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UC Access Now

@ucaccessnow@sfba.social

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We were a loose coalition of students/staff/faculty working to dismantle ableism at the University of California.

Access & inclusion for disabled students, staff, faculty of the University of California! (For alumni, visitors, customers..everyone!) 33 years is long enough to have met ADA. Let's exceed it!

697 Followers

267 Following

9 Posts

Joined November 08, 2022

Demandifesto:

https://archive.org/details/disability-equity-and-justice-demands/mode/2up

Resistbot Podcast Interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W_DgBWOHVE

"Benefits Counseling" Doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Um9UEJizN_3-kEvkDedRdaPwOyR5PsLv3JKslFI-djg/edit?usp=sharing

UC Access Now @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

· 2mo ago

Boosted by @trending@homestead.social

Doctors at California's second largest employer launch campaign to unionize "Last week, UC doctors gathered outside the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital to announce the launch of a campaign to unionize. The campaign is in partnership with the Service Employees International Union ("SEIU"). The University of California is the state's second largest employer, and serves over two million residents a year across the state." https://www.kalw.org/bay-area-news/2026-07-27/uc-doctors-launch-union-campaign #California #UCAccessNow #Union #Labor

KALW

Doctors at California's second largest employer launch campaign to unionize

SEIU Doctor’s United announced that they aim to recruit 10,000 senior physicians across in the UC system in the coming months.

UC Access Now @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange Needs to be filed under "Why abled people should care when disabled people bring up issues"... At least at the University of California, for disabled people at UC (whether students, staff, or faculty), there used to be human notetakers for those who had that access need. It was a good work/study job for abled students to be a notetaker. But since disabled people are always seen as a risk and cost "to be managed", the moment that abled decisionmakers could fob it off to Otter .ai, they did. This compromised privacy of disabled people. But people didn't care when it was mostly happening to disabled people... Of course, as soon as the tech was available to have these AI notetakers in online meetings, abled folks began to notice. The cruel irony is that AI corps love using "accessibility" as cover for their work. But if abled decisionmakers cared about accessibility, everything would already be accessible as possible. It's not about accessibility.

UC Access Now @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

· 3mo ago

"Imagine a global political summit that shapes the future of our planet where one of the most populated countries in the world does not have a voice? This may seem unlikely, but currently 1.3 billion disabled people (nearly the population of China) do not have formal representation at policy talks held by the UN’s climate change body. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) hosts negotiations to limit global greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change. Yet, people with disabilities are two to four times more likely to die or be injured in climate-related emergencies such as heatwaves, flooding and storms." https://theconversation.com/three-ways-climate-action-can-be-more-inclusive-for-1-3-billion-disabled-people-285639 #ClimateChange #UN #EmergencyPreparedness

Three ways climate action can be more inclusive for 1.3 billion disabled people

The Conversation

Three ways climate action can be more inclusive for 1.3 billion disabled people

How to place disabled people, who are some of the most vulnerable, at the centre of climate change negotiations.

UC Access Now @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

· 3mo ago

It's Disability Pride Month. Although we'd write it differently today because our thought has moved on since Fall 2019, read & share The UC Access Now Demandifesto to get a sense of what we could and should be demanding of higher education, especially higher education. It's been plagiarized in one journal article and cited in 3 other scholarly works so far, and many disabled students, staff, and faculty have let UC Access Now know verbally and in writing how influential & ambitious they thought it was. It was released Creative Commons to allow folks who follow the license requirements to adapt it to their own needs at a university or college. #DisabilityPrideMonth #Disability #Ableism https://archive.org/details/disability-equity-and-justice-demands

Internet Archive

UC Access Now Demandifesto : Megan Lynch on behalf of UC Access Now : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

UC Access Now is a loose non-profit coalition of students, staff, and faculty working for accessibility and inclusion for all disabled people in the University...

UC Access Now @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

· 3mo ago

:boost_requested: 🧵 I started UC Access Now in 2019/2020. I had been physically disabled for 25 years by that point. And my own public university was hurting my health while disobeying federal & state disability law. I figured if I had to fight this hard to get the bare minimum (while also dealing with grad school that's hard even for abled ppl), I wanted it fixed for everyone & wanted to work with other disabled students, staff, and faculty to do so. I did not have a deep background in theorizing about disability. So I definitely learned even more about systemic ableism as a result of trying to fight how that manifests at University of California. An important thing to learn is that systemic ableism moves the frame to what the system wants & needs it to be. So as a disabled person, if they need you to be framed as "too weak to hire", that's it. If they need you to be "faking it", that's it. If they need you to be "too lazy", that's it. https://apnews.com/article/trump-civil-rights-special-education-3483478a51ea8001fcc70e8a77d08d9a #USpol #Ableism #Disability #UCAccessNow

apnews.com

UC Access Now @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

The design of rationing accessibility & policing disabled people has the advantage for systemic ableism of blaming disabled people for any abled people who lie to appropriate the rationed accessibility. It keeps disabled people in a scapegoat position.

The right wing anti-education media recently published op-eds complaining about students who get "accommodations" for learning disabilities. As usual, the general media bites at the bait and now anti-ableists are having to write rebuttals to college newspapers...

https://ucsdguardian.org/2026/03/09/letter-the-erasure-of-invisible-disabilities/ #Ableism #HigherEd #Fascism

The UCSD Guardian

Letter: The Erasure of Invisible Disabilities

Editor’s note: These authors are responding to a piece originally published in Vol. 59, Issue 19, “Two cents: Are testing accommodations fair or flawed?” The UCSD Guardian welcomes feedback, criticism, and continued dialogue from our readers in the form of letters to the editor. Our full policies for submission can be found here. In 1975,...

UC Access Now @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

"California is battling measles outbreaks across seven counties as federal funding cuts gut local health departments and vaccine skepticism fuels spread among unvaccinated children."

https://calmatters.org/health/2026/03/measles-california-counties-surveillance-outbreak/ #USpol #Fascism #InfectiousDisease #PublicHealth

Measles is back in California. Health departments are fighting it with less.

CalMatters

Measles is back in California. Health departments are fighting it with less.

California is battling measles across seven counties as federal funding cuts gut local health departments and vaccine skepticism fuels spread among unvaccinated children.

UC Access Now @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

· 9mo ago

#SanFrancisco #PowerOutage

http://sf.gov/power-outages

sfba.social

SFBA.social

UC Access Now @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

· 3mo ago

""For us, it's not a huge lift to just be mindful when we're trying to build trail or improve trail to think about the adaptive rider," said Angus McCusker, the Velomont trail director with the nonprofit Vermont Huts and Trails. McCusker is referring to the growing number of disabled athletes who mountain bike with specially designed equipment. "The challenge," said McCusker, "is we're connecting to existing trail networks that were never intended for adaptive bikes. So, where we can, we're trying to do adaptive assessments."" https://www.npr.org/2026/07/09/nx-s1-5879435/outdoor-access-for-disabled-in-vermont #BikeTooter #Accessibility #Vermont #Cycling

NPR

Vermont is creating a statewide trail, and making sure it's accessible to all

Mountain bike enthusiasts have been working for years on an ambitious 485-mile, multi-use trail called The Velomont that will span the length of the state. They're making sure it's friendly for people with disabilities, particularly cyclists.