Shelley Tremain, the philosopher of disability, brought my attention to a recent article in the CHE entitled Indifference Toward Disabled Scholars, Especially at Conferences, Troubles a Disabilities Scholar .* In it, bioethicist William Peace details a "nightmare" he experience as a disabled scholar trying to attend a conference.
Peace also blogged about the experience here.
Tremain offers the following commentary:
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In my article "Introducing Feminist Philosophy of Disability" (
https://independent.academia.edu/ShelleyTremain), I offered some details about ways in which the APA fails to treat disabled philosophers equally and promote our status within the discipline and profession. A recent petition that I and others circulated was motivated by this neglect. Some of the measures that the APA fails to take on our behalf concern the lack of information about disability (e.g., how to make conferences accessible, what APA chairs and presenters should do to make divisional meetings accessible, etc.) on the newly-furbished and inaccessible APA website. A recent conference on philosophy of disability at Syracuse University (at which all three APA disability representatives presented) demonstrates the impact that the APA's failure to provide leadership in this regard has throughout the profession.
In an article entitled "Indifference Toward Disabled Scholars, Especially at Conferences, Troubles a Disabilities Scholar," William Peace describes "the nightmare" he encountered at the Syracuse conference, a "nightmare" that could have been prevented if the APA provided information that many of us have been pressing it to provide.
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Here is an excerpt of the Chronicle piece for those who don't have access:
A key part of academic life is attending scholarly conferences, where colleagues gather to share knowledge and make the connections that could lead to their next joint research project, paper, or book.
But for people with disabilities, like William J. Peace, attending such meetings is almost always frustrating, if not impossible at times. Although the Americans With Disabilities Act is nearly 25 years old, Mr. Peace's experience at academic conferences shows that the change it was designed to bring about has been to slow to come.
"Things aren't improving at academic conferences," said Mr. Peace, 53, a bioethicist and disability-studies scholar who has been a paraplegic since he was a teenager and who uses a wheelchair. "I spend a lot of time—hours and hours—advocating for myself."
Recently, Mr. Peace took to his blog, Bad Cripple, to write a post about the obstacles he encountered while attending a three-day philosophy-of-disability conference at Syracuse University last week. The conference, he wrote, "has been an access nightmare."
Among the problems Mr. Peace faced: The conference hotel's shuttle bus had a broken wheelchair lift, and the placement of the tables and the food on the buffet made it impossible for him to serve himself. Papers that were posted online were inaccessible to blind scholars, and organizers thought about the need for interpreters for the hearing-impaired too late.
Lennard J. Davis, a professor of English, medical education, and disability and human development at the University of Chicago, said many organizations just don't think about people with disabilities.
"It doesn't even occur to them," Mr. Davis said.
*The article will be behind a paywall for a week, but is available for the next 24 hours for free here
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