Disability and Accessibility: Practical and Political Considerations.
Date and Time:
Saturday, March 31, 2018 -
11:00am to 1:00pm
Discussion facilitated by disabled radical Saz, 11am Sat 31st March at the Rattler
11am-1pm Saturday 31st March at the Red Rattler Theater, 6 Faversham St, Marrickville. All welcome.
Jura is pleased to be opening up a space for discussion about the politics and practical considerations of disability and accessibility, with a particular focus on concrete ways we can improve our own accessibility at Jura and across radical meeting spaces. We are very grateful to Saz for volunteering to provide resources and to facilitate. We are also grateful to the Red Rattler for allowing us to use their space for this discussion; they are recognised as a radical community space which has had some real successes in terms of making themselves accessible. Information about their venue’s accessibility can be found here.
This discussion aims to be a starting point on understanding the ways in which Disability Justice fits into anti-capitalist work. It will attempt to lay out some ground work on the specificity of ableist oppression and how it is interwoven through Western capitalist societies, as well as its immediate manifestations within the contexts surrounding us. By drawing lines of connection between the structural and the imminent components, it will seek to push people to consider both what is immediately possible and the scope of work to come.
We want to work out how Jura can begin to invest energy into developing a consciousness around accessibility and a more developed praxis, do solidarity work, and help facilitate the opening of other radical spaces which do meet more accessibility requirements.
This discussion comes partly in response to public criticism made of Jura last year, but also because of our ongoing commitment to making our shop, library and events as accessible as possible, to as wide a range of people as possible, including people with disabilities. We try to have an intersectional approach to anarchism, and this means working towards ending all forms of oppression, both in our own space and in the broader society.
Jura also issued a call for input – so if you are not able to make the meeting in person, please consider contributing your ideas via email to jura@jura.org.au, in person when the shop is open, or in some other way if you prefer. Please get in touch if you have any questions or comments at all.
