Kimberle Crenshaw’s ideas about intersectionality were arguably the moment the concept began to gain widespread recognition, thanks to her lucid explanations backed with tangible, real world examples, particularly focussed around the intersection of race and other identities. Others wrote about these ideas even earlier, like the Combahee River Collective — a group of black feminists, in 1970s, who stated:
“The major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions. We do not have racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class privilege to rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access to resources and power that groups who possess anyone of these types of privilege have.”
The Combahee River Collective (1)
My particular area of interest is the intersection of disability/neurodiversity and trans identity.
According to a study, trans people are 6 times more likely to be autistic than the general population — one of the authors notes:
“Both autistic individuals and transgender and gender-diverse individuals are marginalised and experience multiple vulnerabilities. It is important that we safe-guard the rights of these individuals to be themselves, receive the requisite support, and enjoy equality and celebration of their differences, free of societal stigma or discrimination”
University of Cambridge (2)
It is important to question the definition of neurodiversity as a disability, as the authors of this letter do. Neurodiversity can mean that some practitioners question neurodiverse trans people’s right to access the care they need.
“Without pretence, the mention of neurodivergence when speaking about transgender people is to imply that there is less capacity for making good choices about our bodies, evaluating risks and benefits. We can assure you as intelligent neurodivergent practising doctors, responsible for the care of others, that this is not the case. A divergent neurotype does not invalidate one’s gender identity.”
Khan, S., Sellen, M. and Carey Jones, B. (BMJ) (3)
This is one clear example of how intersecting identities can impede people’s rights, in this case access to care.
Trans people are also nearly twice as likely to be affected by a physical disability than their cisgender peers, at all ages (4). It is vital that these intersecting identities are respected, and any barriers to care and other rights are challenged (not just by those within the affected intersection of identities!)
In this video (5), Chay Brown reflects on his experiences as a trans, neurodiverse man. He notes how his intersecting identities can present both privileges and challenges. Because he is white, cis-passing, and his disabilities are often hidden, he benefits from advantages that those identities, (or perceived identities) bring, especially when compared to some other trans and/or disabled people. Identities can also intersect to offer privilege.
When asked what prevents disabled people from feeling included within the LGBTQ community, he particularly noted issues with access to venues. (Infrastructurally this is part of a complex history of gay venues sometimes needing to remain hidden, either in basements or upper floors of premises. This history presents access challenges to this day).
He also notes how a lot of trans and queer events are tied to alcohol and loud music, both of which can be challenging sensory experiences.
This is something that I have collaborated on researching, as part of GFSC’s ‘Trans Accessibility Zine’, which aims to support queer venues and events coordinators who are keen to improve their welcome to disabled and neurodiverse members of their community. The zine reflects on the challenges of accessibility across intersecting identities:
“All we can really do is try to make things better. We want this to be a care oriented process — that means people shouldn’t feel bad for not being able to accommodate everyone, because universal accessibility is a myth.”
“Access is personal. There are no hard and fast rules. It’s important to remember that what makes an event accessible to one person may make it impossible for another.”
The Trans Dimension Guide to Inclusive Events
When reflecting on the welcome offered to students with disabilities in my context, I am especially mindful of invisible disabilities, such as those talked about by Chay. Some students do directly approach staff members to let us know their needs. However, UAL’s data dashboard shows that 17% of students have a declared disability. This means that in a typical class of 40 students, an average of 7 students will have some form of impairment. And this is just those who declare on admission! In a subject like UX, we often discuss the needs of our users. I want my students to understand that UAL offers a safe space to be open about their needs as ‘users’ of the university, where they will be heard and supported in the ways they most need.
Sources
- The Combahee River Collective (1977) The Combahee River Collective Statement. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20170224021117/http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html (Accessed: 23 April 2024).
- Transgender and gender-diverse individuals are more likely to be autistic and report higher autistic traits (2020) University of Cambridge. Available at: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/transgender-and-gender-diverse-individuals-are-more-likely-to-be-autistic-and-report-higher-autistic (Accessed: 23 April 2024).
- Khan, S., Sellen, M. and Carey Jones, B. (2023) ‘Diversity in gender identity and neurotypes’, BMJ, p. 382. Available at: https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rr-8
- Smith-Johnson, M. (2022) ‘Transgender Adults Have Higher Rates Of Disability Than Their Cisgender Counterparts’, Health Affairs, 41(10), pp. 1470–1476. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00500.
- Intersectionality in Focus: Empowering Voices during UK Disability History Month 2023 (2023). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yID8_s5tjc (Accessed: 23 April 2024).
- Charleston, E., Foale, K.,Joynt-Bowe, S., Gendered Intelligence, and The Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (2023) The Trans Dimension Guide to Inclusive Events. Available at https://gfsc.studio/assets/pdf/Trans-Dimension-Guide-To-Inclusive-Events_1.0.pdf (Accessed: 23 April 2024)
Thank you Emma for this introduction to Trans/Disabled Inclusion from the perspective of both event organisation and UX.
I read through the guidance you produced with Gendered Intelligence.My background is in live event production for film and screen. I know the pitfalls of a commercial schedule, as I used to work at a venue operating 4/5 events a week. As a venue, we could give guidance on best practices for inclusion, but these considerations often fell by the way-side from organisers and producers responsible for planning events in our space. My observations where that not many have been afforded the opportunity to reflect on guidance like the type you have produced here. As your publication rightly points out – there is plenty of mediocre practice and no single ‘answer’ that a cultural producer can call upon to say that they have considered all angles of inclusion.
That said – there is plenty of great, practical advice that this guide has produced to take forward. In particular, it invited me to think about visible disclosure of accessible and GN bathrooms, alchohol, breaks, and optional printed copies of materials as aspects of event planning to make people aware of in advance.
My next thought was if you’ve come across similar guidance or feedback from students for teaching spaces and classroom set-ups? It feels like plenty of the considerations for one-off event production can also align with expectations of a university course or environment.
We have our own ‘audit’ mechanism through the USS/NSS – but are there more grass-roots forms of collecting response and feedback on inclusion and accessibility from trans and disabled identities through bodies like UCU and the SU? Within a busy teaching schedule, how do we set expectations for accessibility with students and give spaces where issues can be raised (and responded to!).
Not easy questions I know. But provoked well by your text here.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment George — I’m glad you were able to take a look at the guide to accessible events (and so glad you found it useful/thought provoking!) — you’re totally right that a similar investigation around teaching spaces and classrooms would be interesting (I’d actually quietly been having these same thoughts around what my intervention further on in the unit might be!)
There is a lot of valuable information here to reflect on, and I really appreciate you bringing some important issues to my attention. The first thing that struck me was the data on neurodiversity in relation to trans people. These intersecting factors must be extremely significant on the well-being of people who identify across these groups, particularly as they are vulnerable to marginalisation in multiple contexts. Furthermore, the questioning of neurodiversity in relation to choices surrounding gender and the body seem extremely problematic, especially if this presents a barrier to receiving care.
In the context of our teaching, I wonder how we can support students who identify as neurodiverse and trans within your suggestion of a ‘safe space to be open about their needs’? As this is something that also came up for me when listening to Chay Brown’s interview. They mentioned how talking to others and feeling accepted as part of a community can help individuals, so I wonder how we can foster this happening at UAL without posing any identity threat? I had a look at the guidance from UAL which seems encouraging in relation to identity, toilet facilities and name changes, but I question if there can be room for more physical spaces for people to come together to share experience? My first thought is that this could include space to hold events, workshops, research or a podcast that both students and staff are actively involved in.
I was also very struck by your mention of the access challenges of gay venues that limit who can access these spaces due their location and how this may continue to affect how groups of people can access queer venues currently. I aim to reflect further on the access challenges across intersecting identities and how that may impact on my transition tutor role for graduating students – I will start this by reading the GFSC’s ‘Trans Accessibility Zine’ that you have collaborated on that looks really insightful.
Thanks Becky! Some good thoughts here. Yes, I wrestle with the issue of how to give students the space and voice they need to express their intersectional identities, without it feeling like tokenism, or forcing some kind of activism or community on them that they do not want. But yes, I agree — the option of physical spaces and/or connection groups for people to find one another and build community is important. I think UAL does already do a lot in this area, but one issue is the distributed nature of the campuses (in my experience, most of my students aren’t especially enthusiastic about going to other campuses for groups or events) and also awareness raising of these things, as students are so bombarded with emails and info about events I know anecdotaly that many of them delete promotional or news emails from UAL on sight without reading them. I was proactive at the start of this year in making students aware of groups and spaces available to them within LCC and wider UAL, and want to further expand my own understanding of what’s already out there so that I can better verbally promote it to my new year 1 students next year. Thanks once again for your thoughts!