For a long time, accessibility – particularly in Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union elections – has been a political football among students. Societies and union election candidates paid lip service to it, emphasising how important an issue it is, but having little concrete incentives to actually do anything about it.
The Trinity Ability co-op is doing an excellent job of filling that gap. Its recent Towards Inclusive Clubs and Societies Project will not only provide students with the know how to make their societies or clubs more accessible, it will also give them a clear indication of where they need to improve.
Instead of piecemeal advice, this is a solid, thought-out and welcome test for student leaders in Trinity.
And College has never needed students spearheading the fight for accessibility more than now. Societies and clubs are going to have to re-imagine how they are run in the wake of the coronavirus and putting accessibility at the centre of this reimagining is vital.
Before the coronavirus, society events had rarely changed in a significant way over the years, as society committees passed on knowledge of experience down to their younger members.
Now that the necessary advice is in place, the onus is on societies to change their ways and interlace accessibility into the DNA of their events.
This may, unfortunately, be an uphill battle. While there are plenty of new society members without the old biases of past committees, understanding the difficulties with becoming accessible will be a bitter pill to swallow for some, particularly for those who – erroneously – think they are already accessible.
Ticking boxes on the checklist and nodding along to the Ability co-op’s advice will not be enough for societies and clubs. A culture shift is necessary and this will take time.
Societies and clubs have been expected to take responsibility for educating themselves about LGBTQ+ and race issues. Now they must do the same on accessibility issues.
