Access-Ability

“People in wheelchairs are so inconsiderate – they really should have thought of all of this before they decided to be paralysed…”

I begin this post in fear and trembling – as one ought to when writing about something which privilege has always blinded one to, but is the daily, lived experience of another. In sharing that which crescendoed into my consciousness late in my 30’s, while others have had to struggle with the personal and structural experience of it as long as their memory serves, I run the risk of secondary-victimisation: of having my “enlightenment” further traumatise those who have experienced the daily consequences of the continued blindness of those of us not consciously affected by this. So, I write this in humility, in recognising that I have only just begun navigating this space and with an invitation to others who are more acquainted with this terrain to coach me, and an invitation to others who might only be accessing this for the first time, to join me.

Yhew! I had actually meant this to be a pretty practical post, but that was important to say upfront. I have a feeling I will be writing that in a few different ways each time I tackle aspects of my privilege which I am only now beginning to deconstruct…

The topic at hand, which has occupied my being with a sense of deep urgency for the last while, is access for people of varied levels of physical ability – and, in this case, the very concrete ways in which we can cultivate welcome and belonging in all our spaces, or turn someone away before we have even realised it. The (paraphrased) quote above actually came from my husband with whom I had booked a date night a few weeks ago – arriving armed with a notepad, calculator and a set agenda so that I could set out all my plans and details and hopefully move forward with them. That was his way of matching my raw passion as I spoke, but in his wonderfully calm, tongue-in-cheek way. I think I could have just left this post as that quote alone, but the things I wanted to share were the simple, yet so important, practical considerations I have learned on the journey so far, because I didn’t find this information terribly easily (perhaps I need to work on my “google search” skills, but perhaps it isn’t too available?).

SO – I shall begin with one moment which completely blew my mind, and then I’ll write a list from there. About 7 months ago, I had a friend of a friend, who works in the “access” field, come around to help look at our house to see how I could make it more accessible to people in wheelchairs or with walking aids. I was feeling a little proud of myself for already having looked at ways of installing ramps and realising that I would need to move my door knobs lower. I was also experiencing relief as she walked through our house and found that our doorways were wide enough, and the space just beyond them clear enough for good mobility. As we walked into the bathroom, she said, “It’s great that your toilet is a contrasting colour to your floortiles.”……………………… I blinked blankly. She gently explained that people who are certified blind are rarely 100% without sight, that they can still see shadows and shapes, and so it helps for the toilet to have a contrasting colour to the tiles………I don’t think I can adequately explain what happened to my brain and then heart in that moment, but I know the moment moved me beyond the “place of no return” in terms of exploding more of my able-bodied privilege…

So, here are a few more things which completely make sense…when your brain is actually invited into THINKING about them!

• Those lovely bathroom floor patterns with black and white tiles: can be very confusing to people who are partially sighted – they can look like stairs or other obstacles. Best to choose welcome which, in this case, is a single-coloured tile.
• Door knobs require a certain amount of dexterity – some people in wheelchairs may still have strength in their hands, but some may not, and people without arms would find them virtually impossible. It is a good idea to change door knobs to lever handles which one just needs to put gravitational weight on in order to open.
• Door handles should be no higher than 1.2m
• Make sure you are looking at which way the door swings and whether this will make it difficult for a person surrounded by a walker, or in a wheelchair to manoeuvre around. If the door swings towards the person, make sure there is space to move backwards, etc, etc (some more detailed measurements to follow).
• This one: make sure that a door which is open can be secured flush against the wall! If someone who cannot see is using a stick and is tracking with the wall, they need to be able to detect the presence of the door easily, otherwise they might mistake the gap between the wall and the door for an opening, walk forward trusting the space in front of them, and could walk straight into the thin edge of the door.
• It is also helpful to people whose sight is limited if your skirting boards, or any change between floor and wall or levels, are somehow differentiated – put reflective tape on steps, on handrails, run a darker skirting along the bottom of the walls of your bathroom.
• Microwaves with dials can be adjusted with some tipex/3D stickers to become sensible to people with limited or no sight. I would imagine (though I didn’t check this), that ones with buttons would be better for people with limited dexterity.
• Doorways need to be no narrower than 760mm
• Handrails should be 900mm high and in parallel with any gradient of the floor
• If you are making changes to your kitchen, make at least one work surface with legroom under the counter, and low enough to work at while sitting. Accessibility to all appliances and utensils etc should be taken into account too.
• If you are making changes to your bathroom, you seriously need to get a professional in! But if you can’t, get hold of me and I am sure the friend of the friend won’t mind if I sent you some really detailed diagrams! In the meantime, watch out for enough space to manoeuvre, legroom under the washbasin, or ability to lean over to the washbasin while still seated on to the toilet. Lower your towel rails. Think about your taps: their height and how manageable they are. Put handrails on the bath, but rather have a shower (with no lip at the entrance…nowadays this is often done to look modern, so really: insist on it!) and some handrails around.
• Ramps! Somehow we have all been taught that you are looking to have a gradient of 1:3…as in, for each 1 measurement you want to elevate, you need a ramp length of 3 measurements. This appears to be from the age when disability was something to be minimally “managed”. We are now in an age where we would love to see people of all variations of “bodiedness” enabled to enjoy independent mobility, decision making and navigation of their own context. SO: here is where our school maths really comes in to play.
  • When there is a level change of 15mm (millimetres, not centimetres!), you can use a gradient of 1:3
  • When the level change is less than 400mm (but more than 15mm), the gradient needs to be 1:10. It needs to be 1:12 when the level change is between 400mm and 500mm.
  • From there, you need to start thinking about landings! For an elevation with a maximum of 500mm, you are allowed a maximum length of 6m between landings. Between 500mm-665mmm, you need a gradient of 1:15 and a maximum of 10m length of the ramp between landings. Between 665mm-750mm, gradient becomes 1:20 and the maximum length is 15m.
  • Landings need to be 1.2m in length for every 1.5 m of vertical rise. Landings must also be provided on straight sections of the ramps (not corners).
• Ramps need to be at least 1.1m wide and a cross gradient (camber) of no more than 1:40.
• DO remember to make your ramps slip-resistant!

PLEASE add to this list! I am under no misconception that it is exhaustive!

Another of my husband’s chirps that date night was, “Well…we’re just going to have to make sure none of our kids make friends with people with disabilities.” When we put it as blatantly as that, it really does sound absurd, doesn’t it? Even cruel. Over the last few months, I have become more and more confused as to why we are even allowed to plan and build houses which don’t take accessibility into account right from the beginning. Seriously. Each decision we now take to make these changes or not can expand or limit our own levels of ability: our ability to extend welcome, our ability to invest in rich friendships, our ability to live in a world which doesn’t just serve our privilege, our ability to care for pretty much any elderly person we know. Some decisions may take a little more intentionality and planning than others, but let’s be aware that, one way or another, we ARE deciding…

When Privilege and Privilege Intersect

I posted this on facebook a while ago, and realised that I wanted it to be in a more “permanent” storage and referral space….

“I’ve been thinking for a while now about the invisible doorways which some of us move through so freely, and others bang into, time and time again, or don’t actually bang into because they can see CLEARLY the door closed to them and so obviously open to me.

There is a helpful concept which has made me so much more aware of the world through which I move, called “intersectionality” – it draws attention to various dimensions and degrees of privilege, discrimination or oppression, and particularly how some forms of privilege or oppression become exponentially stronger as the “intersect” with each other, automatically giving some people huge power as they enter a room, and rendering others less powerful or powerless.

My privilege in South Africa doesn’t just come from the colour of my skin. Here are some other things which make those doorways SO much easier for me to navigate than others:

• I speak the dominant language of communication in our country – as my mother tongue and with a specific accent which people “respect”; I was also educated in my home language
• I am a citizen of the country in which I live;
• I am able-bodied;
• Although I am a woman (being born a male would have given me immediate unseen privileges), I also belong to culture which usually sees women as able to occupy the same positions and roles in the world as men;
• I am “cisgender” – which means that my biological sex matches my identity and expression of my gender;
• I am heterosexual and therefore am not questioned about my attraction to my partner;
• I was born into a class which immediately gave me better access to nutrition, health care, early childhood stimulation and schools

What else am I missing? Where else have you recognised doors and wide-open doorways?”

I really enjoyed the richness of the comment section:

And then I saw this this week, which I had actually written into a “how to facilitate” worksheet for a week in our staff time which we didn’t use, so I was very glad to have a way to share this exercise visually and how people experience it…(Although I would add that I think it was sad that this exercise only had people who were able bodied – or able to walk – and that the audio instructions weren’t backed up by visual aids – some more bits of where we are privileged! What else can you see that they have missed out?)

“I’ll pay back the money” – Z

I am sorry if I lured you in with the thought that I might be giving my opinion on our president and the newest Nkandla developments. This post has nothing to do with that. But I’m not actually sorry, because what I would like to write about is something which we can all do something about, and which, I feel, has far more importance in the long run for our country’s transformation**.

There has been a lot written lately about privilege, power structures and wealth, but I am not sure (maybe I have missed it) whether there has been much on social media for Christians specifically and how and why we can approach the topic of restitution through the lens of our faith. There are, of course, the broad sweeping narratives through the bible of God’s heart for justice and the poor, the laws in Deuteronomy which protect against unshackled accumulation of wealth and perpetual poverty and the entire New Testament which ushers us in to a new Kingdom and a new way of being – no dividing walls of hostility, no difference between slave and free, a body where, if one part hurts, the whole part hurts.

But for some practical ways of how we can look at this today, 30 May 2015, I thought it would be helpful to put together some thoughts which have come through various conversations at the Warehouse (where I work) and probably too many months of thinking (“too many” meaning that I think I should have written this in November last year – but better now than never). These are conversations, thoughts and practical guidelines around Zacchaeus’ story  which I think can help us, which I will now put in point form 🙂

(Have a read quickly if you have forgotten: Luke 19: 1-10)

Nurture a courageous curiosity for who Jesus is:

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector (not the person who would actually collect the taxes from people, but the one who would collect from the collectors) – a very important man in the system which ruled the land at that time. He had clearly heard something about this Jesus and the bible says “he wanted to see who Jesus was”…the rest is made famous by the Sunday School song. But, before you gloss over that familiar strain, think about how counter-cultural that move must have been: he didn’t demand to get to the front of the crowd (perhaps he was a bit scared of some well-timed elbowing), he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed up a tree! Clearly, his status and reputation were not as important to him as his urgency to see this Jesus. I wonder how counter-cultural our curiosity actually is: how eager are we to see, to know, to experience Jesus that we would be willing to look plain silly to do this. Are we running ahead of the crowd, or are we in the middle of the jostle, OK with just seeing the tip of His head as He walks past, and perhaps hearing what He is saying and doing via a broken-telephone of passed-down reports?

Acknowledge and accept the identity Jesus calls out in you

There are (at least) two points around Jesus using Zacchaeus’ name:

Firstly: The meaning of the name Zacchaeus is “pure, clean, innocent” – not a terribly good description for those who knew him and what he had been party to. BUT, if we are Jesus-seekers and followers, this is perhaps the most important starting point we could ever have when examining our privilege, where we have benefited from unjust systems, and working to rectify this: we start from a point of innocence, of purity, of having been made righteous through Jesus. We need to accept what Jesus says about us and our relationship to Him and our relationship with God through Him. This is a starting point of freedom and joyful abandonment, not one of guilt, fear and shame. Our actions need to be in response to this, first and foremost.

Secondly: Zacchaeus was called by his individual name – not as part of a crowd, not “the chief tax collector of Jericho”. Where do we need to acknowledge that we, as individuals, are being addressed – not just as a part of a general narrative or in our roles in a greater system of injustice, but as individuals who seek to be responsive to Jesus calling us out by name?

Know the deeper meaning of Jesus inviting Himself to eat with you in your house

This relates somewhat to the point above. In Jesus’ time, to eat with people meant full acceptance of them – it meant community, knitted-in-ness and equality. That’s why people were so upset that He ate with tax-collectors and prostitutes: because He wasn’t eating with them in order to “win them over” – His act was one which said they were already won, they were already acceptable to Him. Zacchaeus was accepted by, and precious to, Jesus before he had done anything to make right. Again: we need to know this deeply before we engage with restitution (which is an act, not a mindset) – if we act out of guilt or coercion, rather than the joy of belonging to Jesus and being citizens of His Kingdom (on earth as it is in Heaven), then our actions will only lead to more hurt and injustice. KNOW you are accepted, loved, that you belong.

Accept the invitation for Jesus to come right in to your home

Allow Him to come in to the deepest parts of your sanctuary. Allow Him to give you new eyes for looking at your life, your choices, your priorities and your actions.

Be humble enough to listen to the mutterings of the crowd

Can you imagine the commotion as the crowd heard this and passed the news down through the jostle? It must have been difficult for Zacchaeus, in this time of affirmation, to hear it.

A white, Afrikaans, male friend who is passionate about restitution told me, “I have to love the person enough to listen to their perceptions of white people, even if it is really difficult to hear”. A LOT has been written about those of us in places of power and privilege learning to listen to the anger, to the pain, to the daily struggles of people who have endured generations of systemic and personal oppression – without getting angry, defensive or fragile in the face of it, or telling people that their way of expressing their pain is not in keeping with what we think protest or expression can look like.

Zacchaeus must have been deeply humbled by Jesus’ act of acceptance: he didn’t lash out at the crowd, and nor did he hold back on his actions because it would be “giving in” – he was all in with a radical commitment to allowing Jesus to transform every part of his life.

Acknowledge the multiplying nature of (your) privilege

I remember reading the story of Zacchaeus when I was younger and wondering how on earth he was able to pay back 4 times the amount of money he had stolen! I wondered where he got the extra money from. This is before I understood the multiplying nature of wealth and privilege. Again, there has been a lot written about it, so I won’t go in to that here, but it is so important – after continuing to develop courageous curiosity for finding out more about Jesus, accepting that we have already been made righteous, already been fully accepted, being humble enough to listen to others’ perceptions of us, and accepting Jesus’ invitation into the fullness of our lives – that we grow in our consciousness of where our privilege, power and wealth comes from and that we get to grips that we had much BECAUSE other people didn’t.

(I know – it is hard to think hear that, but think of South Africa’s education system alone: I was able to go to a school with all sorts of incredible advantages BECAUSE the money was not being distributed fairly to all other children of my age – my school would not have had the state budget allocation it did if all people of South Africa had been treated fairly).

I want to point out that Zacchaeus didn’t actually personally collect any taxes – he was not responsible for physically taking money from the poorest of the poor while looking them straight in the eyes. But he knew he was part of system which did this. And acknowledged that he had been part of the theft. He also gave away half his wealth — even the wealth he had gained “legitimately” (not stolen), he realised was far more than others had, and that this needed to be remedied.

Act

Just. Do. It

(relationally, humbly, with love, with Holy Spirit-breathed creativity, from a place of true identity and acceptance…but just do it!)

Now: Imagine with me what the world would look like if all of us, operating in our true identity and acceptance in and through Christ, would allow our lives to be transformed in this way! Streams of justice!! And freedom! And joy!! And people would look and see that truly Jesus came to seek and save all that has been lost, and put their hope in Him.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

*Thanks to the Irlam family for their supper time reflections which reached my ears, and special tribute to Huw for coming up with that headline 🙂
** Don’t read that as me saying that I am not incensed and gutted by the immorality of what is happening with Nkandla. I feel physically sick over it and am praying desperately for our country.

On sex-trafficking, nipple-chafing and swords which are ever-heavier to carry

Quaker tradition tells of a young man of rank who joined the gathering of Friends*. At the time, it was customary for young men in his social class to carry swords. It was, however, customary for the Friends to wear simple, non-distinctive attire – people of all walks were equally valued and welcomed. Meeting up with George Fox (the “founder” of the  Quakers) one day, the young man wondered aloud whether he would be able to carry on wearing his sword now that he was a Quaker. George’s wise response was, “Wear it for as long as you are able”.

On Tuesday morning, I sat crying as a beautiful, gregarious 24-year old told a group of us how, as a popular, gifted 14-year old, she had attended a sports practice one afternoon after school. After consuming an energy drink which had been given to the team, she woke up a few hours later in the back of a truck with 3 other team mates, being driven from Burundi to South Africa, where they were locked up in a room in Durban and raped multiple times daily by various men. The men drugged the girls to stop their screaming and, eventually, the girls begged for the drugs as the only way to numb the pain they were experiencing on every level.

She isn’t clear about the timespan, but has calculated it to be around 2 years that this went on, before a security guard helped the 4 escape, leaving them at the train station. Only being able to speak French and Swahili (how could they have learned any South African languages through that time?), they were now living on the street, not sure where to turn, and in serious withdrawal. They took to staving off hunger by shop-lifting pieces of fruit.

After a few days or weeks (it was a blur) of living on the street, Dania** heard a man walking past busy on his cellphone, speaking her home language. She approached him and begged for his help to get her to the police so she could get home to Burundi. He took her home with him, fed her and gave her a place to sleep. After 3 days and no sign of him taking her to the police, he told her that, if he was going to look after her, she would have to have sex with him. He then locked her in the house (“a toilet is all you need and there is one here”) and, for the next few years, raped and beat her. Whenever the neighbours would ask him who the woman was they sometimes caught a glimpse of, he would move them to another house.

It was when she was pregnant with his second child (and allowed out only to go to the clinic) that someone at the clinic recognised her: she was apparently the spitting image of her mother. This woman managed to get Dania’s mom’s contact details and, after 4 long years, Dania heard her mother’s voice again…A funeral had been held for Dania a year or so after she had gone missing, but her mom had always believed that she was still alive…

“It is over. Come home.”

Filled with indescribable joy, she told her abuser (he was the only person in her life and she thought he might be happy for her). He beat her and kicked her as she lay on the floor. The next time Dania was able to sneak to the clinic to phone home, she was greeted with the news that her mother, on discovering that her daughter who had been lost was now found, had been so overwhelmed with emotion that she had suffered a heart attack and passed away…

Nowhere to go, she stayed with her abuser. A few years later, seeing the violence being played out between her children, she made an incredibly brave decision for their sakes. She and her children have been staying in a shelter for a while now, but have exhausted their allotted time there and have to leave in 4 weeks time. She speaks of a deep yearning for, and absence of, belonging. She doesn’t know anyone in the outside world except her abuser. She doesn’t know where they are going to go…

Later that day, I sat in a parent meeting discussing my 15-year old’s sports tour to Europe next year. With the  ever-expanding budget, it had been decided that they would not have special playing tops made. But, it was wondered, could they not get the tour emblem embroidered on to their normal tops to help them feel a bit special? Conversation ensued around the positioning of the embroidered emblem so as not to cause painful nipple chafing…

* another name for the Quakers
** not her real name