If this were real, consider how it would come to be. It’s obvious that even if we pretend it’s for accessibility purposes, it’s worse than just pulling up beside the bench because now you have to deal with backing into the spot.
But what if it’s more nefarious than that? No budget to put in new benches with spikes or whatever built in. But maybe there’s room in the budget for “accessibility upgrades”. Maybe a ramp was sacrificed for this idiocy.
This is real. It’s located in Giulianova Lido, Italy. IIRC an arts project from a local school and it is meant as a way to “integrate” wheelchairs symbolically as well as practically.
This is worse than nothing, because (as a wheelchair user) there’s like 10 inches of clearance behind the chair (given wheel clearance). That back rail means you can’t back up to get yourself in line with your compatriots,so you’ll be in front of and misaligned with the people on either side, such that they’re literally talking behind your back.
If this design was in earnest, it’s godawful and just shows the designer had no idea what they were doing.
If it’s an art project, then I can appreciate it. If it was meant to be practical, it’s a major fail.
It’s a single installation, AFAIK - and definitely an art project. Having some academic arts background, I dare to say the focus of the installation is the difference between “in the middle” and “aside”. So it’s highly symbolic. Practically two chairs with a reasonable gap inbetween would be far more practical but they, of course, don’t transmit any message.
But what this art says to me, as a wheelchair user, is something completely different because this design is the opposite of inclusive. Is that what is meant?
This design says I should be excluded – taking it as art, this design communicates everyone having conversations and leaving me out, because that back bar will exclude me by design.
If I’m to socialise, I should be on one end or the other, but that middle part means I’ll be artificially excluded by the environment.
What it’s meant to mean is “yay us! We’re doing inclusivity!”
What it actually means, to me, is “we will make a show of valuing disabled people, but we won’t go so far as to actually include them in the design process, thereby making this bench an artifact to our own self congratulation, as well as making wheelchair users feel excluded in a far more insidious way than they already did”.
And I feel like an asshole to say it like that, but it’s so annoying to see well intentioned people fall at literally the first hurdle. Like, if they truly do see us as people who have intrinsic value that means we are worth including, then they also need to see us in our full personhood and include us in the process. The alternative is that their enthusiasm will just cause more money to be pissed down the drain on symbolic gestures that don’t fulfill their intended purpose
If this were real, consider how it would come to be. It’s obvious that even if we pretend it’s for accessibility purposes, it’s worse than just pulling up beside the bench because now you have to deal with backing into the spot.
But what if it’s more nefarious than that? No budget to put in new benches with spikes or whatever built in. But maybe there’s room in the budget for “accessibility upgrades”. Maybe a ramp was sacrificed for this idiocy.
This is real. It’s located in Giulianova Lido, Italy. IIRC an arts project from a local school and it is meant as a way to “integrate” wheelchairs symbolically as well as practically.
X doubt.
This is worse than nothing, because (as a wheelchair user) there’s like 10 inches of clearance behind the chair (given wheel clearance). That back rail means you can’t back up to get yourself in line with your compatriots,so you’ll be in front of and misaligned with the people on either side, such that they’re literally talking behind your back.
If this design was in earnest, it’s godawful and just shows the designer had no idea what they were doing.
If it’s an art project, then I can appreciate it. If it was meant to be practical, it’s a major fail.
It’s a single installation, AFAIK - and definitely an art project. Having some academic arts background, I dare to say the focus of the installation is the difference between “in the middle” and “aside”. So it’s highly symbolic. Practically two chairs with a reasonable gap inbetween would be far more practical but they, of course, don’t transmit any message.
But what this art says to me, as a wheelchair user, is something completely different because this design is the opposite of inclusive. Is that what is meant?
This design says I should be excluded – taking it as art, this design communicates everyone having conversations and leaving me out, because that back bar will exclude me by design.
If I’m to socialise, I should be on one end or the other, but that middle part means I’ll be artificially excluded by the environment.
Is that what it’s meant to mean?
What it’s meant to mean is “yay us! We’re doing inclusivity!”
What it actually means, to me, is “we will make a show of valuing disabled people, but we won’t go so far as to actually include them in the design process, thereby making this bench an artifact to our own self congratulation, as well as making wheelchair users feel excluded in a far more insidious way than they already did”.
And I feel like an asshole to say it like that, but it’s so annoying to see well intentioned people fall at literally the first hurdle. Like, if they truly do see us as people who have intrinsic value that means we are worth including, then they also need to see us in our full personhood and include us in the process. The alternative is that their enthusiasm will just cause more money to be pissed down the drain on symbolic gestures that don’t fulfill their intended purpose
Yeah, if…
I gotta stop giving reality the benefit of the doubt.