Adult Temper Tantrum Rant - Part 1: We're Nowhere Near Total Accessibility

During this centennial year of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which granted women the right to vote, I have been reading and listening to podcasts about the many decades and twists of the women's suffrage movement that finally - and on the turn of a single state legislator's vote in Tennessee - resulted in ratification of the amendment. Basically, due to Jim Crow and other voter suppression as well as terrorism perpetuated against black communities, it was really only white women whose political power increased.

The disability rights movement was born of a different era and concentrated less on legalisms and more on the reality of results. People were being denied educations, physical access to transit and public accommodations, and jobs. The movie Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution does an excellent job of showing the rising consciousness among young people with disabilities and their increasing willingness in the 1960s and 70s to engage in peaceful protests and advocacy.

While no one would call the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) perfect, it created its own revolution in consciousness among the American public that accessibility could be provided, that it could be beautifully done, and that its benefits go way beyond those with disabilities.

BUT

But considering and mulling over the commitment of the disability community's fight and the fight for women's suffrage, I am struck by how little people with disabilities are afforded now, especially in terms of transportation, as if the ADA were a finish and not a start. 

If one harbors the assumption that in order for people to have equal rights they must have equal access to transportation, then leading a full life generally means getting out of the house.

And AV development is where accessibility matters most of all because the lack of need for a human driver can potentially liberate anyone who does not or cannot drive.

Beyond the ADA to Universal - Accessible - Design

Whilst the public sector does what it can with the little is has, sometimes going beyond the requirements of the ADA to improve sidewalks and public transit, the fact is that private sector sale and private ownership of cars, SUVs, minivans, and light trucks provide the overwhelming bulk of transportation. As long as we fail to mass produce accessible versions of these vehicles or - if necessary - fail to require their production, people with disabilities will remain second class citizens. See Toward Universal Access: A Case Study in the Los Angeles and Puget Sound Regions, Eno Center for Transportation (2020). 

This gets into deeper problems, which I will explore - actually, rant about - in a few future posts. Such inequity deserves some good rants. Perhaps when I am done with those, I will begin taking action and writing about that, because it appears that without bold advocacy we will not create legal requirements to provide accessible vehicles or our future AV transportation network.