[Wet swaths of blue and purple with bold text on top, some text is hidden. Complete text in image reads: Question Access. Who leads? What is the future being dreamed? How are people treated? What is the aesthetic? How does it feel? What is prioritized? How are things decided? How are people held accountable? Where is access practiced? Whose needs are met?]
[A room of Zoom boxes with many people wiggling with ideas together.]
Question Access
with IDEO and The Curiosity Paradox
Whether you came to the live event or are accessing these recordings after the fact, welcome! Thank you for engaging.
This is the companion page for the “Question Access: Standard Access Against Access Art" facilitated session with IDEO and The Curiosity Paradox on Friday, August 12th from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM PST.
This presentation was offered in collaboration with IDEO’s Inclusive Design Collective and support from the Disabilities @ IDEO employee resource group.
The Curiosity Paradox is available to give consultations, practice accessible meeting spaces, and facilitate more learning sessions. Feel free to schedule time together if you would like to connect, or send us an email: work@TheCuriosityParadox.com.
Feedback.
We invite you to share your experience so that we can continue to improve this work, please submit feedback with this form. If Google Forms is not accessible to you, we will happily offer an alternate format. Contact us.
Recording.
The recording of this session is available in video and audio formats. We celebrate folks who participate with this work asynchronously.
Video on YouTube
Audio Recording in m4a
Session Script
This is the script that was used for our session. Feel free to follow along. If Google Docs is not accessible to you, please let us know and we will happily provide a different format.
Live Responses.
These are the anonymous live responses participants contributed throughout our session.
Please share feelings, sensations, thoughts, or images that come up for you through the first part of our session.
[Colorful word cloud. Responses read: NervousButExcited, freedom, gaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy, inhaling deeper, ready to learn, power, Fabulous, safe, seen, love, curious, delight, alive, wiggly, safe, welcomed, Joy, Calm, Grateful, Relieved, Seen, Understood, Blanket, Eager, welcomed, eager, care, transparent, open, comfortable, considerate, inspiring, curious, eager to learn, anxious, relief, grounded, curious, joy, hope, intrigued, sleepy interested, templative, Stiff, Welcomed, Spacious, wiggle wiggle WIGGLE, my back, messy, anxious, overwhelmed, joy, excited, ready to listen, Queer Neurodiverse, Excited, In community, warm, excited, happy, belonging. Emphasis on “welcomed,” “joy,” “curious,” “excited,” and “anxious.”]
What feels most exciting about this text?
Word Cloud
[Colorful word cloud. Responses read: access art, education, pleasure activism, free, generous, liberation, art, flora, resistance, joy, design by, disabled people at core, fubu, juxtaposition, leadership of dreamers, naming supremacy culture, access on display, inclusion, indulging, tension and discomfort, self-definition, out of the box, hopeful, dreaming, access on display, joy is in there, enlightening, space, breaking free, mutualistic, creation, unlocking, welcomed, leadership, possibility, core to public life, celebration, opening eyes, open, neurodiverse inclusive, interrogating power, comforted, water, belonging, redefining, access as art not laws, core to aesthetic, unhidden celebrated, beautiful thriving public, growing resources ]
Text Responses
[Colorful boxes with individual long-form responses. Responses read: “emphasis on who leads” “Standard Access others people.” “Seems like Standard Access tries to fit people to a mold designed by / centered around non-disabled people.” “emerges based on who is present.” “opening new doors in magic / illusion through access art.” “beautiful relief” “process comfort and PLAY” “time and capacity respected and honored” “Organic squishy fractal expanding” “Not anarchy, ut rules that are responsive.” “Safety in boundaries and recognizing that.” “People with the most needs help negotiate the rules.” “I’m reminded of working in architecture where accessibility was trained as meeting codes, not meeting human needs.” “The pace of this content is slower than what I’m used to in meetings and it’s a relief.” “Care and attention for everyone, with resources naturally flowing to need vs. power.” “Better futures for inclusive design.” “respect” “equitability, harmony, respect and growth.” “Diverse solutions for diverse environments and needs. Holistic approaches. Comprehensive outcomes.” “Variation, process, comfort are all a focus on access that is much broader.” “robust variation.” “Montessori, nutrient environments, overall health.” “Inclusive, respectful, energizing.” “I imagine a future where emotional labor is seen as an important and necessary resource and one that is well compensated.” “Equitable, accountable, and solutions based.” “learning together from failure.” “Human centered and open-hearted.” “I love how this challenges traditional values upheld by capitalism.” “The difference between “inviting” and “centering” marginalized and disabled folks is at the heart of everything.” “experts in lived experience BOOM” “I feel the spaciousness of this session. A single idea. Time to process it. Then another single idea.” “Access is RESPECT and builds TRUST.” “The aesthetic of access art is one of centering and not disappearing Disability.” “I like the time to digest. My Neurodiverse brain is loving this.” “Love the addition of PLAY.” “The bridge from the starkly functional that’s often resentful and an afterthought to something playful, and embedded, and beautiful.” “For Us By Us.” “Reflection and Feedback are part of the tool. Love it!” “participatory” “Love that idea of accountability through love not fear.” “Access can happen everywhere!” “Existing both within and outside of systems, mirroring lived experiences of marginalized people.”]
How does this text change your definition of access?
Word Cloud
[Colorful word cloud. Responses read: include play, grateful, thank you, refreshing, mindful, insightful, acknowledgement.]
Text Responses
[Colorful boxes with individual long-form responses. Responses read: “There is no such thing as standard or normal for that matter.” “The indoctrination of standard access, how you feel like laws are how we should consider it… it’s inside of everything. it’s beautiful to flip the script.” “Centering disabled and marginalized people.” “Makes me feel more empowered to push back when others push back and say things like “we can’t design for everybody.” “Revolutionary and colorful instead of limiting or drudgery. Play as central and not trivialized.” “At first I thought of literally of “art” and then the experience helped me see ways that how we create experiences for torahs even zoom is “art.” “Access is using easy to understand language.” “resist perfectionism.” “regular check-in with our mind-bodies.” “Naming, unlearning, resisting, and creating alternatives to supremacy culture and practices.” “Access as ART. As a creative and flowing process. Led by those who are affected or marginalized.” “This work is Playful. Transformative, Adaptive, Relational, Interdependent, Centers Repair and Conciliation, Shares Power. This in power see their job is lifting up those in need. The work involves reflection and build and strengthens.” “Stop extracting or responding to value.” “acknowledgement at every step.” “Access is a movement, and I want to be part of it.” “Access should not exist across two communities. It’s not one group granting for the other. It should exist as a universal — something as true and open as nature.” “Jouyfulness and artfulness.” “I am also noticing how helpful deep breathing is for me to take in information and to truly feel the words I’m seeing / hearing.” “Living art and building space and intentionally into every interaction.”]
Agenda.
Our agendas are relaxed to adapt to in-the-moment access needs. These times are estimates.
9:00 - Soft Arrival
9:05 - Brian Introduces The Curiosity Paradox
9:10-9:13 -Wiggle Room
9:13 - 9:15 - Access Announcement
9:15 - 9:20 - Share group's feeings
9:20 - 9:40 - Question Access
9:40 - 9:45 - Quiet Written Responses
9:45 - 9:50 - Share Reflections
9:50 - Responses
10:00 - Break
10:05 - Q&A
Sources and References.
These are a few sources we referenced during our gathering. If we mentioned something that is not on this list, feel free to reach out.
Question Access
The Curiosity Paradox. “Question Access: Standard Access Against Access Art.” Desire Path Project. https://desirepathproject.com/question.
10 Principles of Disability Justice
Berne, Patricia, and Sins Invalid. “10 Principals of Disability Justice.” Skin, Tooth, and Bone: the Basis of Movement Is Our People: a Disability Justice Primer. Sins Invalid.
Working Definition of Ableism
Lewis, TL. “Working Definition of Ableism - January 2022 Update.” TALILA A. LEWIS, 2022, https://www.talilalewis.com/blog/working-definition-of-ableism-january-2022-update.
Open Access
Papalia, Carmen. “An Accessibility Manifesto for the Arts.” Canadian Art, Canadian Art, 29 June 2018, https://canadianart.ca/essays/access-revived/.
Alt Text As Poetry
Finnegan, Shannon, and Bojana Coklyat. “Alt Text as Poetry.” Alt Text as Poetry, 2021, https://alt-text-as-poetry.net/.
White Supremacy Culture
Okun, Tema. “White Supremacy Culture.” DRworks, Dismantling Racism Works, 2019, www.dismantlingracism.org/uploads/4/3/5/7/43579015/whitesupcul13.pdf.
Disability Night Life Project
“Disability Nightlife Project.” Critical Design Lab, https://www.mapping-access.com/disability-nightlife-project.
Aimi Hamraie and the Critical Design Lab
Hamraie, Aimi. Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
Disability Intersectionality Summit
Ho, Sandy, et al. Suggested Actions: Places to Start, #AccessIsLove, Disability & Intersectionality Summit, 2019, https://www.disabilityintersectionalitysummit.com/places-to-start.
Pleasure Activism
brown, adrienne maree; Rodriguez; Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi. “Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good.” AK Press, 2019. Apple Books.
Bonus.
Here is a video we produced for the launch of the Desire Path Project which includes a few folks from our local community describing Access Art. Additionally, we are sharing the poster we created as a companion to the Question Access text.
[Wet swaths of blue and purple with bold text on top, some text is hidden. Complete text in image reads: Question Access. Who leads? What is the future being dreamed? How are people treated? What is the aesthetic? How does it feel? What is prioritized? How are things decided? How are people held accountable? Where is access practiced? Whose needs are met?]
The content of this page is published by THE CURIOSITY PARADOX. CC BY-SA.