What minor change can people make to help their disabled colleagues and friends?
July is disability pride. What's something small people can do to help the disabled people around them?
I generally find colleagues flap and make negative assumptions, sometimes to jaw dropping levels. There's also a tendency to disclose my disability to 4235433 people often BEHIND MY BACK because they flap and think the world needs to know. It destroys trust, it's patronising and career damaging. Just ask what if anything i need and do that, the end.
Day to day life it veers between people just not getting it and people patronising me. I'm an adult, I'm perfectly capable of asking if I need anything and I do NOT like people making unsolicited offers of help that are really making horribly negative assumptions. There's people who don't get it, eg as I'm neurodiverse I can't find my way places. People argue with me on this and tell me I can but I FUCKING CAN'T. If I could I'd have learned it already. Friends expect me to assist them with route planning and it's impossible for me. I just can't.
Simply understanding and accepting without judgment that some of us really cannot keep up with or do certain tasks. It's not laziness or ineptitude or whatever else.
Don't bend down to talk to someone in a wheelchair, it feels really patronising.
Try to look at people when you speak to them when possible. You never know who is hard of hearing, it’s not always obvious (and some people don’t like to admit it or bring attention to it).
I would also point out that eye contact makes some people uncomfortable. If someone you're talking to doesn't return your gaze, its probably wise to look near them instead of directly at them.
Ask: what do you need right now? (Instead of guessing)
If you're organising a get-together, look into the accessibility of the location. Many places tout themselves as accessible but don't have good facilities or appropriate ramps for those with mobility aids, for example. And especially if you're going to be spending time with people who are hard of hearing or who struggle with noise - don't go somewhere with loud music in the background! Guarantee these are things your disabled colleagues and friends are thinking about all the time, take away some of their worry
Start learning sign language!
Any advise on how to get started?
Learn finger spelling, then the signs for what, why, where, when, how and sign.
You can learn most things by asking sign language users "sign
<fingerspell>
what?" or something like that. Though if you want to learn signs from that site feel free. Just remember most sign languages use shorter sentences that cut a lot of words used in spoken languages out, and subject, verb, object etc order is different.
By thinking that accessibility benefits everyone.
I agree, but can you explain it for people that might not get it.
Accessibility provides everyone more ways to complete a task such as: