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On Inclusion of Disabled People

In document Accessing Amsterdam (pagina 52-57)

person, as well as feedback from the pressure group, “P6’s” work took place in the busy square, being accessible for people with visual impairments and other disabilities. Like this,

“P6” is inclusive in both ways: by receiving feedback from people with disabilities, who help them in their job, and by being inclusive structurally. In “P5’s” organisation, many

employees have a disability. In “P7’s” institute, while they don’t have direct projects related to disability, they are working on increasing sustainable and accessible transportation, which also benefits people with disabilities. Rijksmuseum offers a multitude of ways to approach art and navigate the museum for people with different disabilities. Things like these are

examples of work-related inclusion, while also being considerate for the future. Another example of consideration is “P4’s” blog. While “P4” is not using any mobility aids anymore, they are aware that disability does not stop existing for others, and all the information in their blog is available for anyone now and in the future that needs to check the accessibility of the city. Additions to sites like wheelchair stickers on doors, as “P4” once recounted, are a small but powerful way of showing that that site is aware of and cares about accessibility and people with disabilities. Being able to navigate throughout Amsterdam as a disabled person, while giving feedback to sites and recommendations to visitors and business owners, “P4”

has been considerate and considered, inclusive and included.

5.3.2

No Inclusion

Despite the hard work from individuals, businesses, and the municipality, there have still been moments where inclusion did not occur. These moments often overlapped with the lack of accessibility of sites. This makes sense: if someone is not able to enter a place, it is likely that they won’t feel included in that space. Here, a look at what challenges arise from

disability for disabled people are expanded, as well as the lack of consideration of disabilities and accessibility.

While not maliciously, there is a “fault” in the accessibility manual that “P6” uses: grouping blind people and visually impaired people in the same category. As “P6” explained, there are

“two completely different types of people,” and by grouping them together, workers that use this handbook are not able to do enough for blind people, since the needs of these two groups are different. While “P6” mentioned that they are able to make the whole city blind-friendly, they are not able to make the whole city visually impaired-friendly. This is because, while for the blind person “P6” is able to design all their designs everywhere without being noticeable to non-disabled people, designing for visually impaired people requires focusing on what they need the most, like public transportation, and the designs required are not able to be done everywhere. Also, cross-referencing what was explained in section 5.1.2, there were no projects in place related to disability and accessibility yet in “P3’s and P7's” workplaces.

When asked if there were people with disabilities in their teams within the workplace, “P3”

and “P7” said no, but there were some disabled people in other parts of their workplace.

Overall, while lack of inclusion was not very prevalent throughout my research, there were still some places that left some things to be desired. However, many people have been working alongside the municipality to tackle inclusion, and with inclusion comes

accessibility. While things are not perfect yet, the work is being done, and hopefully will be done soon enough so that everyone can enjoy Amsterdam without any barriers. Or, like the title of the Amsterdam project, everyone can participate.

5.3.3 Positive Feelings

With this, there were many positive feelings that arose from the interviews and the

participants. A sense of community, safety, respect, feeling understood, supported, free, and

independent, were some of the most commonly expressed feelings. These came from their personal experiences and perspectives. From the feedback that “P5” has received, the lanyard wearers have reported feeling safer and supported when they go around the town while wearing their lanyards. Because of the recognition they get with the lanyard, they are able to get the support they need where they go and feel more understood by staff and other people around them. The simple fact of wearing a lanyard has even led the lanyard-wearers to start local communities, promoting a sense of belonging and actually being together. It is a very close group, and it’s becoming a “kind of community.”

For leisure “P8” mentioned that they can visit sites without much hassle if the site workers see them often. By becoming a regular, the workers are able to be easily inclusive and “P8”

can experience more freedom when feeling spontaneous. “P8” said that when they are spontaneous, they know that they can go with ease to the movie theater near their house, and to almost all museums, as they are all very accessible and reliable. Like this, “P8” has experienced some independence and freedom, and experiences very little troubles.

5.3.4

Negative Feelings

On the contrary, there were also many negative feelings that arose from the interviews with the participants. Feeling frustrated, misunderstood, disrespected, ignored, disregarded, annoyed, experiencing unjust treatment, and at times, shamed, were some of the main emotions that were described by participants. These came from their personal experiences and perspectives.

As “P4” puts it: “let's say I've had many experiences where people treated me differently and talked to me differently and said things that they would never have said to somebody if they were walking or said to me if I was walking and even things like if you're in a wheelchair”

People ignoring them completely, talking to their carer instead of them, or moving their

wheelchairs. These occurrences would make “P4” feel frustrated, ignored, and disrespected, since they were getting treated differently just because they were on a wheelchair, or because they used different mobility aids. It was also frustrating to “P4” that they could not be

spontaneous and go somewhere without calling ahead, because they needed accommodations for the wheelchair. This happened in sites like restaurants and some cultural sites.

“P8” struggled with feeling safe in the city. As someone who is blind, “P8” has to rely on technology to navigate the city, and be very concentrated while walking around Amsterdam.

It can be “scary,” you have to be “much bolder” while running errands, crossing the streets.

Sometimes “P8” has to be more rude to protect themselves around Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a crowded city, sometimes the ticking sounds on the stops don’t work, and “P8” needs to be hyper aware of the cars and bikes that are around them while doing something simple as groceries. These added barriers make leaving the house difficult, scary, and stressful for

“P8,” and while a smaller crowd would help, many things like the attitudes of drivers and bikers would need to change to make “P8” as though they can leave their house safely and independently. It’s hard to feel safe in Amsterdam. “P8” also struggled with making spontaneous plans, as they always have to call ahead to new places so that they can accommodate their site to their visit, which was a similar sentiment as that of “P4.”

Since “P9” has worked for the accessibility pressure group for years, and has had a focus on transportation, they described something that made them very angry. “P9” is a wheelchair user, and they informed me that the municipality had bought “60 new trams” for public transportation in the city. There was a problem with these trams and buses though, and it is that the height difference from the tram stop and the tram entrance is now too high to get in for people who use wheelchairs. Now, the tram conductor has to get out of their seat, place a plank at the entrance, and help wheelchair users in. “P9” was very angry about this. All “P9”

wanted to do was get on the tram independently and easily, but now they need someone to help them every single time. The problem? These new trams were bought to last 30 years. In

“P9’s” words “and that means that you can’t participate properly for a long time anymore.”

In document Accessing Amsterdam (pagina 52-57)