Their disability quickly took center stage when Nu Misra went to Lollapalooza India at the invitation of a friend. A “special needs” entrance far from the main festival also served for men. Ramps and elevated ground were provided for wheelchair users, but there was no safe way to navigate rough terrain. There was also his PWD (disabled) counter, which Misra said was understaffed and untrained. But festival organizers have put up a “wall of inclusion” to mainstream accessibility.
Founder of UN-recognized Revival India, Misra was disabled for 20 years. In everyday life he uses crutches, but for the festival he decided to switch to a wheelchair and was already anticipating a chaotic event.
Originating in Chicago, Lollapalooza Music Festival will make its first Asian debut in 2023 at Mumbai’s Mahalakshmi Racecourse. The Indian version of the festival had a disability policy similar to the American version. Service animals were allowed into the venue and guests were able to notify the organizers of their accessibility needs by email. However, according to Misra’s account, the use of personal motorized vehicles was prohibited and there was little transportation to and from the festival except for a few shuttles. Lollapalooza India’s promotional materials stated that “specially equipped teams” for the disabled, blind and deaf were available to guide them through the various festival zones. did not materialize. Mithra remembers only one member of staff at the PWD booth, he. “A perfect example of token awakening,” they said.
Regardless of how specific an individual’s disability is, the failure of people with disabilities to understand what their disability is is detrimental to their experience and not only in their professional or educational setting. Music festivals like Lollapalooza are just the epitome of how disability is accepted rather than centered in most areas of life.
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This speaks to the public imagination of disability ending with a person in a wheelchair, but this is only skimming the surface. The CDC defines disability as “a physical or mental condition (impairment) that makes it more difficult to perform certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around you (participation limitation).” It includes both physical condition and neural divergence. While people with outwardly visible disabilities, such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, or other movement disorders, may be easier to recognize, invisible disabilities (NVDs) are often overlooked. Examples of neurodivergence include developmental or learning disabilities such as autism, ADHD, and dyslexia. In the mainstream, people with NVD can go about their daily lives as normal.
Disabilityism, however, colors how people with all disabilities, visible and invisible, are viewed. “From the other end of the spectrum, when he is perceived as disabled, he receives one of two responses: extreme hand-holding or extreme inaction,” Misra said. says. Recognition and self-identification are difficult pills to swallow for people with NVD. Using labels carries social stigma and an extra layer of scrutiny from others. Hyperesthesia, attention deficit and hyperactivity High sex people are seen as “nasty” at school and at work. Both environments are designed primarily for neurotypical people. It is no coincidence that low self-esteem, eating disorders and depression are more common in neurodiverse populations.
“We’re so dependent it makes us feel guilty,” Misra shared, recalling how a friend effectively stuck them in the middle of the festival grounds. but I don’t usually go to events like this, and I know how annoying and chaotic they can be on top of not being mobility friendly. The dedicated team promised by the website was nowhere to be found, and the little help Misra received was condescending and unsettling. No. A poster titled ‘Most Disabled Friendly Festival’ held in the UK in 2019 notes that while wheelchair amenities are plentiful, resources for neurodiverse attendees are lacking. It is stated that there are Her Twenty One Pilots performance in 2016 had sunflower straps identifying people with NVD, but no designated quiet spaces for those whose senses were overwhelmed. The limited inclusion of artists with disabilities is also a problem. With an overwhelming number choosing not to disclose her NVD, an artist with a visible disability has great difficulty even finding a suitable teacher.
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Disability-first programs already exist, such as the Chase Park Festival, but the majority of disability-friendly equipment isn’t exactly affordable to its target audience, instead making people with disabilities “normal”. Emphasis is placed on rehabilitating them to a “healthy” state. As one disabled writer said: Keeping disabled people out of space (mentally and physically) is the first step in creating a hostile world. Not to mention the fact that it contributes the additional “mental load” of advocating for accessibility. “We individually owe something that should be a collective responsibility.” write Colin, a disabled doctoral student at UBC. Diverse bodies are creating alternative understandings of the world in which they are constructed, and the onus is on all of us, competent or not, to make sure these alternative understandings are normalized. .
Fundamentally, the way Lollapalooza and its contemporary festivals are designed is unfair to individuals with disabilities. Community-driven practices are therefore a key component of “design justice,” defined as an approach to design that explicitly aims to “challenge rather than reproduce structural inequalities.” It focuses on the intersectionality of disability and how universal design principles and practices are erasing the disabled disadvantaged. nSecond degree under “Matrix of Dominance”. This injustice is not only experienced by people with visible disabilities, but it affects even those who fall outside the traditionally accepted definitions of disability. Her Sneha, a diabetic attending Lollapalooza, was unable to take the medications and power bars needed to regulate her hypoglycemic cycle within the event. They were harassed by multiple security guards, who reluctantly allowed her Sneha access to essential medicines only after external confirmation. “There is no place that is fully accessible for physical, mental and neuropsychological problems. “It’s not enough to have wheelchair accessible areas, sign translators and banners denying ‘light can cause epilepsy,'” he added. A person in the true sense of the word. ”
Therefore, it is imperative to have the voice of the community heard in the planning of spaces and facilities in general, not just one-off events. Reframing what we mean by accessibility and availability is essential in recognizing the rights of people with disabilities. “It’s not just for people with disabilities. Non-disabled people deserve to feel safe and secure, and having options to deal with sensory overload and fatigue is part of that,” Misra stresses, stressing women, especially I added the inclusion of queer and neurodivergent women, and that non-normative presentation has a disability. People will be able to take a more cross-cutting approach to disability-first planning.
