Disability Hacktivism

Disability activists take note: The hackathon is the new telethon.

Revulsion is not a traditionally favored rhetorical pastime. But if disability historians were to agree on anything, it would likely involve the word reviled modifying the word telethon. The disability telethon signals some of the most damaging of disability myths and figures. Enter the poster child, pitiable and helpless. Enter the celebrity spokesperson, saving the day. Enter cost-burden analyses. Enter pithy quips about the meaning of life and humanity (of which disability and disabled people do not take part). Enter the sad music. Enter the cure, the elusive cure, please fund the cure. Did we mention the cure?

Welcome

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Margaret Price

Description of header image: A view upward through the tilted windows of the University of Michigan Law Library. The windows’ black mullions slant at angles through the photo frame. Between each mullioned segment is part of the view through the windows, composed of fragmented parallelograms of blue sky, pinkish-white clouds, leafy deciduous tree, and stone towers. A bird has pooped on one of the window panes. (Photo by Johnna Keller.)

Hello! We are the Sustaining Access Project, a group of designers, researchers, and activists who collaborate to explore the intersections of sustainability and accessibility.

This website began as an effort to enhance accessibility for a 2014 presentation at the Society for Disability Studies, titled “Social (In)Justices and Unlikely Allies: Questioning Sustainable Design in Architectural, Urban, Digital, and Academic Spaces.” Our intention was to provide an open-source and accessible space for presentation materials, as well as a “crip time” (non-linear space/time frame) venue for discussion.

Since that first project in 2014, we’ve added more materials to this site, and it is always in progress–so please bear with us! Feel free to add a comment or contact any of the members if you have questions.

Sincerely,