A lot of leftist accounts are posting about not buying PSLs from Starbucks due to their support for corporate greed and genocide in Gaza. They suggest buying from local coffee shops instead.
However, as I have to keep doing literally every time something goes round about anti capitalist action by using local cafes and bars, I must remind people that *if* they are accessible enough for me to physically get into them, then I absolutely will.
However, if you see a disabled person using a large chain, the odds are it’s because every other place that sold whatever it is they need they physically cannot get into, and, if they can, they certainly cannot pee in them, and not because they support genocide or corporate greed.
Disabled folk may in fact be *forced* to use such places if they need to be out and about because nowhere else has a disabled bathroom to use, including for changing a stoma bag or pad, or because they *need* to eat or drink to take essential medication and there is nowhere else they can physically get in to do so.
If you are an abled person who genuinely believes in accessible, inclusive public spaces, please a) consider this fact when choosing where to hold events, and b) put pressure on inaccessible independent bars and cafes you love to increase their accessibility. Offer to contribute to a crowdfunding campaign, or indeed to run one, if they say that costs prevents them becoming more accessible.
Disabled people are part of every local community on the planet and measures that “support your local community” while excluding us from participation in it do not, in fact, do so. They just increase the exclusion of marginalised people from local communities. Abled people have more energy and money to tackle this fact than we do.
