Physical Accessibility at Technocopia Makerspace
By: Ariel Amasifuén
Hi! My name is Ariel Amasifuén. I’m the marketing steward and a maker at Technocopia, and I’m disabled! I have fibromyalgia and Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome, plus some other stuff I’m trying to figure out with the doctor still, but needless to say, I have needed mobility aids and tools to make making easier while at Technocopia.
I’m hoping that by writing this blog post, I can provide a resource for other makers who are restricted in movement or dexterity, so that you can get a heads up about which tools and shops are accessible, and the culture at our makerspace surrounding disabilities.
For reference, I use my wheelchair around 80% of the time in the makerspace. I am able to stand and walk short distances sometimes, but not always, and I need tools to support my fingers and hands since I deal with pain. I also have issues picking up items, and using
my wrists basically in any way. I’m not going to have the same experience as every disabled person, so if you are a maker at Technocopia with other disabilities, I encourage you to reach out so that we can expand these resources for other disabled makers!
Technocopia Makerspace’s Culture Around Physical Disabilities
Before I joined Technocopia Makerspace, I didn’t have a lot of practice engaging in public community. I’ve had friend groups, and I’ve had institutions like work or school that facilitated relationship and community building, but like a lot of other young adults in this day and age, I had no training on how to engage with adult community building. With that, I was a bit scared about joining the makerspace, since just being around strangers and even family members could range from frustrating to humiliating to talk about my physical disabilities.
Very thankfully, I didn’t really have a lot to be worried about on that front. People have been very respectful about asking me questions, and only people who have gotten very close to me have asked questions that were more on the sensitive side, and they asked if it was okay first. I think the only problem I’ve really faced is with being younger, and being an ambulatory wheelchair user, so people in the space who saw me walking first and then in a wheelchair asked the typical “Oh no what happened to you?”, to which I just responded “Oh, it’s just a bad pain day” with no further explanation unless they ask. While I have been very dedicated to remaining a safe place to ask questions about and learn about disabilities, I also prefer normalizing usage of mobility aids as much as possible when I can. Mobility aids can be useful even to people who aren’t categorically disabled, so teaching about them, expanding use of them, and building a world that mobility aids can navigate is very important to me.
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help Or Set Boundaries
All of us are different, and are going to need different mobility aids, tools, and support groups to help us achieve the goals we want to. If you want to access a tool or a shop, but can’t with your disability, let Technocopia staff know. They will work with you to find a solution that allows for autonomy, or if there’s nothing that can be done, find an alternative. In addition, please don’t let social interactions in the makerspace cross your personal boundaries. If you don’t feel comfortable with a conversation, feel free to stop it in it’s tracks by saying something like “Sorry to interrupt, but I actually don’t feel comfortable talking about this.” Everyone I’ve ever interacted with has been very respectful with this, but if you ever run into problems, you can also fill out our Near-Miss / Conduct Report form to let Technocopia staff know.
Accessibility At A Glance
This is a living document, and I’m one disabled person trying to learn a lot about making. This can be considered my first pass at analyzing each shop, asking shop stewards and staff what is possible and what isn’t, and driving my little wheelchair around trying to see where I can go. If you have additional disabilities that are not being accounted for by this blog post, please reach out and message us at [email protected] so we can chat about your experiences and discuss how to get your perspectives into this page.
Research Into Mobility Devices For A Makerspace
I’ve been looking into mobility aids for each of the shops to see if there are DIY solutions that Technocopia can build out. I think for the most part I would love to see more equipment specifically purchased for mobility, but being able to make little solutions to make things easier is very good for our existing community. Even just something as small as this pull string I made for the laser cutter is something that significantly helped me with being able to use the laser cutter on my own, so a little bit of creativity and gumption goes a long way to ensuring you can maintain autonomy while you make! Of course, community building here has made it much easier for me to be able to reach out and ask for help for either finding new solutions for me or just doing the things I can’t, and that’s been a comforting thing to come to terms with my chronic pain journey!
