If there are shelves 8' off the ground, and you can't reach them, the problem is not that you are too short.

It's that whoever put the shelves up there is a dick. They didn't imagine someone your height needing to use it.

This is a tweet about accessibility for disabled folks.

People with full mobility can use stairs. But you know what else we can use? Ramps!

And Ramps, while less compact, help people who use mobility devices, or who have difficulty transitioning over curves.

So why, when designing, would we choose the option only SOME folks can use?

Neurotypical folks can take notes. But you know what else neurotypical folks can do? They can be handed a sheet of notes in advance, and note anything extra.

And kids with processing issues (THE MOST COMMON IEP REQUEST, for SO MANY DISORDERS) can use those to follow along.

Kids who can't take notes AND listen, and it's a good chunk of them, are forced to choose between following the teacher's instructions and learning.

Why would we exclude some kids from learning?

Fuck if I know, but getting teachers to do those handouts is like pulling teeth.

So often, the perception is that there's a "normal" way to do it, and "giving" anyone "special treatment" wouldn't be "fair" to the others.

But y'all,

We made these systems.

And if we made these systems in a way that excludes folks,

THEN WE HAVE MADE A BAD SYSTEM.

Eb points out something important here - I'm being reductive, and it's more complex than I'm making it. The point (which I know Eb's on board with, too) is to have the tools available for anyone who needs to use the place, good, service, etc. https://twitter.com/EbThen/status/1254163474290216966

And this hits the nail on the head - when you build things so that people can access them, you never have to breach your privacy to use them.

You never HAVE to tell the professor what you need extra, because you don't need ANYTHING extra. https://twitter.com/diabeticemma/status/1254163884849709057

Imagine if bathrooms were only designed for people to pee standing up, didn't have toilet paper.

You could still get some if you needed it, just track down an employee and explain you'd be pooping.

Everybody poops. Nothing to be ashamed of. But...

It'd be embarasing, right?

To go back to ramps vs. stairs -

Some people could use ramps, some could use stairs. Having both's great.

Only having height changes when necessary? Everyone can just use it? No decorative lips, split-level floors? Better!

Don't sacrifice function to form! Architecture rule 1!

I forget who first said it like this, but without the structures we've built, any number of neurodivergent folks could be described akin to,

"Yeah, Jarvis just don't talk, but he sure plows the fuck out'a that field."

Remember. Context Makes Disability.

Very few of our institutions are "natural." There's no natural law that says we have to be educated in rooms together, or by writing notes, or in discrete hour-long chunks with a summer and winter break.

Just feels that way because that's how we built it. It could be different.

If in building that, we've done so in a way that puts more of a burden on some folks than others?

Then we're the dicks putting things on shelves 8' off the ground.

IEPs are like handing the person a stepladder.

True accessibility would be lowering the fucking shelves.

This rant brought to you by seeing YET ANOTHER adult d/x #ADHD kid realize that no, they weren't broken, they weren't a bad student or employee, they're just a sports car trying to race on a mud track.

YOU ARE NOT A PIECE OF SHIT JUST B/C THE WORLD ISN'T BUILT WITH YOU IN MIND.