@meganL@mas.to
@meganL@mas.to avatar

meganL

@meganL@mas.to

Disabled Masters student @ UC Davis. Speaker on Accessibility in Higher Ed/Cycling/Plant Science. Speaker on carob.

#Accessibility #Botany #Cycling #SciComm #NoBot #NoBridge

Most of my posts are not asking for advice so please don't offer it unsolicited. When I'm asking for advice, I usually ask quite explicitly.

Banner = 2 UC Access Now buttons, with a seal that's a parody of the University of California's. It says "Let There Be Access > ADA" Profile = HG Peters drawing of Wonder Woman

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

docpop, to random
@docpop@mastodon.social avatar

I'm sick of justifying ethical behavior in terms of profit. We use phrases like "adding alt-text brings more customers to your site" or "protected bike lanes increase revenue for local businesses."

You should add alt-text descriptions to images because it helps people.

We need to build bike lanes because it makes cities safer and more accessible.

Reduce carbon emissions because it's the right thing to do! Discussing these things in purely economic terms misses the point.

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

@docpop Also a sore spot for me.

Even more than missing the point, it sort of fortifies the worldview that everything comes down to whether it makes profit for someone or not. That cost/benefit is purely in a Western capitalistic mode rather than true costs and benefits.

https://mas.to/@meganL/112278548361625521

meganL, to Trains
@meganL@mas.to avatar

The new account timeline feels so empty, so pardon me while I furnish it with this @Vox infographic of how the US had somewhat decent passenger rail and got rid of most of it.

"The decline of passenger railway service in the US 1962 - 2006" A line map of the continental US in white on grey. A fast-moving 48-frame animated GIF shows lines that are Non-Amtrak, have service less than daily, service daily, service 3+ times daily, and service 6+ times daily. The source is the National Association of Railway Passengers. The initial frame shows service > 6x/day on much of the East Coast, routes in Chicago and major Midwestern cities as well as routes from LA to Las Vegas and from SF to Sacramento in California. Much of the rest of the map has major routes going 3x daily and more that are less frequent. Even having been reduced by 1962, it's still remarkably good coverage of a large nation. It drops off hard by 1967, and even more by 1971. Some lines are restored by 1975, likely in response to the OPEC crisis, but start to get reversed again after Reagan is elected. But it never goes back to the relatively good coverage of 1962. It is still largely 6x/day or more on popular commuter lines in New England, Chicago to Milwaukee, LA to San Diego, and SF to Sacramento.

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

My entire adult life, the messaging from most politicians, echoed by media, has been urging austerity. Even when reporting surpluses.

Meanwhile the rich get astronomically richer, aren't taxed enough (or sometimes at all), are not made to pay back what they've stolen, etc.

It's remarkable how effective the messaging is in getting us to fight over crumbs instead of taking the resources meant for everyone away from the few greedy people who are hoarding them.

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Accessibility tip:

If you don't use a screenreader to access the internet, you may be unaware that case matters in hashtags. Sadly, Mastodon tends to lower case them even when you're trying to camel case them.

If you lower case a multiword hashtag, the screenreader reads it like it's one word - making gibberish out of it. If you camel case it (capitalize the start of each word even though you're not spacing between words), the screenreader can differentiate the words.

>

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Activism is required.

You cannot escape climate change by going off-grid and creating a permaculture ecovillage - climate change will catch up with you & yours.

Not saying there might not be other good reasons to form intentional communities, but you cannot ethically escape the requirement to be an activist.

The greedhead fascists who brought us anthropogenic climate change won't stop continuing their violence voluntarily. They must be met with active and constant resistance and outflanking.

meganL, to cycling
@meganL@mas.to avatar

🧵 A phenomenon keeps happening both online & in person that angers, saddens, & devalues me. So I'm attempting to explain why it has this effect & what I'd hope people would do instead.

When I arrived at UC Davis to prepare to start grad school in summer 2019, I found the first of many damaging ableisms - the cycle racks were not accessible to the types of cycles I ride. Yet I'd be cited & my bike impounded if I didn't park there. 1/?

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

  1. Please do not humanize my equipment more than me.

  2. Please do not minimize the reason why I needed the equipment and the enormous cost to my health and potential lifespan that caused it.

A) If you want to go further, please do follow @ucaccessnow

B) Please do read https://archive.org/details/disability-equity-and-justice-demands

14/?

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Something I've read of being a successful tactic in several primary sources from the '30s - '40s is using bureaucracy as much against a fascist state as they're trying to use it against you.

One of the traits that I feel helped get us where we are now is that people cede power far too easily. They despair or get cynical and just never try.

Bureaucratically drag your feet every chance you get to thwart shitty stuff. Not all resistance is the obvious stuff.

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

After decades of testing, I've come to the conclusion that "Just Be Yourself" is advice that's meant for neurotypical people.

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

You know how rich folks make comments that betray they don't pay attention to grocery prices when shopping?

That's what it feels like when I see some folks casually comment about emigrating. They have no idea about the many serious issues that keep people rooted where they are even if they long ago would have tried to go somewhere they feel fits them better.

meganL, to disability
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Are there places in the Fediverse where folks who are longtime disabled (i.e. having done some of the work of dismantling their internalized ableism) who are into pan-disability activism are hanging out exchanging ideas and tactics?

Most of what I see is discussion within silos of one's own disability group (ME, blindness, autism, etc.) and or COVID discussion [all of which is great, but I'm looking for more pan-disability stuff to supplement]

@disability

meganL, to accessibility
@meganL@mas.to avatar

People would think horticulture has nothing to do with accessibility, but it does.

Planting an Acanthus in this narrow spot was already a bad choice even if there were no wheelchair ramp there. You have to design your landscape for the projected mature size of the plant, not the size it is when you buy it.

But having it here and not constantly trimming it means you're just performing accessibility.

This is the entrance to an art gallery. @plants

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

As a progressive who lives in a trailer park, let me let the house/apartment-dwelling liberals know that reaching for classist insults like using "trailer park" as an adjective we're supposed just laugh at reveals a lot more about you than you think.

Especially now, trailer parks are full of poor people. You know, the class you're supposed to be concerned about?

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Always a good time for folks to put the shoe on the other foot and realize that for blind and/or Deaf folks, getting communication that is inaccessible to you is unfortunately very common in our society. https://journa.host/@w7voa/112180222924204982

meganL, to cycling
@meganL@mas.to avatar

UCI really screwed things up for ergonomics when they outlawed recumbents in the 1930s.

"The press coverage kicked off a long-overdue conversation about women’s saddle issues and aired one of pro cycling’s open secrets: that some women suffer so much damage to their genital areas they resort to surgery—labiaplasty—to keep riding."

#Cycling #BikeTooter #Recumbent

https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a60412469/cycling-saddle-pain-women-surgery/

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Community participation:

What are your favorite non-monopoly places to shop online? Bonus if they're actually also really cool businesses?

Help folks discover non-Amazon, non-Walmart stores!

Ones I use include:

American Science & Surplus: https://sciplus.com/

Stonemountain & Daughter https://stonemountainfabric.com/

Davis Food Co-op (not mail order, but you can still do "curbside" pick-up) https://davisfood.coop/

meganL, to cycling
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Guess which kind of vehicle CA Legislators have required manufacturers to hard-limit to a top speed of 20 mph - this e-assist quadricycle I ride or the motor vehicle that bent this heavy gauge steel pipe?

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

As a person who has been physically disabled in a way I couldn't deny (had other disabilities from birth I was unaware of) ~ 30 yrs, I feel like I want a tote board to tally up the abled ppl who became disabled and changed their tune about ableism.

What would help us all, ideally, is to not have to wait until it happens to us to change our minds & become active in dismantling .

Maybe rising awareness of how this is a common part of the human experience for all of us would help?

meganL, to eattherich
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Folks have made many visual explainers to help us grasp just how rich the world's wealthiest people are. This is one of the best I've seen: https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/

However, I think it's good while viewing this to keep in mind that most folks still think rich people are not bad. I'd urge you to consider while going thru this visualizer how many people are visibly homeless - just where you live - and ask yourself if you could have this much wealth and NOT help, and in fact hinder.

meganL, to journalism
@meganL@mas.to avatar

2024 Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award goes to Rachita Taneja & Zunzi (Wong Kei-kwan).

"Rachita Taneja’s popular online webcomic Sanitary Panels chronicles daily life in India. Since the end of 2020 the cartoonist has labored under the threat of a prison sentence..."

"May 2023, HK’s Ming Pao newspaper dismissed its cartoonist Zunzi, who drew..for the paper since 1983. The decision came after months of criticism...by...public officials"

https://cartoonistsrights.org/award-2024/

meganL, to eattherich
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Rich folks undermine democracries, then have their pick of wherever they want to flee to because their accomplices in other nations believe hooey about the virtue of rich people.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/10/rich-americans-get-second-passports-citing-risk-of-instability.html

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

CA GOP has already done this and it will likely be happening everywhere in the US: calling to defund higher education because of students availing themselves of their First Amendment rights (and college presidents bungling things).

If you care about access to education for those who are not rich, make sure to write/call in to your US reps and senators, state reps, and let them know.

The right wing absolutely will be making themselves heard. The rich have plenty of free time.

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

If you've been on the fence about buying an e-bike or solar panels or power station, you might want to make that decision soon.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-05-11/us-plans-to-impose-major-new-tariffs-on-evs-other-chinese-green-energy-imports-ap-sources-say

meganL, to cycling
@meganL@mas.to avatar

I often see abled urbanists leaping on the words of any disabled person who says that they can get along without a car, but not being as eager to boost efforts of disabled people pointing out inaccessible infrastructure that often prevents them from dumping cars.

Don't be that person - be as willing to boost (and work for) calls for accessibility as you are to boost disabled people who happen to cycle.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tyPf-0Cc69I

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Both abled car-centrists and abled urbanists use disabled people as a cudgel in arguments. Emphasis on "use".

Make your movement accessible, then when disabled ppl are involved - listen. Then get active on problems disabled ppl identify.

We cannot equitably drastically reduce personal motor vehicle use (as we need to) without prioritizing making public transit, train, and cycle infrastructure fully accessible in ways that allow for disabled people to get around independently

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

I'd really like to see @parkingreform make common cause on things like this. Nothing points out how much parking policy is about subsidizing those who are wealthy like persecuting people who have no choice but to live in their vehicles.

If cities are hassling poor people, but rich people & corporations can park their cars (despite often having a garage), their motorboats, etc. for free, we can make it abundantly clear which class is behind car-centric policy.

https://mastodon.social/@jbzfn/112275759503127140

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Make car-centrists put up or shut up when they argue that we need all our car infrastructure and prioritization because the disabled and/or poor need it.

Because of capitalism, ableism & car-centrism, they do need it until we get better policies & infrastructure in place. So prioritize car parking for these populations and stop hassling them. Hassle those who are abusing public property in luxury and pursuit of profit.

@parkingreform

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