Some brief notes on the university switch to digital seeing as the many many good US threads on this from 2 weeks ago seem to have been missed by UK academics:

- online meetings can be exhausting, especially for disabled/chronically ill people; schedule in breaks where possible

- “business as usual but remote” isn’t necessarily accessible to lots of people whether bc of care/survival work including but not limiting to cleaning, cooking, organising, advocating. Consider ASYNCHRONOUS remote methods instead of/alongside real-time methods

- not everyone has good access to online resources from home, depending on location and circumstance. Universities like @UniOfYork who recommend students suspend studies because of this are behaving reprehensibly and risk leaving people cut off from critical support networks

- now’s a perfect time to acknowledge that you’re not just shifting a classroom or meeting space online for those already in the room; who are your already absent community members - like already housebound disabled/chronically ill students - and how will access work for them?

- your disabled and chronically ill students might be furious right now that it took a global pandemic to get them access measures they tried and failed to get for years at significant personal and professional cost. Don’t diminish this, or explain it away. Listen to them; learn.

- things are not normal, for any of us; pretending otherwise might be fine as a personal coping strategy of denial, but institutionally and infrastructurally doing so will reinforce existing inequalities, injustices and harms. Stop pretending things are normal.

- where in your shift to digital have you planned for not only increased care/survival work but for what access looks like when people inevitably experience bereavement? Unis handle bereavement badly often, but may be among limited support ppl have. How will you handle this?

- how will your institution support you as a class leader to support your classes when the very real possibility of mass bereavement hits? Ask your union; ask your department; ask your heads of School and Uni VCs etc now, so that when this gets worse “business as usual” isn’t it

- what about more basic access issues: are you using Zoom so likely to be targeted for racist sexist “zoom bomb” attacks that will render ur online space unsafe for marginalised students and teachers?

- if live, are you offering live captioning or BSL for students who need it?

- if you’re not using live remote methods, have you planned to produce a transcript or captions or both?

- what other access needs might arise that might be poorly met by the switch to digital? Have you asked your resident access experts in ur Dept or in Disability Support?

(FWIW your disability support teams are likely to be overwhelmed and exhausted so expect this, and expect to mutually support them, like a kind of academic institutional mutual aid - they are key members of your community too. How can you organise w colleagues to lessen demand?)

Finally, a note to acknowledge that we know working conditions were already shit for academic staff who were going sick at record rates, who themselves may ofc be disabled and chronically ill. I know all this kind of work might not be accessible. Demand it from your collectives.