Written by Brian Le Lay, University of Minnesota, on behalf of the planning committee 

The 2023 RHM Symposium planning committee is devoted to designing an accessible and inclusive experience for attendees, speakers, and presenters. For us, the dwelling place of RHM must center access, inclusion, care, and belonging; we committed to enacting these values throughout this year’s event.

Below we share our (always becoming, ever-evolving) understanding of access and our initial action plan for enacting access throughout the 2023 Symposium.

Access is Intersectional

In the service of the symposium’s commitment to convivial conversation and innovative problem-solving, we’re asking: How will we craft virtual engagements that enable all RHM community members, established and new, to participate fully and meaningfully?

Informed, inspired, and challenged by the category-questioning work of queer/crip activists, writers, and researchers (e.g., Hamraie & Fritsch, 2019; Hubrig et al., 2020; Kafer, 2013; Schalk, 2017; Schalk; 2018; Sins Invalid, 2019), our understanding of access is widely inclusive, encompassing (but not limited to):

• ability difference
• marginalized identities across axes of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and age
• caregiving responsibilities
• time zones
• funding limitations
• increased budgetary constraints due to the pandemic
• academic position
• internet connection speed
• disciplinary perspective

Access as Process, Collective Responsibility, & Dialogue

A few corollaries follow from our understanding of access as intersectional:

• Access is a messy, ongoing, and unpredictably recursive process. We cannot depend on an “access” checklist of general design specs. To make access happen, we must proactively, responsively, and continually (re)align with our community. We will make mistakes and fall short, but we will use those instances as opportunities to listen, reflect, discuss, learn, and improve.
• Access is a collective responsibility. We cannot limit our access efforts to accommodations by request, and we cannot expect a few vocal and empowered self-advocates to do this important work alone. To make access happen, we must make it a responsibility shared by all community members and symposium attendees.
• Access is a polyvocal dialogue. We cannot expect an inclusively-designed symposium to emerge piecemeal from individual minds. To make access happen, we must create opportunities for RHM community members to talk to us and to each other about ways to make the symposium experience accessible. Dialogue drives and shapes our process and makes access a collective construction.

Action Plan

To craft virtual engagements that enable all RHM community members, established and new, to participate fully and meaningfully, we have developed an initial plan for enacting access before, during, and after the 2023 RHM symposium.

Pre-Symposium

• Dialogue with the community about the actions we can take to meaningfully prioritize access and inclusion through email, the proposal submission process (which includes questions about inclusion and access), and additional platforms (in progress)  to answer questions and discuss the symposium
• Provide resources and guidelines to support attendees in making access and inclusion happen
• Ensure that plenary events feature inclusively-designed materials that can be pre-circulated
• Support working paper group participants to enact accessible document design practices throughout the symposium itself

As our planning continues for this year’s events we will be updating and expanding our action plan to include our approach to the day-of events. At any point, we invite feedback at rhmsymposium@gmail.com