Our Principles of Community
11/3/22
We will welcome our whole selves and connect through play. Virtual meetings can be exhausting, and they pose particular challenges amid work, caregiving, and other responsibilities. Let us turn our cameras off as needed to stretch, move, lie down, eat, and take breaks. With full recognition of the serious nature of our goals, let us find opportunities to infuse our collective space with lightness, joy, and humor.
We will co-create a culture of access while recognizing that this work is never complete. This means regularly revisiting these principles and priorities.
We commit to, as defaults:
- As-possible crip participation (come late/leave early, cameras off, etc.);
- Use of designated note-takers for all meetings;
- Use of auto-captioning in all Zoom events;
- Alt-text and Visual description of images featured in our discussions and our website;
- Use of thoughtful trigger/content descriptions; and
- Alcohol- and drug-free events.
We commit to, when requested:
- Use of paid captioners and ASL interpreters..
- Scent-free events
- Provision of access requirements without requiring disclosure of diagnosis
We recognize that disability disclosures within our group should remain within the group, unless stated otherwise. University spaces remain resistant, if not openly hostile, to disabled people. As such, any diagnoses/disability-experiences shared in our group should not be shared outside our group without permission.
We will be mindful of our own tendencies to participate or withhold. If we tend to participate a lot, we might delay asking our question to make room for other perspectives first. If we tend to hold back, we might encourage ourselves to ask a question so that others can learn from us. We are aware that the leaders of this cluster are two white women who carry certain privileges.
This takes some inspiration from the 2021 Watson Conference Commitments.