Slide and sign
Tess "graduated" from Pre-K today. She’ll graduate from High School in the year 2021. I’ll be 90. Johnny Depp will be 86. And evidently the Democratic primaries will still be going on.
School ended FOR THE ENTIRE WHOLE SUMMER at noon today, followed by a picnic for all the families at a nearby park where the mothers (in particular) huddled in shared shock. "It’s not even June!" I heard several wail.
Now this is a park I can love. Take a gander at the American Sign Language alphabet on one of the big castle climbing extravaganzas. Tess made her way through the whole alphabet before dashing across the park to jump off the very top of a 12-story sliding board.
Mama, I’m just kidding. She’s fine. It was at the very most an 8-story sliding board.
If I’m a mother with a Deaf child, I’ve gotta be thrilled at this park for including my often-excluded child. If I’m a Deaf child, I’ve gotta feel so valued and "seen" at this park. If I’m a mother without a Deaf child, I’ve gotta be thrilled at this park for introducing my child to a whole new world. If I’m a child who is not hearing impaired, I’ve gotta be wildly curious at this park. That pretty much covers all the bases, so why don’t all parks incorporate these kinds of designs?
Those of us in the dominant culture don’t–and perhaps can’t–realize just how much we ignore the needs and desires (and just sheer recognition of the shared humanity) of those who have physical or mental disabilities (or, in fact, how much we discount those different in any way from the dominant culture). We must enlist non-dominant culture "informants" to get beyond our own "blind spots." So very few of us do.
A decade ago, Mr Brilliant and I took it upon ourselves to get the U.S. Treasury to change the paper currency to make it usable by the over 10 million people in the U.S. who are blind. How hard could it be? Raised dots, different sizes, or foil areas on paper. We mocked up samples. Stop reading this right now and take a wad of bills out of your wallet. You can see how effective we were. The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world that has bills all the same size and color, making it nearly impossible for people who are sight-impaired to tell them apart.
Likely, changing paper money to allow for tactile identification would be useful for other people as well, not just those with sight impairments, just as curb cuts were designed for people with mobility impairments, but are overwhelmingly used by others: parents with strollers, elders with walkers, delivery 
folk with heavy handcarts, and so forth. Sometimes, signage or other changes aren’t even used by the people for whom they are intended, but–rather–serve as a wake-up call to dominant culture people that other realities exist.
I own a TDD machine, not because I have a lot of Deaf friends or clients, but because I might more likely have more Deaf friends or clients if I have some way to communicate with them.
Why not hire sign language interpreters for your next workshop or speech, whether or not you know if someone who is hearing impaired will be there?
I hired Spanish language interpreters for my former employer’s conferences, not because I knew there would be Spanish-speakers in the audience, but because I knew for sure there would be none without it. It was also important for our domestic U.S. members to recognize that there are other languages besides English, often not a strong point for U.S. Americans. (Is there an emoticon to denote understatement? ;-))
While Mr Brilliant and I made no inroads into the issue of paper money at that time, I’m heartened a decade later by a recent ruling that U.S. paper money discriminates against people who are blind or sight-impaired. I hope you’ll see changes in your wallet. Where "see" means "feel," for some.
37days Do it Now Challenge
Slide and sign. Where "slide" is "play" or "work" or "live" and "sign" is allow for the very possibility that there are people who have different needs, different desires, different ways of being and communicating in the world–ways that are as rich, as textured, as playful and full and important, as your own. Play with difference, rather than avoid it. Go to the park with it. Slide with it.
Related posts: Understand how life happens for other people, T is for Them :: U is for Us, Stop doing insignificant work in the world
