Build for Access

We are, each of us, many different things to many different people. We are children and parents and neighbors and teammates and workers and friends, and so much more. The world we are building must be for all of us, and for all the roles we play.

When we build for access, we support each other to live in our communities as complex, whole people. We celebrate and uplift the necessary wisdom that comes from living in systems not designed for us, because that’s where the solutions are. Wisdom from struggles for disability justice, such as the Principles of Disability Justice from Sins Invalid, teach us that a more accessible world is better for all of us.

We need to have access to the knowledge, resources, institutions, and support that allow each of us to offer our unique contributions. We must design for this from the beginning. If access is an afterthought, we’re doing it wrong—and we’re likely doing it for the wrong reasons. We need to build for access because we need to be able to show up for each other and be powerful together. People who dream in languages other than English are leading the way out of a colonial mindset, so we need those languages centered in our planning and organizing processes, not just in our output. People with disabilities are experts at adaptation, so we can’t afford to try to address the climate crisis without their leadership.

Access needs are not always visible. About 14 percent of the global population is illiterate. Many millions of children arrive at school hungry. More than 300 million people are affected by depression. Access means understanding how unjust systems cause these problems and creating solutions that work to end those systems and heal from them, which we can only do with the help of those who have been harmed.

Access looks like community meetings held outside of work hours that offer healthy food, childcare, wheelchair accessible entrances, translation, and a ride home. It is textbooks and classrooms, healthcare, banks, and social services that are created and run by the people who actually use them. It is institutions and movements that love the people inside them, recognizing that they are magnificent, complex people who have specific and necessary medicine that will help us all get free, if they have the support they need. It is time and space for rest, care, and healing so that we can keep going for a long time.