Reflection on the 2019 National Sexual Assault Conference

Disability Justice at Past Conferences

This year was my sixth consecutive year to attend the National Sexual Assault Conference (NSAC) and it was by far the most disability justice-oriented NSAC I’ve ever experienced.  In truth, this is a pretty low bar because historically NSAC (and most conferences not specifically focused on disability) has been very challenging for many people with disabilities.  In the past, people with disabilities may have attended to find:

•  the location selected required excessive maneuvering to navigate the space in a wheelchair and there were literally no accessible transportation options (like NSAC 2017 in Texas);
• people were touched/grabbed without consent, pushed in their chairs without consent, or had their canes kicked away;
• there had been no education about accessibility and collaborating with people with disabilities in a conference space for presenters or attendees;
• presenters believing they are “loud enough” without a microphone or not leaving the front of the room to those who need that space;
• and so many other examples!

To be fair each of these more recent NSAC conferences always includes contact information in the conference guidebook regarding making accessibility requests or accessing accessibility devices for the conference.  There has also been a People with Disabilities Leadership Caucus offered for many years.  However, without organizational attentiveness to the space, conference implementation, and comprehensive education to presenters and attendees, these efforts often do not meet the bare minimum for people with disabilities to be included as presenters (I also presented at NSAC in 2016) or attendees.  At the People with Disabilities Leadership Caucus, which I’ve attended a number of years, there is often so much frustration with NSAC that rather than discussing leadership among people with disabilities, the conversation readily veers towards frustrations and desires of changes to NSAC itself.

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Accessibility at NSAC 2019

I did notice some considerable changes at NSAC 2019 in regards to basic accessibility.    Overall, conference location itself was fairly physically accessible and hallways were wide to allow for ample movement space and ASL communication. 

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Hallways & Elevators

The space was clearly developed to prioritize ease of access to elevators.  Despite the 5 or 6 elevators available, people often had to wake for 10 – 30 minutes (yes, really) to get into an elevator.  This was simultaneously a structural problem with very slow elevators.  It was also an issue that the thousands of people who were attending NSAC as well as the thousands of other hotel visitors attending other events were overwhelming for the capacity of the hotel elevators.  This also lead to excessively full elevators which became a personal accessibility issue as a cane user who uses a cane to prevent instability, dizziness, and falling due to sporadic nerve numbness.  If I managed to enter the elevator first and lean on the elevator wall or bar, I would be fine.  But often everyone became so desperate to get into the delayed elevator quickly, that I would end up at the front and center of the elevator surrounded by people.  This meant I could choose to end up without a wall to lean on (and risk falling into another person awkwardly), or wait for the next elevator for 10+ minutes.  Additionally, given the length of time the elevators took, I was surprised and dismayed to find no seating available near the elevators which meant I often ended up sitting in the middle of the floor to manage my fatigue.  This also contributed to my being unable to access the back of an elevator when one finally opened.

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Breakout Sessions

Besides the elevators, the all-conference space between workshops was easy to maneuver.  Hotel staff had also been planted at strategic locations to help attendees find their way to a given space.  There was only 15 minutes between workshops which was sometimes challenging for people with mobility disabilities or those of us who need to use the restroom often.  However, because they have attendees register with workshop preferences in advance, you could generally find a way to enter a workshop late as long as the workshop was listed on the back of your name tag.   Workshops included a microphone and this year, instead of placing a sign-in sheet on a tall table (#AccessibilityFail), they simply allowed the sign-in sheet to circulate the room during the workshops – both great improvements. One area of improvement in workshops would be the seating closeness.  It is often the case that seats are placed too close row-to-row so that those with mobility disabilities may not be able to slide into a row, but often the chairs are also situated too close next to each other.  This creates discomfort for everyone as people with disabilities may need to move around more (for example, to take medications or re-situate for pain alleviation) and require more lateral space, some people become more easily overwhelmed by social and/or physical contact with others, and of course closely set chairs are very inaccessible for plus-sized individuals or self-described fat folks.  Seating arrangements are a challenge for almost any large scale gathering like NSAC since the organizers will also be considering how to ensure the most people possible get to access each session.  For this, I would recommend that even if just half the room were more spaced out and one half the room was more tightly arranged, this would help alleviate accessibility issues related to seating greatly.

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Restrooms

There has been a persistent effort among transgender attendees to secure all-gender restrooms at NSAC for the last several years.  Each year, the organizers attempt to provide all-gender restrooms but often do so in a way that does not fully meet the needs of trans attendees and people with disabilities.  For example, one year the restrooms were simply labeled “inclusive”.  Not “all-gender restroom” or even just “inclusive restroom” – just “inclusive”.  This was confusing.  Many years, NSAC has changed only one of the “women’s” restrooms into an all gender restroom leaving a higher number of “men’s” gender segregated and fewer “women’s” gender segregated restrooms.  This is usually done in an effort to provide the fewest possible all-gender restroom with the most enclosed stalls, but instead it usually results in there being excessive lines for small number of the all-gender restrooms by trans folks generally and cis women.  As a disabled trans person, this situation is very stressful as I find public restrooms generally terrifying due to my own history of harm experienced by cis people against me using any restrooms whatsoever.   When a conference simply changes 1 or 2 “women’s” restrooms into all-gender restrooms, I end up spending a considerable length of time exploring the conference site or even nearby buildings to find a less visible and less crowded restroom, detracting from the time I can experience the conference. This year, NSAC altered pairs of gender-segregated restrooms into all-gender restrooms and even specified in the conference guide where each kind of restroom (all-gender or gender segregated)  could be found.  The organizers also noted that each restroom had accessible stalls and were physically accessible spaces.  They even documented the ADA compliant restrooms on the floor maps.  Excellent!

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Conference Guidebook

One of the most visible changes made this year was in the guidebook!  This year, NSAC organizers included not only a paragraph titled “Accessibility” in the front of the guidebook but they also included a paragraph on “Fragrance-Free/Chemical Sensitivities”.  Additionally, this was the first year that included an explicit “Code of Conduct” which outlined inappropriate behaviors and how to report harm during the conference.  While the “unacceptable behaviors” listed did not overtly specific to people with disabilities, of course each of the statements still related to wellness and safety of people with disabilities.  I hope in the future, NSAC organizers continue to expand and hone the code of conduct to include common community-specific guidelines, like not touching someone’s mobility device or not asking trans people their gender assigned at birth.

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Workshops & Presenters

Another massive shift at NSAC in regards to disability justice this year was the presenter line-up!  Check out the full list of sessions here.  On Thursday, August 22nd, the Plenary session titled “Building Community Courage” was an incredible conversation among:

• Joseph Shapiro, an NPR Coorespondent who reported, “Abused and Betrayed” regarding sexual violence against people with disabilities,
• Debra Robinson, Executive Director of Speaking for Ourselves
• Carolyn Morgan, self-advocate and co-founder of Self-Advocates United as 1, an advocacy group by and for people with intellectual disabilities

Joseph did an exceptional job facilitating conversation between Debra and Carolyn, both women of color with disabilities, about the connections between sexual violence, employment, self-advocacy, and the importance of independence in the lives of people with disabilities. At past NSAC Conferences, there would usually be perhaps 1 other workshop on disability besides the Leadership Caucus.  This year there were several workshops on disability lead by people with disabilities including:

• Healthy Relationships & Sexuality Education for Youth with Intellectual Disabilities by Mandy Doyle, IMPACT:Ability 
• Sexual Abuse Awareness for Self Advocates by Shanon Harper-Young, Savannah Logsdon-Breakstone, and Oscar Drummond of Self-Advocates United as 1 
• Connecting the Pieces: The Picture May Be Different From What You Think by Bev Frantz (Institute on Disabilities at Temple University) and Kyla Schultz (Office of Developmental Programs in Pennsylvania)

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Disability Justice at Future NSACs

There are still numerous ways in which NSAC organizers could continue to expand their commitment to disability justice.  Some ideas for the conference organizers to move in this direction may include:

• incorporating people with disabilities as organizers and as presenters, even when not presenting on a disability-specific topic
• reaching out to disability organizations to continue to increase the inclusion of people with disabilities in the space
• offer more spaced out seating in breakout sessions
• provide education on common community-specific boundary violations
• provide additional education for presenters regarding accessibility in education
• ensuring each location is physically accessible, including prompt elevators, limited stairs, and readily available accessible transportation

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Credit

By Skye Ashton Kantola (she/they), Assistant Director at Multicultural Efforts to End Sexual Assault, Email: kantola@purdue.edu; Founder & Artist of Faerie Bear Art, Fb, Ig, LinkedIn @FaerieBearArt