What are your disability travel hacks?
Plus: The best surface to crawl on, competition winners and DAFT reviews
Kia ora D*List whānau! Well done on making through another week, we all deserve a pat on the back 👏
I’ve finally adjusted from my jet-lag and happy to be back home and in my regular routine of catching up with friends and family, creating great content at The D*List - I even missed my boxing classes at the gym! One thing I’ve been reflecting on as a disabled traveller is the additional mental fatigue of learning to live in a new environment every couple of days. Not only are you experiencing a different culture and a different bed when you move around, but I was continually navigating accessibility in a new city and judging how safe it was to use the disabled bathroom independently. But there were some massive perks to travelling with a disability - I got free entry to all the museums, art galleries and attractions, plus I got to cut the massive long queues 😎 I was very smug rolling past the hundreds of metres of tourists waiting to get into the Colosseum, the Vatican Museum and the Louvre. If you have any disability travel hacks or recommendations, please let us know by replying to this email as we’d love to share them!
One of the exhibitions I accidentally came across was in Athens called An Archaeology of Disability. A brief of the exhibit states: “The accessibility of historic architecture not only determines who can experience the past, but it also informs how we think about disabled people as part of history. This installation presents an experiment in the historic reconstruction of the Acropolis in Athens.” You can actually read, watch or listen about the installations in the exhibit via their website here.
This week we published a couple of reviews from the Disabled Artists' Festival of Theatre, also known as DAFT. Even though I couldn’t attend any shows, I got a lot of joy from just reading the reviews and really hope the programme grows more and more each year!
Earlier this week, Stuff’s Caroline Williams reported on Soana Hodgkinson, a proudly independent disabled woman who was allocated temporary accomodation without mobility parking. She was provided an apartment by Kāinga Ora, but when she raised the issue of needing accessible parking it was suggested she ask the 24/7 on-site staff to help her each time she needed to get to and from her apartment. “I’m an independent young woman,” she said. “I don’t want to be ringing someone to hold my god damn hand.”
In an episode of RNZ’s The Detail podcast, advocates said disability issues were at a "crossroads of regress" with neglect from political parties caught up in electioneering. You can listen to the podcast or read the full report here.
In The Spinoff this week, Henrietta Bollinger writes about why they’re voting for climate as a disabled person. “I worry that disabled people will continue to face a double struggle … as we continue to be left out of thinking around the climate crisis. In the wake of climate disasters, we will also have to fight for our basic disability needs to be met.” You can read more here.
Disability rights activists in the US celebrated 50 years of the Americans Disability Act - or the ADA - at the White House this week. Actor Selma Blair, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018, walked together with US President Joe Biden to a ceremony on the White House’s south lawn. In a speech, she acknowledged disability rights activist Judy Heumann who helped secure the legislation protecting the rights of disabled people.
D*List contributor Ite Lemalu has written about his love of professional wrestling and why it was so accessible as someone with a vision impairment. “Supported by the multiple camera angles and cinematic style that followed every movement, the enthusiastic commentators described much detail of every match ... this meant I could follow along easily,” he said. You can read more here.
The Disabled Artists' Festival of Theatre has wrapped up for 2023, but it lives on through some reviews from our community. Vixen Temple attended Body of Work, a show about chronic illness that made her “more eager to burn the patriarchy”. And EJ Barrett reviewed Five Slices of Another Life, and described the laughs bouncing off the theatre walls as inside jokes about being disabled were told on stage.
We also interviewed Henrietta Bollinger about their new book Articulations. We spoke about writing for a disabled audience, what type of floor surface was the best to crawl on as a child and getting pocket money for doctor’s appointments. You can watch, listen or read the full interview here.
🎭 Are you interested in attending audio described events? Mary Schnackenberg has created a booklet of performances and shows with accessibility features for blind and low vision communities. To join the Audio Described email list, just send Mary an email to mary@lansin.co.nz and she will add you to the list.
🗳️ Get informed about voting! You might have seen lots of posts on social media about why and how to vote, but how the heck do you actually decide who to vote for?! An online tool called Vote Compass will show you which political party your values align with the most. The survey only has 30 questions and takes less than 10 minutes to complete! You can check it out here.
📓 Congratulations to Martin and Lucy who won our competitions for a copy of Articulations. Thanks to everyone who entered - we will share a list of our collective favourite disabled authors soon!
🫶 And as always, we love hearing from our community. Last week we pondered the term ‘people of determination’ instead of disabled people, and one person replied: “Absolutely not!!! I am a proud disabled person / person with a disability and do not want to hide under some ridiculous phrase that actually means nothing.”
So do reach out to our kiaora@thedlist.co.nz email or contact us via Instagram if you have any feedback or ideas for The D*List team! And forward on this newsletter to someone who might get some joy out of it!
- Olivia Shivas, Editor
