In this newsletter I write about an issue that we face as a Disability Section; our role in promoting full participation for the full range of potential and current members of APHA. Because this is a complex issue, I have been struggling with many aspects of it and hope to provoke dialog and action as we move through 2011.

The first slice of the access problem is defining access itself. How broadly or narrowly is it conceptualized? For me, the ADA standards do not go far enough, but for now are a good start in guiding APHA in their immediate efforts to improve basic access to their resources for all members.

The second slice involves the role and function of the Disability Section in addressing accessibility.  We could speak to one another and present scholarship and papers in Disability Section sponsored sessions, or we could reach our role more broadly. But why, how and to what extent should we do so? Restricting such a role to the Disability Section does not encourage the espousal of this ethical/moral mandate for all APHA members, and for APHA in general. Exclusion and disparities have been a major agenda of the APHA and should be a pubic health concern organization-wide. 

Third, today I noticed that both the Disability Section website as well as the call for papers from the Disability Section do not pass basic Web accessibility standards. So how do we tackle our own access issues and then what is our role in promoting web access for all APHA web-sites?

 
Finally, what is the ethical responsibility of our section, knowing that without change, many of the people who are members and who we seek to recruit in the future may not have access to full membership benefits, such as the keynote speech on YouTube from Cornell West and the Film Festival that does not have a policy for captioning? Should we or others have raised these issue to APHA and identified options that would be more productive?

 
I look to the Disability Section to take on this issue, to address the quandaries that I have outlined as well as those that I have not broached as of yet. I do not think that meeting with the leadership of APHA is sufficient by itself as an action to promote full access and participation in APHA for current and future members.  We must look within and plan. What is the scope of our role, what is our obligation and what actions do we take within our own house as well as within APHA? I would urge an immediate discussion on how to proceed.