3 ms·

How is accessibility a political issue?

by pier25 11mo ago

tsimionescu 11mo ago
How is it not? In the not so distant past of the 1930s there were political parties advocating for the mass killing of people with disabilities, or at least the sterilization of those with heritable disabilities. There have been real campaigns in that period that did this type of forced sterilization, especially in some mental hospitals. You'll still find people espousing such beliefs, thankfully at the fringes for now. Accessibility is the opposite position of that - but it's by no means a universally accepted good, unfortunately, especially when it requires extra effort to implement.
- dlisboa 11mo ago
  > In the not so distant past of the 1930s there were political parties advocating for the mass killing of people with disabilities Those parties still exist today. - https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/fox-friends-host-apologizes-saying-mentally-ill-homeless-people-should-be-killed-2025-09-14/ https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/fox-friends-h...
- arp242 11mo ago
  Going from "we're a small non-profit and we're struggling finding a good solution that's also accessible, this really sucks – we're sorry" to eugenics is quite a leap.
  - tsimionescu 11mo ago
    My response was to someone asking how accessibility can be considered a political topic. I assumed they were asking in general.
- pier25 11mo ago
  Seems weird to me that anyone would frame it like this. In my country (Spain) we put eg ramps for wheelchairs no matter the political party. It's considered a human rights or moral issue, not a political one.
  - tsimionescu 11mo ago
    I would bet Franco was not really putting up ramps for disabled people. That a political party is not currently represented in your country (thankfully!!) doesn't mean that the topic is not political.
    - pier25 11mo ago
      Spain under Franco was a dictatorship. Not really sure how it compares. If you're actually being cheeky that is actually quite distasteful. And yes the far right is represented politically in most countries in Europe, including Spain with Vox.

How is accessibility a political issue?

by pier25 11mo ago

How is accessibility a political issue?

How is it not? In the not so distant past of the 1930s there were political parties advocating for the mass killing of people with disabilities, or at least the sterilization of those with heritable disabilities. There have been real campaigns in that period that did this type of forced sterilization, especially in some mental hospitals. You'll still find people espousing such beliefs, thankfully at the fringes for now. Accessibility is the opposite position of that - but it's by no means a universally accepted good, unfortunately, especially when it requires extra effort to implement.

dlisboa 11mo ago
> In the not so distant past of the 1930s there were political parties advocating for the mass killing of people with disabilities Those parties still exist today. - https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/fox-friends-host-apologizes-saying-mentally-ill-homeless-people-should-be-killed-2025-09-14/ https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/fox-friends-h...
arp242 11mo ago
Going from "we're a small non-profit and we're struggling finding a good solution that's also accessible, this really sucks – we're sorry" to eugenics is quite a leap.
- tsimionescu 11mo ago
  My response was to someone asking how accessibility can be considered a political topic. I assumed they were asking in general.
pier25 11mo ago
Seems weird to me that anyone would frame it like this. In my country (Spain) we put eg ramps for wheelchairs no matter the political party. It's considered a human rights or moral issue, not a political one.
- tsimionescu 11mo ago
  I would bet Franco was not really putting up ramps for disabled people. That a political party is not currently represented in your country (thankfully!!) doesn't mean that the topic is not political.
  - pier25 11mo ago
    Spain under Franco was a dictatorship. Not really sure how it compares. If you're actually being cheeky that is actually quite distasteful. And yes the far right is represented politically in most countries in Europe, including Spain with Vox.