This interview has been edited for clarity, length and flow.
MH: Why is it so important to inform people of all backgrounds about the specific barriers, obstacles, or nuances black people with disabilities face here in the United States?
SS: I think we are all affected in some way, whether positively or negatively by these systems. Disability is a category we can all fall into all the time, isn’t it? And especially if you’re a person of color dealing with environmental racism, medical racism, and state violence, right? more likely to become
In many cases, when they become newly disabled, they struggle because they don’t know about people with disabilities and they don’t have a disability community. It becomes much easier when you already understand how disabled people can exist in the world.
They say 20% of people who get COVID-19 end up with long COVID-19. The last data I saw showed that black people are much more likely to have COVID longer. If you have money and good health care, you are more likely to get treatment. This is because we know that white people are more likely to receive it. Black people with disabilities in general. I think this is becoming an increasingly important issue for people to be aware of the different barriers they may face.
MH: You are a professor. How will this manifest itself in college classrooms and campuses?
SS: From the educational setting, we’ve gone back to fewer and fewer online classes. This makes people come to school sick. Again, people are trying to work less or stop working from home.
MH: Can you give an example of how this would affect someone’s daily life?
SS: We know that working from home is really beneficial for many people with disabilities. Did you know we even have it as a part-time option?a few days a week to cope with taking
Taking care of medical appointments. It also reduces the burden on the body of having to wear all work clothes.
I work on a college campus. How far do you have to walk from your car to where your building is? What if the building has no parking? You can’t control the temperature, necessarily accessible seats, etc.
As we continue to see how the pandemic as a mass disability event impacts our population, more and more people will experience disability and have to adapt their lives to a different way of life. We can prepare for it and have more access and more flexibility.
MH: What changes would you like to see in elected officials today? Name one policy change you would like to see right now.
SS: [laughs] Only one thing? I think it goes back to a lot of the early pandemic policies, right? This means wearing masks in public, limiting the number of people in public places, and making available COVID-19 unemployment leave so they are not forced back to work too soon. I’m here.
One thing that I would love to see not happening in a formal way is the creation of better policies on COVID over the long haul. We really struggle with people who can get a diagnosis. Many people are told that it is ‘just depression’ or ‘a secondary problem’ rather than what is actually going on in their minds.
MH: Can you elaborate on why COVID is so important right now in terms of disability rights and access? What do people need to understand about COVID’s longevity?
SS: We look forward to more institutionalized support for those long-suffering from COVID-19. Some kind of effort to educate people about the prolonged COVID-19 and understand that the prolonged COVID-19 is an obstacle.
I think a lot of people who are dealing with it now are dealing with it in isolation. All the data about COVID shows that there are permanent changes in the body, including the brain.
If we can move towards public health efforts to help people understand what COVID is and that it is a disability, then people will see themselves as a disability deserving certain kinds of rights and considerations. I believe that you will come to understand that you are a person.
MH: What are some examples of people with disabilities that an able-bodied person might not perceive as disabled?
SS: I’m thinking of this in the context of being in a classroom, but I think it would work in other contexts as well. We speculate on how to show that someone is paying attention. They’re looking up, sitting still, looking you in the eye… maybe they’re taking notes, right? But for many people, that’s not the way to pay attention.they actually necessary It moves, looks somewhere, scribbles, actually pays attention and listens well.
Some college classrooms don’t even allow the use of laptops. that’s all Allow handwriting.They are creating a situation that we have determined to be that’s all or number one, The most desirable way for people to pay attention is to assume that we all pay attention exactly the same way and that our brains work exactly the same way.
I think it’s just another form of disability discrimination that some people think they’re doing correct The problem is when you see someone parked in an accessible parking lot with a license plate, sticker, or whatever else you need. think: That person doesn’t look handicapped to me.
S.o So they’re going to intervene, right? So either confront someone in person, or leave a note in the car, or call the police about this car, right? i think i’m doing good by reporting someone who appears to be unimpaired they Handicapped parking available.
MH: What lessons do you think people with disabilities as a whole can draw from the parking space example?
SS: I think people should remember that disabilities look different. Some people look young and healthy, but are in excruciating pain. you just don’t know
I think we are seeing more and more of this as COVID drags on. People who look “fine”… I think that’s another issue of disability discrimination. I see obstaclesAlso Obstacles can be detected visually.
MH: What are some examples of alliances that should become the norm?
SS: In the same way, we don’t make assumptions about who is and isn’t disabled, or what people need in a space, based on what we see with our own eyes.
I’m thinking of attending the conference, but I don’t even ask the next question. Anyone want auto captions turned on? You can do that automatically instead, right? But we don’t assume everyone is disabled unless stated otherwise.
If we go astray at the beginning of any gathering we have, be it personal or professional, professional or public, if we make an effort to say : What might need to be in the space for as long as it needs to be here in a way that is comfortable and good for you?we find that more and more people have their own secret adaptations in our lives.
Bring your own chair from time to time. If you think there is no comfortable chair for me. All the things we just learned to do for ourselves to make the world more accessible because of the assumption that everyone is not disabled.
MH: What did I miss? What is it that readers absolutely need to know?
SS: This is an academic book from an academic journal. It is scholarship based.and that TRUE It’s written at this stage of accessibility, so it’s written to be readable and interesting to many people.
Whether you’re black, disabled, or involved in any of these fields, it doesn’t matter if you’re interested in this history covered in this book. I specifically target activists, organizers and cultural activists in his two sections: There is a lesson to be learned from history here. So how can we apply that to our current job, our modern job, to be better about black disability politics and how we organize??
This was the intentional part of making the book accessible… I tried to write it so that it was not only easy for 20 PhDs to read, but easy for them to read.it was really going to be a book many Different people can read and benefit from it in different ways.
Remember, you can check out the book Hereorder it here and request it at your local library too!
