Student Observations of the USSF

I drove 6 hours with friends from Bloomington, Indiana to attend the US Social Forum in Detroit. I was planning to attend mostly media justice and anti-war/ anti-militarism workshop, and was also excited to learn about urban gardens and food sovereignty efforts in Detroit. Half-way through the first day of workshops, I reconciled myself to that of which many had already warned me: that it would be impossible to see and do all that that there was to see and do related to these worthy but broad issues. I did end up learning quite a lot (including the discovery of a long-lost second cousin working at a progressive magazine that I read), but I also was presented with the opportunity to learn more and write about disability activists at the forum. Below is a longer reflection that I wrote on this topic while in Detroit--the term "ableism," or the presumption of able-bodiedness, was a new one to me, but it's one that I hope to remember and reflect on as I explore what it means to build inclusive movements, both in my work in peace studies and beyond.

At the opening march on Tuesday, disability activists carried a giant paper mache puppet of Justin Dart, an activist who was instrumental in passing the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). Next month will mark the 20^th anniversary of the landmark bill, which established legal protections against discrimination on the basis of disability. Two decades after this legislation, many disability communities continue to push for recognition of and compliance with the rights enshrined by the ADA, while others also focus on developing alternative or non-state approaches to disability justice. The U.S. Social Forum is an important space for sharing of these multiple understandings, experiences, and strategies within disability communities and across movements. It also provides a vital opportunity for forum participants to reflect on the presence of ableism within their movements and to develop tangible commitments to inclusiveness and mutual support.

The USSF's Disability Justice Committee worked for more than a year to make the USSF accessible and committed to disability justice. The success of these efforts is evident in more than 20 disability-related workshops; the availability upon request of an ASL interpreter, assisted listening devices, and Braille programs; computer-aided real-time translation in large events; and the option to register at a disability access table.

Nevertheless, access has been a problem for many individuals in Detroit for the social forum. While working at the Disability Access table, Susan Fitzmaurice and her son, Teddy Fitzmaurice, say that they have received complaints from individuals using service animals and wheelchairs about the set-up of Cobo Hall and treatment by some employees. Lack of accessibility in USSF shuttles has the potential to leave disabled individuals reliant on the city shuttles when others can use free ones.

Disability communities at the USSF are using different frameworks to articulate their ongoing needs, visions, and struggles. A Detroit-based disability advocate-activist, Susan Fitzmaurice identifies access as a prerequisite for inclusiveness that is still largely lacking in progressive movements. “I think many movements are increasingly welcoming philosophically, but it's still the case that most people doing access work are disabled themselves,” she explains. “You can say that everyone is welcome in, but if we literally can't come in, we're still stuck outside the room.”

Teddy Fitzmaurice is a disability activist who has spoken to federal and state officials about disability issues and has been active in protesting on behalf of the Community Choice Act (CCA). The CCA would increase flexibility in the long-term care system by allowing individuals entitled to support services to choose where they want to receive them. According to ADAPT, a national grassroots community with which Teddy works, individuals who are entitled to services generally prefer to receive them at home but often have to enter into nursing homes or other institutions in order to be able to access them. Teddy also runs a civil rights and disability justice micro-enterprise called Teddy's T's, which is selling T-shirts and buttons in the lobby of Cobo Hall during the forum.

In addition to rights-based or access-centered approaches to disability issues, some disability communities prefer to focus more explicitly on the language of “justice” to advance their work. Mia Mingus, an Atlanta-based member of the Disability Justice Collective, facilitated a workshop Wednesday that identified disability justice as “moving away from a rights-based equality model and beyond access to a framework that centers on justice and wholeness for all disabled people and our communities.” The workshop's approach highlighted the limitations of policy work in securing justice for disability communities and encouraged participants to analyze cross-cutting issues such as media culture, environment, education, and race using a disability justice framework.

Both Susan and Mia see continued difficulty in forging intersections between movements, both at the forum and in their activism and membership in disabled communities more generally. “It's especially difficult for people of color to find each other,” Mia says. “The disability movement has generally been very white, and people of colors' movements have often been very able-bodied.” Susan emphasizes that while cost or perceived cost is often an issue in planning for accessibility, inclusion of disabled needs often requires planning and early commitment more than significant expenditures. On her goals for future forums, she comments, “I'm really hoping that what will come out of this is recognition that disability access needs to be prioritized.”