Mondays with Mike: Here’s to a new normal

Just another conversation at the CCAC.

This morning, Beth attended the inauguration of new Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. To register for the event, she used an online form that was very intentionally and seamlessly accessible to her computer’s screen reading software. In advance of the event, Beth and everyone with disabilities planning to attend received this friendly message:

Hi, everyone!

We’re really glad you can join us for the inauguration ceremony at Wintrust Arena on Monday, May 20. Below, please find more information about the accessibility services that will be in place to make participation as easy as possible.

For general information about the ceremony, including parking and discounted ride share promotions, please visit https://bettertogetherchicago.com/inauguration/.

A favor: if your plans have changed and will no longer be attending, please take a second to reply to this email to let us know so that we can plan accordingly.

Thank you!

The Inauguration Accessibility Team

The message went on to outline details about the location of the accessible entrance and drop-off area, elevators and escalators, courtesy wheelchairs, open captioning, assistive listening devices, audio description, and ASL interpretation.

The message struck a nothing-to-see-here, routine tone. Which is noteworthy, because often, accessibility efforts are clumsy, or self-conscious in a “look at what we’re doing for you!” way.

But things are changing, and one major force behind that change is an organization called the Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium(CCAC). (Evan Hatfield and Rachel Arfa have both been with CCAC since it started years ago, and both worked on the accessibility program for Lightfoot’s mayoral inauguration).

CCAC started as a network of like-minded staff members at theaters, museums, and other cultural institutions—they each brought an interest in learning how to help people with disabilities better access their facilities and programs.

What started as an informal network became a 501(c)3 last year. Beth and I attended CCAC’s first formal fund raiser at the Lagunitas Brewery.

Beth has written about touch tours at the Steppenwolf, Goodman, and other theaters. Though they target the visually impaired, I’ve fully enjoyed the tours I’ve attended with Beth. We learn a lot about the behind-the-scenes stuff, and we get an intimate audience with the actors. (My all time favorite was listening to John Mahoney talk about his role.)

Beth has invited friends to some of the touch tours—and a few of them also attended the CCAC fundraiser.

I didn’t know what to expect, but hey, beer! Well, it was delightful. It was a mix of staff from CCAC member institutions, board members, and people like Beth—people with disabilities whom the CCAC has been wise enough to ask questions and listen.

There were wheelchairs, white canes, and sign language interpreters winding throughout the crowd all night. And it all felt very ordinary.

At one point, I began talking with a friend from our building who’s active in the disability community—and she knows ASL. She introduced me to a friend of hers, immediately signing to her friend to introduce me. We started a conversation, and our friend Shannon called for the ASL interpreter who was on duty for the event. He came over and suddenly Shannon and her friend and I conversed naturally, and Shannon didn’t have to interpret my remarks as well as her own.

Eventually we found ourselves in a circle of a half dozen people—among them Beth, Shannon and Shannon’s friend. The interpreter was there, too. And it went off without a hitch.

At one point it dawned on me what was going on there—the blind and the deaf and all that. But what really struck me was how un-extraordinary it felt.

Hats off to everyone involved with CCAC for their ongoing work to make that tableau commonplace.