On this week’s episode of Talking Radical Radio, Paul Tsuma and Aimee Louw talk about Accessibilize Montreal, a new grassroots group working to challenge and change the many ways their city is currently inaccessible and ableist.
We tend to have a very narrow sense of what bodies are supposed to be, what they are supposed to be able to do, and how lives are supposed to be lived. From the built form of our cities, to the ways our organizations function, to the nuances of many interpersonal interactions (as well as lots of other things), many aspects of how our social world works respond to bodies that don’t fit this narrow norm in ways that disable them. Note the framing of this as active and social. Grassroots activists in Montreal, both with and without disabilities, recently came together to form Accessibilize Montreal, and have entered the long tradition of challenging such ableist and restricting aspects of social organization. Much of their initial focus is on very practical and physical barriers, such as the city’s transit system and access to buildings. Their approach features a major emphasis on experience and on stories. Tshuma and Louw talk with me about the group’s founding, it’s early activities, and its emerging vision for challenging ableism.
[audio:http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/309577047-scott-neigh-talking-radical-trr-ep-49-jan-292014-anti-ableism-in-the-city.mp3]To learn more about Accessibilize Montreal, click here.
Talking Radical Radio brings you grassroots voices from across Canada through in-depth interviews that concentrate not on current events or the crisis of the moment, but on giving people involved in a broad range of social change work a chance to take a longer view as they talk about what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. To learn more about the show in general, click here.
You can also learn more about ways to listen or go to the show’s page on rabble.ca. To learn more about suggesting grassroots groups and organizations for future shows, click here. For details on the show’s theme music, click here.
Talking Radical Radio is brought to you by Scott Neigh, a writer, media producer, and activist based in Sudbury, Ontario, and the author of two books examining Canadian history through the stories of activists.
