Hi Julinna and Emma

these are good points.

Relatedly, a while ago I talked to Amy Ferrer about having a sliding scale
that would take into account people's income/salaries. It seems unfair to
me that a poorly paid assistant professor at a state school should pay as
much as a full professor at top private school. I am sure this might sound
outlandish to some, but if taxes work this way, why shouldn't membership
and conferences fees? The APA fees may actually be quite expensive for
some, but are obviously barely noticeable to others.
Even graduate students salaries and accessibility to travel funding varies
greatly among departments.

Liz (Anderson), maybe the Task Force could consider proposing something
like this as a source of funding for inclusivity and accessibility
initiatives?

Sara


2014-04-03 20:35 GMT+01:00 Julinna Oxley <[log in to unmask]>:

>  Hi all,
> I've been attending National Women's Studies Association conferences for
> the last few years as a philosopher, and that professional organization
> addresses these issues wonderfully, and in a way that the APA could model
> (if it had the political will).  Check out the link below and notice the
> following things (all buttons found on the left hand side):
> http://www.nwsa.org/content.asp?pl=15&sl=82&contentid=82
>
> (a) Conference Registration cost is on a sliding scale (like the APA) but
> cost is significantly higher - almost double, in some salary ranges. The
> reason for this is to subsidize child care, provide graduate student travel
> grants, subsidize travel for people coming from international locations,
> and offer many of the services we have been complaining that the APA lacks.
> Frankly, I am surprised that the APA's conference costs are so low,
> especially for faculty who make a decent salary. If the APA had more money,
> it could do more.
>
> (b) Conference Accessibility Requests for NWSA are available directly on
> the website for the conference. Only the Pacific APA site has this feature,
> and it is buried, and a much more complicated process. That sends a message
> in itself! Accessibility should be an easy thing to request.
>
> (c)  Conference child care at NWSA is on site and very easy to arrange. I
> did this one year at the NWSA, and it was wonderful - the child care was in
> one of the rooms around where presentations were being made. Shortly after
> that, I attempted to arrange childcare at the Pacific APA, and it was
> extremely difficult simply trying to arrange a day or so of childcare. I
> was told that there was one other person needing childcare, and we'd need
> to choose the provider jointly. It turned out that we were presenting on
> opposite ends of the conference, and would not overlap in terms of our
> childcare needs. We discussed the process on email, and in the end, decided
> not to do it because it was very costly (upwards of $20/hour), and we would
> have been paying the entire cost ourselves, plus we would then need to
> research which child care provider to choose. We both decided, in the end,
> decided it was too complicated and made other arrangements.
>
> Essentially, the NWSA *assumes *that, as a matter of course, children and
> disability are a NORMAL part of people's lives, and they need to be
> addressed in the first instance and not as an afterthought-- not as if the
> patriarchy is just nice enough to accommodate us.
>
> Maybe this will provide some ideas.
> Cheers,
> Julinna
> --
>
> *Julinna C. Oxley, Ph.D. *Director, Women's and Gender Studies Program
> Associate Professor of Philosophy
> Coastal Carolina University
> Edwards Humanities and Fine Arts #274
> 133 Chanticleer Drive West
> P.O. Box 261954
> Conway SC 29528
> (843) 349-6548
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
> On 4/3/14 2:48 PM, "Emanuela Bianchi" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Just a quick response to speak to the issue of expense. Coming from the
> UK, where, as a student, every single student union meeting and other
> progressive organizational meeting had child care (a "creche") and signers
> as a matter of course, it seems to me that if organizations prioritize such
> facilities by thinking of them as basic rights that ensure participation
> (and take such individuals as the base line, rather than taking able-bodied
> men as the base line), the money would somehow be found.
> Iris Young's work on dependency comes to mind.
>
> I understand there are sometimes practical constraints, but falling into
> the logic of economic scarcity reinforces a model of "standard" versus
> "special" that is flawed from the get go.  One important lesson if
> disability studies is that it is the world built for a certain sort of
> human, rather than having a certain kind of body, that creates "disability"
> by enforcing accessibility for some and not others. Pushing for change must
> happen on many fronts (town planning, architecture, public policy) but it
> must also take place in professional organizations, that might in so doing
> provide a model for others.  I wonder how other academic professional
> organizations are dealing/have dealt with this?
>
> Best to all,
>
> Emma
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original message -----
> From: Sara Protasi <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: APA members with disabilities post a statement
> Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2014 10:38:47 +0100
>
> Dear all,
>
> this is becoming an emotionally intense thread, and understandably so. I
> am sorry to see that some, like Maeve, are feeling hurt by the tone of the
> discussion, and by what they perceive as a discriminatory and insensitive
> attitude toward our disabled colleagues. I apologize in advance if what I
> am going to say will sound insensitive and discriminatory (or, worse,
> hypocritical).
>
> It seemed to me that one important point made by Teresa Burke and the
> other two authors of the statement is being overlooked. They remark that it
> is in the nature of the phenomenon of disability itself that it is very
> difficult if not impossible to talk of accessibility in general, as opposed
> to specific and on-request accommodation tailored to the individual needs
> of the person.
>
> I trust Teresa Burke's opinion, since she is an expert on the topic, and
> has worked extensively on the ethics and philosophy of disability. I am not
> an expert, but this seems true to me, if only I think of my friends with
> disabilities (many of whom are philosophers). One has mental issues that
> affect her work schedule, another has a physical disability that requires
> him to use specific tools to get dressed, sit comfortably, and so forth.
> Others need canes to walk. Another one is deaf. Another one has chronic
> fatigue syndrome. Other disabilities one can immediately think of include
> blindness, or the need for a wheelchair. I know of a philosopher who
> doesn't have the sense of smell. I am sure there are many others, with
> varying degree of intensity and above all which vary along *all sorts of
> dimensions*. It just seems to me very hard to be able to accommodate in
> advance *all* of these.
>
> One might argue that we should accommodate at least the most common
> disabilities. This would be a proposal to discuss, but it is not, it seems
> to me, what is asked in the petition, which demands equal treatment for, I
> suppose, *everyone*.
> As I said, I know nothing about philosophy of disability (and I regret it)
> and certainly one merit of the petition is that it invites us all to think
> more about this topic, but it seems to me that there are *a lot* of
> complicated issues that require to be worked out, and it is useful to have
> suggestions like the ones Maeve gave, to look at the actual difficulties of
> people. But again, I worry that "in principle" accessibility may be
> impossible to achieve.
>
> I am sure the APA Task Force will work on this, and I hope they will keep
> us posted, but for now I want to raise one last concern.
>
> As a mother, I would like the APA to accommodate the needs of the many
> philosophers who are parents of young children. Having a small child or
> more constitutes a grave handicap for many of us when it comes to going to
> conferences, or giving talks. But I am aware that, in addition to cultural
> obstacles, there are great economic ones. I know that the APA just does not
> have the funding to provide free or even subsidized child care.
> I wish more support could be provided by the APA to parents, but I am
> aware resources are right now very limited. I think this is an issue of
> inclusivity, but I also understand the economic constraints. I am talking
> about this not to suggest that being a parent is as difficult as being
> disabled (I genuinely have no idea how to compare the two statutes, and of
> course they may overlap, and of course there are all sorts of
>  complications: being a single parent is a lot more difficult than being a
> co-parent, and a mild disability is different from a debilitating one), but
> to suggest that something similar may hold when it comes to accommodate
> even statistically more common disabilities, such as deafness. As Teresa
> has pointed out to me, both publicly and in conversation, interpreters are
> very expensive. Ideally it would be great if every APA talk always had an
> interpreter of American Sign Language (but then of course there is the
> problem of excluding non-American philosophers), but it's just practically
> impossible.
>
> In general, it seems to me that it would be useful to distinguish issues
> of discrimination, implicit bias, and of a culture of hostility toward
> disabled people from issues of what is feasible in practice. I know, the
> boundaries between the two are often blurred. But we should try. We should
> also try to believe that at least some of us are in good faith, and that
> disagreement may not always be a sign of insensitivity or indifference,
> but, well, plain disagreement about what to do, and as philosophers we
> should be able to deal with that!
>
> All best,
> Sara
>
>
> 2014-04-03 2:33 GMT+01:00 Waugh, Joanne <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>
> Dear Maeve,
>
> I want to second Allison's remark that your message was very helpful in
> understanding issues about disability, especially your remarks about
> accommodation and equal access.  I will look at the Disabled Philosophers'
> Blog
>
> Joanne Waugh
> American Foundation for Greek Language and Culture (AFGLC)
>         Professor of Greek Culture
> Director, Interdisciplinary Center for Hellenic Studies
> Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Chair
>         Department of Philosophy
> University of South Florida
> Tampa, Florida 33620
>
>
>
>
>
> On 4/2/14 4:30 PM, "O'Donovan, Maeve" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >Hello everyone,
> >
> >I write as one of the signers of the petition, and as a disabled
> >philosopher who is disturbed by the responses to the petition from those
> >who are critical of it. I think there is something being asked for in the
> >petition that is not being understood, and I am surprised by the tone and
> >content of the criticisms of the petition.
> >
> >What is being asked for:
> >
> >As has been pointed out by others, the petition calls attention to the
> >difference between an environment that accommodates disabilities and one
> >that is accessible in nature, and it asks that the APA and the profession
> >make a move from being the former to being the latter. Much of the
> >criticism of the petition rests on claims that accommodations are made,
> >but this is not what the petition is asking for from its addressees.  I
> >venture a guess that the majority of the people involved in discussing
> >this petition, including those without disabilities, know that it's far
> >better to be given equal treatment (accessible environments) than to have
> >to ask for it (accommodations). Also, the petition explains that the
> >absence of an accessible environment at APA events contributes to an
> >overall hostility met by many persons with disabilities in the field. The
> >existence of the petition itself, as well the many posts on the Disabled
> >Philosophers blog (and to confidential listservs to which I hope a member
> >of the committee has access) are evidence of the fact that there are many
> >persons in our field who are living with disabilities and who are meeting
> >great obstacles in their careers as a result of a lack of accessibility
> >and, in some cases, as a direct result of asking for accommodations. So
> >whatever is being done in our field and by the APA, for philosophers with
> >disabilities, it is clearly not enough and we, the signers, are asking
> >for more.
> >
> >Tone and content of criticisms:
> >
> >Shelly Tremain is an accomplished philosopher who is a trailblazer, and
> >she began this petition. Many more of us have signed it. I am not alone
> >in experiencing the criticisms of our petition--criticisms that claim
> >that petitions aren't helpful or that a lack of concrete demands somehow
> >diminishes this particular petition--as disingenuous. They sound too much
> >like what we heard when we were demanding that attention be paid to the
> >lack of gender and racial diversity in the profession, demands that
> >resulted in the forming of the very task force that is now critical of
> >the petition signed by many disabled philosophers and their allies. For
> >those who want specific grievances to be made public, they already are.
> >They are posted on the Disabled Philosophers blog on a regular basis.
> >
> >To further this conversation, here is my concrete recommendation: I
> >recommend that members of the Committee on Inclusion and Diversity read
> >or re-read all of the posts on the Disabled Philosophers blog and, if
> >granted permission, be given access to the posts on confidential
> >listservs for philosophers with disabilities, then devote a meeting to
> >discussing the significance of these postings for the work of the
> >committee ("to identify problems faced by the discipline in advancing
> >inclusion and equitable treatment of historically underrepresented groups
> >at all levels of philosophical pursuit, and to suggest policies that can
> >effectively address these problems"
> >http://
> www.apaonline.org/news/153559/Announcing-the-APA-Task-Force-on-Dive
> >rsity-and-Inclusion.htm).
> >
> >On a final note, it shouldn't be ignored that the members of the Task
> >Force on Inclusion and Diversity include tenured, full professors while
> >many of the philosophers with disabilities who post their experiences are
> >students and those searching for tenure-track jobs. It is a great thing
> >that there are now feminist philosophers in positions of power in our
> >discipline, including President of the Eastern Division of the APA; this
> >doesn't mean our profession is no longer deserving of criticism when it
> >comes to the needs of those on its margins. There are now many who hold
> >positions of power to do something concrete and positive in response to
> >this petition, and I look forward to seeing that happen.
> >
> >Maeve
> >
> >Maeve M. O'Donovan, Ph.D.
> >Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy
> >School of Arts & Sciences
> >Notre Dame of Maryland University
> >4701 N. Charles Street
> >Baltimore, MD  21210
> >410-532-5129 <tel:410-532-5129>
> >[log in to unmask]
> >
> >www.pickeringchatto.com/raceandgender <
> http://www.pickeringchatto.com/raceandgender>
> >
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-- 
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Sara Protasi
PhD candidate
Department of Philosophy
Yale University

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