I just read something the Chancellor's official acct wrote on LinkedIn and noticed the image description.
At the time I founded @ucaccessnow, not a single one of UC Davis' many social media accounts was using alt text/image description or captions on videos.
I started documenting that and showing it on Twitter, mentioning their official acct in an attempt to embarrass them into action.
They started adding them (not always, but started for the first time).
I didn't know it at the time, but this is how they do it.
They cherry pick things student-led activism works for, and then they never admit that the activism got them to change. Because they don't want to admit activism is what's effective.
They also want to bury actual progressive activism under approved "moderate" student orgs.
But I'm saying right now because I know it and because people within UC have told me on the QT - UC Access Now pushed the university to move in this & other thngs
@meganL and the moderate ones always take credit and use it to bludgeon the more vocal and disruptive activists to try to get them to stop and “be civil” when it was the vocal and disruptive ones that made the difference. It’s the pattern everywhere - though I do think every movement needs a moderate face to play the system but that moderate face needs to know and appreciate its role as a foil to the vocal/disruptive action.
@casseagull Another aspect in disability advocacy/activism is that ableism purposely impoverishes disabled people. So some disabled people will use their worry about employment to really lean into that "I'm the moderate one the Administration loves" and grab credit for things they did not do, put it on their CV, and go grab their new job as "DEI consultant".
Agree with you that the moderate role can be useful if the person is savvy rather than willing to backstab.
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