Bringing a social solution to a social problem
When we think of ‘disability’, most of us imagine a wheelchair. But disability (and accessibility) exists on such a broad spectrum — ranging from the obvious to the invisible. Even within a single type of impairment, there’s a tonne of nuance. Compare a manual and electric wheelchair user: whereas a manual wheelchair user might be able to wheelie over a small step or be carried up stairs, an electric wheelchair user cannot. An electric wheelchair user, however, can more easily push up a steep hill or ramp and is less likely to be knocked over by unaware people in a crowded space. Mix this up by adding in someone with a visual or hearing impairment and you can quickly see how disability — an all its nuance — makes accessibility a very fluid and complex concept.
This is why we’ve been raising awareness for the past few weeks. But an additional consequence of a simplified view of disability is the assumption that there exists a cohesive disabled community; one with a strongly aligned vision of what disability is and how to empower disabled people in society, and one in which members actively support one another for the greater good.
But life is messy — and so is the disability community.
While there are definitely forums, supports groups and indeed other platforms like Sociability, most initiatives operate alone or in small clusters that are typically unaware of and unconnected to each other. And this proves problematic when seeking to build creative solutions to shared problems. Every disabled person will argue that greater accessibility is important, but few will agree on what that looks like, how to achieve it and who should be responsible for it. But, at its core, accessibility (or the lack thereof) is a social problem. And social problems require social solutions; ones that that allow for nuance but still achieve tangible results for the many.
At Sociability, this is our challenge and our goal. At a high level, we’re trying to connect three different players to build a shared solution: disabled users, non-disabled users and businesses.
How are we doing this? By building a movement that understands greater accessibility as a messy, important and achievable goal. And by building a platform that works for most people most of the time, but that any one person or community can adapt to their own needs, wants and purposes within a common framework and shared understanding this problem and its ideal solution.
At a product level, we’ve worked hard to ensure that Sociability is:
- user-friendly to disabled users, non-disabled users and businesses;
- helpful to the many most of the time, whilst always striving to be helpful to the few all of the time; and
- is constantly listening to and incorporating feedback & input from our community.
We’re trying to build a tool that can be used by anyone to help everyone; to build a community that empowers everyone to achieve anything.
Easier said than done, right? You bet — and that’s why we need your help.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been working hard to raise awareness of disability & accessibility: it’s important to understand the issues before working on the solutions.
Now, we’re shifting into solutions-phase! We’re looking to familiarise people with our approach to solving this problem and, specifically, how everyone can contribute to making this change a reality. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing key features of the app — what you can do with Sociability and how — as well as how Sociability can help you speak the language of accessibility to friends, family and businesses. If we’re all speaking the same language, we’re much more likely to write a coherent story of change & impact. So, if you can, please ask us questions, offer us suggestions and help us build the tool that we’ve all been waiting for.
Finally, we’ll also be introducing you to our Sociability Sparks — a cohort of disability leaders, activists, advocates and general stars that we’ve brought together to help us build this cohesive community and shared solution. Be sure to keep sharing, subscribing and spreading the Sociability word and, together, let’s make the world a more Sociable place for all!
Originally published at https://www.sociability.app on July 29, 2020.
