Presenting: The Accessible Normal
A summer series on lockdowns, and what an accessible future can look like.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything.
Now in the summer of 2021, Ontario residents are getting vaccinated and the country is finally beginning to open up. But what comes next after these long months of lockdown? Will we go back to the way things were? Or can we imagine a better, more inclusive world for ourselves?
At Good Foot, we know first-hand how accessibility is different for every person, and how difficult lockdowns could be for the neurodiverse community that we serve.
Our sense of community is so important to us, and it was a challenge to adapt our beloved social events, workshops, and office atmosphere to an online platform. To make things more difficult, many of our Couriers decided not to return to work, and they would have been completely disconnected from our community if we hadn’t been able to adapt and offer online social and skills programming.
With the Courier’s well-being at the center of decision-making, it was imperative to tackle lockdowns in a way that would allow us to continue to foster inclusivity and accessibility. The pandemic taught us that adaptation and inclusion is always possible, and that organizations like ours can centre accessibility at the heart of all decisions, no matter the circumstances. We want to take this summer to reflect on what that looks like going forward.
In this series, we’ll be asking people how they coped with lockdowns, how they feel about things opening up, and what their hopes are for a more accessible world post-lockdown. We’ll be talking to our neurodiverse Couriers, the folks who run Good Foot, and other people who play an important role in the Toronto neurodiverse community.
What does accessibility look like post-COVID? We’re about to find out. Every Thursday, all summer long.