Tag: music

A Big Weekend for Accessibility

A Big Weekend for Accessibility

by elizabethmdouglas ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Just over a week ago, I went to BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Coventry with my friend. I’d won the tickets because a few weeks before the festival, I’d been to the Student Radio Association’s conference where during a talk on how to put on a live event, I’d asked the speakers how they were trying to make festivals like Big Weekend more accessible to disabled people. Originally, I wasn’t going to ask the question at all because frankly, no matter how much I share with the internet, I do still feel incredibly lame every time I bring up disability in front of a crowd. So, sitting there, in a room full of strangers – many of whom, I was trying to impress – my instinct was to avoid the topic for fear of tokenising myself. But then again, as my Mum and Dad say: if I’m going to do this disability representation thing, then there will be times when I have to fight my ego, and just ask the question.

I’d never been to a music festival before. That wasn’t because I’d never wanted to, it was just not something that I thought I’d be able to do, given that the two main taglines for my Spina Bifida are that I can’t stand for long, or walk far. So, I just learnt to compartmentalise the jealousy I felt when I saw friends posting photographs of each other covered in glitter in the middle of a crowd, dancing to the tunes of some of my favourite artists, in the same way that I’ve accepted I’m never going to go ice skating. But, as many disabled people are likely to tell you, I’m excluded from experiences such as these not by my ‘condition’, but by society not really bothering to try and get me involved. However, there are plenty of people who want to change that and it’s not always useful to base the conversation around accessibility on all the things the able-bodied world does wrong.

Obviously, I completely loved Big Weekend: I danced for hours until my legs ached, I pushed my way to the front to see an artist I’m not even that fussed about, I ate greasy food from a burger van, and I got a bit emotional at the beauty of sharing all those experiences with strangers in a field. But, I’m disabled, so it was unsurprising that I also had some not very nice moments during the weekend.

The festival had lots of things put in place to try and make it accessible, and when it came to the company and the people working within it, I have my hand on my heart when I say that I felt like they were sincere in wanting to make everyone feel welcome. However, individual people work these events, and it was the individual’s understanding of disability which created issues for me. For example, on the first day of the weekend, I wore trousers which covered my callipers – something I know makes people totally unaware of my disability. On that day, because I don’t look ‘disabled’, each time I asked to cut through barriers so that I wouldn’t have to walk all the way round or if I could please be directed to the accessibility exit closest to me, I was consistently doubted and questioned – even after saying it was because I’m disabled. Whereas the second day when I wore a dress so my callipers were on full display, I didn’t even need to finish my sentence before barriers were lifted, no questions asked.

This kind of experience wasn’t unique to BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend, though. I get this everywhere I go, whether that be in an airport asking for disability assistance from one terminal to the next, or simply driving into a disabled space outside the shop. I’ve had people tut at me, roll their eyes, knock on my car window to ask me what I think I’m doing; people have told me ‘no’, accused me of ‘stopping people who need this help from getting it’, and I’ve even had my name removed from accessibility lists because someone took one look at me and assumed that it must’ve been a mistake.

So yes, I love love loved BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend and it did make me feel for the first time like I’m also invited to music festivals, and I do trust that the BBC has every intention of improving the accessibility of its events and internal structures. But when I speak about accessibility and disability inclusion, I’m going for more of a paradigm shift: I want everyone to change the way they understand and perceive disability. It’s a hefty task, it’ll take a hot minute, and it’s as much the responsibility of the individual as it is of the institutions, but I’m an optimist, so I think it’s possible.

This is about individuals engaging with their preconceptions of disability and how they react to situations – both passively and actively. How do you see me? How should I look? Why do you think I’m lying? These are the questions we need to ask each other because organisations can put provisions in place, but those provisions are useless if the people with the power to let me access them are going to make me beg.

I’ve changed my mind

I’ve changed my mind

by elizabethmdouglas ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to do something brainy when I grew up. (This was obviously briefly interrupted by the oh-my-god-when-I’m-16-I’ll-go-on-The-X-Factor-moment, but then we don’t really need to give 7 year old me that much attention here…) I always knew that I was good at academia, and that I’d probably go to university and end up being a professional nerd. But as I’ve gone through the education system and I’ve learnt to hold my own as a young woman, I realise that I’ve been listening to those good old societal constructs again in telling myself that a profession determines my level of intelligence.

But before I go on to my potentially sickening motivational speech where I tell you to fOlLoW yOuR dReAms and dO wHaT yOu lOve, I’ve got to first acknowledge how successful we are at convincing ourselves, and our children that we need to know exactly how our life is going to play out from the first time someone asks us what we’re going to do after school. And it’s not that I think we should stop asking children these questions, it’s only that we take their answers way too seriously. We categorise careers and people according to what subjects they were good at at school, or their ability to write an essay, or to solve an equation. Yes, certain jobs require a level of academic ability for you to succeed, but intelligence isn’t limited to your academic success.

Before I started my degree, I was convinced I knew exactly what job I wanted to go into. I thought I was going to come out of Durham University and somehow weasel my way into a job in translation in the music industry – don’t ask me how I expected to get there, but that’s what I wanted to do. However, I’ve come to realise that I don’t want language to be the overriding aspect of my future career. Don’t get me wrong, I love languages, and I hope to continue learning new ones for the rest of my life. But I realise that I’m 21, and what I love doing more than anything right now, is writing these blogs, making my podcasts, and interviewing musicians on the radio.

So even though it’s not a ‘conventional’ choice, or something the education system taught me exactly how to get into, it’s something that I have a real passion for, and without indulging in my ego too much, it’s something that I know I could be really good at. Oh, and it’s kind of ideal for the whole physical disability situation because standing for long periods of time or walking long distances isn’t really a problem when all you have to do is sit behind a microphone or a laptop…so you know, it’s kind of a medical choice? But I digress.

I might only be really young, but my age is my power, because I truly can decide to do whatever I want to do with my life. Maybe I’ll get it completely wrong, but if I do then at least I tried! Plus, if it does all go tits up, then I’ll always have that cheeky Durham University degree in Japanese Studies with a bit of history, history of art, and Korean thrown in for extra spice on the CV.

So f*** it, let’s give it a go.

My city break in the Far East

My city break in the Far East

by elizabethmdouglas ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

For my next trip I didn’t fly solo: I had the pleasure of exploring a part of the Far East with my lovely best friend of 9 years. We chose South Korea as our holiday destination for many reasons. The main being that ever since we were 15/16 we have grown a love and appreciation (and for a time, a slight obsession) for K-Pop. We then quickly fell in love with Korean culture as a whole. Now I know that most people hate to admit any affection for Pop music, let alone foreign Pop music, since it’s generally deemed uncool or lacking authenticity. Thus I realise that half of the people reading this have probably just rolled their eyes at that sentence. But hear me out.

In recent years Western Pop music has begun to pay very close attention to the Korean music industry. K-Pop itself is completely manufactured, but just because it’s manufactured doesn’t mean that it doesn’t showcase talent and originality. Granted, what’s spoken about within the songs is often not particularly raw, personalised emotion, but to dismiss the work put into each song and performance for that reason is unfair. I’m no more than a music lover, so I can’t even fathom the amount of time and effort individuals within the industry put into writing, producing and performing the songs. To add to that, in K-Pop every single released has an accompanying dance routine which has been created, choreographed and performed by someone. That doesn’t even take into account the talent and creativity showcased within the Korean music video industry, where each 3 minute video is treated as if it were a fully fledged feature film. And then there’s all the design of the clothes, and the live shows, and the make-up…

This acute attention to detail is prevalent in all parts of South Korean culture. The buildings are ridiculously well-designed, the food is amazing and the people are all immaculately dressed. My best friend and I felt pretty out of place in our 3 year old jeans… Everything was just so bloody clean, and there weren’t even that many bins knocking about.

It became clear that the Korean people have a level of internal discipline that the West lack. This was not a huge surprise given that the Far East Asian stereotype is that there are many child prodigies able to play Debussy aged 10 and consistently achieve perfect grades at school. Obviously this stereotype is true for a tiny percentage of the population, but for everyone else it’s just that: a stereotype. Regardless of their musical or academic ability however, the South Korean psyche is such that everyone strives for success and to be the best. So the presentation of everything within the society just seemed next level, to me.

Having independently studied South Korea, I’m aware of some of the pros and cons of this ambitious, dedicated and persistent psyche. The people and their creations appear beautiful and perfected but their mental health suffers from the idea that not being faultless is a failure. Students study for obscene lengths of time (often 15 hours a day) in Hagwon institutions and plastic surgery is rampant as the people attempt to reach a ludicrously narrow standard of beauty.

I believe travelling is the best way to realise that no society is infallible, but that all of them should be of interest in one way or another. To me, South Korean people are some of the kindest and warmest around, in a way that the English aren’t. Generally, without even realising it we are cold and reserved here but then in my opinion we have a killer sense of humour and our sarcasm is unmatched. The South Koreans have managed to create a clean, successful and rich society even in the context of losing half of its land, resources and people just 74 years ago. Whereas the British have a history rich with invention and multiculturalism. But South Korea also has such intense societal pressures that often to fail academically is to fail completely. Whilst one of Britain’s societal shortcomings is the recently magnified problem with xenophobia and racism.

I love both countries for their successes, failures and for how they continue to evolve. In my eyes, to say that one culture is backwards or less advanced than another is a pointless statement. What should be focused on is that people can, should, and sometimes do learn from each other.