Access

Access is opportunity: to help, and better services; to hope, and better systems; to more inclusive, expansive, and sustainable policies and practices that both advance and protect our human rights. Sometimes this means forging a new path for yourself, and others. When you feel you’re being ignored, observes Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, focus on clearly identifying what is being lost—because you didn’t have your say—and then write about it. Other times, it requires pointing out the roadblocks for yourself, and others. As any disabled person will tell you, notes Elizabeth Guffey, just because the blue and white sign is in use, doesn’t mean that accommodations are actually being made. What about access to clean water? To better information? To equal rights? And while we’re at it—isn’t forgiveness a form of access, too—access, perhaps, to our better selves?