#access needs

BECAUSE IT COULD BE YOU ONE DAY!

AND, it is highly likely that accessible features and accommodations will, and do already, positively impact people you know in daily life.

Some examples: (accommodation/accessibility feature and who it benefits)

Automatic doors: wheelchair and mobility aid users, blind and visually impaired people, AND people with pushchairs or lots of bags, people with bikes, elderly people, pregnant people.

Ramps and dropped curbs: wheelchair and mobility aid users, people with chronic pain, people with joint issues, blind and visually impaired people, AND people with pushchairs, anyone who's knackered, people with suitcases, people using trolleys, kids on scooters, people on bikes, elderly people, pregnant people.

Public seating: people who struggle with their mobility in any way, AND elderly people, pregnant people, anyone who's knackered or hurting from a long day, homeless people, parents with kids.

Breaks in meetings at work/or any other social focused group thing: neurodivergent folks, disabled folks, AND elderly people, pregnant people, kids, tired people, literally everyone because meetings are ugh.

Plenty more examples.

If you’re able to take the stairs or wait and you see a physically disabled person waiting for a lift, it will not kill you to get off and wait for the next one or use the stairs so they can use it.

I was waiting for a lift to get from the 7th to 3rd floor with my partner for almost 20 minutes. I was sat on my rollator because I couldn’t stand and wait. People would look at me while pushing the button to close the doors. Someone suggested to my partner that he gets on a lift and wait for me at the floor we were going to.

I saw about three pushchairs and one wheelchair in these lifts. The wheelchair user gave me the most sympathetic and understanding look, while the people with pushchairs looked at me as if I was waiting for no reason. Most of these lifts were full of people standing, and one of them even came past the 7th floor twice while I was still waiting. They’d gone up to the 9th, realised it wasn’t where they were trying to go, and came back down past me. All the same people too, no one got off the lift.

I know that when you don’t know which floor you’re going to that taking the lift seems like the easier option, but please keep disabled people who can’t take the stairs in mind. You may think you’re not the problem, but when everyone uses that line of thought, the lifts end up too crowded and disabled people have to wait a long time to do what you’re able to do either way. I saw so many people wait for a little bit then choose to take the stairs, and I can’t do that.

Sonia Allori, Atzi Muramatsu & Ali Robertson are traveling to Keele University as Sonic Bothy representatives in order to deliver two days of workshops on 20th & 21st August. We’ll be inviting musicians to think about using “Access As A Creative Tool” while having a braw time & generally goofing off.

In CoMA’s words: "The CoMA Summer School is a place for musicians of all abilities to come together for five full days of fun and exciting music-making! Filled with experimentation, workshops, performances and joyful music-making, the summer school is open to instrumentalists, singers and composers aged 18+. Making its return for 2025, the CoMA Summer School has been a much-loved annual event for many years, hosting premieres of many new works, and creating an environment in which countless musical friendships have flourished.”

Please for the love of all the gods tell your colleagues that when disabled folks are forced to use any NHS services we are not being disabled to make their lives more difficult.

We do not want to be there.

But when we are there we do in fact deserve the same basic care abled people do.

We deserve to have our most basic needs met in the way abled people do.

We are not lying, making things up or being “entitled” by having medical needs or very basic care needs we can’t meet ourselves.

This particular status is not specifically about me, but for the trans wheelchair user friend I have been up all night talking to and supporting because of the escalating and truly sickening disableist mistreatment, gaslighting and verbal abuse he is suffering for *daring* to be a disabled person with access needs needing treatment in A&E at night.

I want to take this as an opportunity to remind everyone, especially Disabled folks, that they are not solely responsible for fixing the climate disaster.

It is distressing to watch our governments not take action when there is an emergency happening, but we must take care of our own needs first.

Many Disabled people rely on pre-made meals, pre-cut ingredients, and single use straws.

It is not “selfish” or “harmful” to put your access needs above the demands of environmental activists. It is not failing if you cannot go vegan or take shorter showers or use public transit.