of difference” at a degree of inclusivity that felt new to me as a consumer.