ADA Access Plan: OCTOBER 2020

Access has always been a core value of Don’t You Feel It Too? (DYFIT). We have maintained a commitment to offering a free option to participate in all our public programming, and we regularly update our practices of providing technology and other forms of support to remove barriers to participation. Our movement practice and facilitation procedures are also constantly adapting to the people in the room. In our public art practice, participants use earbuds and choose music to listen to individually. They are given the instructions “Listen with Love. Move Honestly, (Fearlessly). Feel What You Feel.” Each participant adapts the practice to meet their individual access needs—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

We encourage participants to challenge internalized ableism by being present with the instruction to “move honestly and fearlessly.” This can look like dancing, sitting, lying down, walking slowly, or any other honest expression of what the body wants or needs in a given moment. We understand ableism through the working definition that Talila “TL” Lewis developed in community: “A system that places value on people’s bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normality, intelligence, excellence, desirability, and productivity. These constructed ideas are deeply rooted in anti-Blackness, eugenics, misogyny, colonialism, imperialism and capitalism. This form of systemic oppression leads to people and society determining who is valuable and worthy based on a person’s language, appearance, religion and/or their ability to satisfactorily [re]produce, excel and ‘behave.’ You do not have to be disabled to experience ableism.”

As our community of practice grows, DYFIT recognizes that documenting policies and procedures will increase accessibility for participants, staff, volunteers, and leaders with disabilities and others who experience ableism. We will revise this ADA Access Plan annually. We commit to continually learning how to become more accessible to everyone through relationships with DYFIT practitioners whose lived experience informs our intentional growth.

The Staff will hold accessibility as a core value. DYFIT is in the process of becoming a nonprofit, and as our organizational structure changes, we will update our policies about accessibility to make sure that this value guides all levels of leadership.

The Cohort (our community of practice made up of artists, activists and healers) will consider accessibility as they experiment with and co-create the practice.

The Access Coordinator will educate staff and leaders about disability and access, consult on policies, and find resources to make DYFIT more accessible. They will actively seek advice from program participants with disabilities, particularly folks within the DYFIT Cohort, to identify barriers and recommend strategies for access.

The Managing Artistic Director will consult DYFIT’s Accessible Event Planning Checklist when planning events. They will interpret what “reasonable accommodations” means in conversation with the Access Coordinator.

The Practice Coordinator will train Practice Leaders (a group of volunteers who lead public practices) about how to make practice sessions accessible to people with disabilities.

We are committed to proactive efforts to make it possible for people to express that they have been harmed. We are committed to receiving that information with gratitude and respect. When someone expresses a complaint to staff members or Practice Leaders, they will be invited to contact the Access Coordinator. If a person isn’t comfortable addressing the Access Coordinator, they can discuss their grievance with the Managing Artistic Director. The Access Coordinator or Managing Artistic Director will suggest a way to make amends for harm and to prevent future harm. We know that conflict resolution is an opportunity for DYFIT to grow and become more accessible. Once we become a nonprofit (which we anticipate doing in 2022), if resolution cannot be reached, the person with a grievance will be able to appeal to the Board of Directors.

Current Efforts: The Practice Coordinator arranges for public practices to take place at locations (generally outdoors) which are accessible by public buses and light rail lines. We invite Cohort members to tell us what locations are most accessible for their pop-up practices.

If a person with disabilities attends a public practice and identifies barriers to their participation in that location, the Practice Leader will look for a nearby area to relocate the practice. For example, if grass and gravel surfaces make movement unsafe, and proximity to a noisy street poses sensory barriers, the Practice Leader might look for smooth sidewalks farther from traffic.

The Managing Artistic Director arranges for retreats, workshops, and other events to take place at locations which are accessible by public buses and light rail lines. When planning indoor events, the Managing Artistic Director asks host organizations about accessibility, and addresses barriers with the host. At a minimum, indoor locations must be wheelchair-accessible (including bathroom and parking), provide multiple seating options, and be willing to accommodate service animals.

We follow CDC and local guidelines for COVID-19 safety.

Practice Leaders identify the closest public bathroom before every public practice.

Practice Leaders bring a gallon of drinking water and cups to every public practice if there is no public drinking water available at the site.

We hold some programs online, a solution which addresses physical and transportation barriers for community members who are immunocompromised or experience chronic fatigue, among others.

Short-Term Goals (3-18 months): We will conduct site audits of public spaces and partner organization buildings where we practice regularly, in order to promote information about accessibility challenges and benefits in event publicity.

Known Barriers: Because we often practice in outdoor locations, it can be difficult for program participants, especially newcomers, to find our events.

Our practice locations are overstimulating to some participants. We cannot entirely overcome this barrier because our practice is inherently about being in public places and was born out of moments of direct action, working with conflicted circumstances and finding flow and peace and expression within that. We try to balance locations that are more stimulating (such as busy urban places) with those that are less stimulating (such as parks). It can be challenging to predict exactly what a location will be like at a given time because of the variability of public space.

Program participants may need to travel up to a block to access the nearest bathroom to sites where we hold practice. We identify bathrooms owned by parks, libraries, McDonalds, and DYFIT partner organizations near our locations.

Current Efforts: Staff make themselves available to communicate by email, phone, and in-person.

There are multiple modes to register and apply for events. If filling out written forms is not accessible, a person can contact the Managing Artistic Director by phone or to schedule a meeting.

The Managing Artistic Director is prepared to convert print materials into alternative formats (Braille, large print, email) as needed.

Our website’s accessibility page describes accessibility and how to request accommodations.

We caption videos, use alt-text with photos, and use image descriptions with videos and photos that we post online. We use the same standard for e-newsletters.

Short-Term Goals (3-18 months): We will explore our capacity and potential solutions so that a person who is preparing to attend a DYFIT program that day, or is on their way, can ask questions and receive a prompt response.

When publicizing events with parking, bathrooms, and other facilities, we will include information about accessibility and known barriers so that people with disabilities can make informed choices about their participation and request accommodations as needed.

We will complete the website revision which is underway to increase visual accessibility, use plain language, and ensure the website is easy to navigate. We will add accessibility symbols.

Known Barriers: As a small staff, we do not have a social media manager. Occasionally, program participants who have questions about how to attend an event that day post their question on our social media, and we do not have a system or capacity to respond promptly.

The website is difficult to navigate. It is not consistently written in plain language. Users may need to click around the website a lot before they find out when and where upcoming events will be, and how to prepare. Photos are not accompanied by image descriptions and do not have alt-text for screen reader accessibility. Photos are often links, which users may not realize. Videos only have auto-captions if a user goes to the YouTube interface. Maps of program locations are not included.

Current Efforts: The DYFIT practice cultivates awareness of bodies and abilities. Participants ask themselves, “How does my body feel? What do I need? How do my actions affect others around me?” It is an intrinsically flexible practice. Practice Leaders work with participants’ differing abilities, which expands the practice. Participants are not consumers of an existing thing, but practitioners who create something new every time they practice. They are empowered to creatively make the practice accessible for themselves. We remind each other, “You are always in control of your practice.”

Participation for all programs is either free or on a sliding-fee scale. Support staff are offered admission at no cost.

At seated events, chairs can usually be moved to accommodate individual needs. We ask whether participants want to sit on the floor, chairs, or both, and ensure there are enough chairs to meet requests.

Access services, including ASL interpretation, are provided on request (two weeks’ advance notice requested).

Quiet spaces are set up during retreats.

On signage at events, we use text that is at least 18 point font, sans serif, and high contrast.

We make accommodations for dietary needs and fragrance sensitivity (two weeks’ advance notice requested).

We produce programming by people with disabilities at least once every two years. We are committed to building trust with artists with disabilities in our community, asking their preferences and needs, and integrating their work into regular programming.

Practice Leaders accommodate sensitivity to sound, adapting the practice with those who can’t listen to music through headphones.

Practice Leaders create emotional safety by working with participants’ anxieties around physical vulnerability and how they’re seen in public space.

We hold online programming on Zoom, a software whose accessibility features include chat function and screen reader compatibility.

Some Practice Leaders make themselves easier for participants to identify by wearing t-shirts with our organization’s name.

We budget to provide additional access services at workshops, retreats, and public talks. Live captioning, ASL interpretation, and audio description (AD) will be available by request.

Short-Term Goals (3-18 months): The Public Practice Coordinator will train Practice Leaders on disability awareness, and tools for making the practice accessible to people with mobility and sensory disabilities.

Chairs without armrests will be made available at all seated events.

All Practice Leaders will make themselves easier for participants to identify by wearing t-shirts with our organization’s name.

We will distribute cards to Practice Leaders, who will offer them to program participants, that are printed reminders of how to do the practice.

We will plan for what to do in case of medical emergencies and train Practice Leaders.

Practice Leaders will always either offer to sit and watch participants’ belongings during practice, or designate a car where they can be safely stored.

We will make automatically-generated closed captions available at all online events.

Known Barriers: Our organizational culture tends to favor a quiet communication style and abstract language. This is a good match for some people and an obstacle for others.

Most of our Practice Leaders and staff who are the face of the organization, if they identify as disabled, do not regularly speak about that with program participants. This makes us less approachable. We may unconsciously center abled cultural norms.