Making the Future Now: Accessible Media Content

This year, Yahoo was the Official Accessible Media Sponsor of the Capital Pride celebration in Washington, D.C., sponsoring ASL interpreters, accessibility of the physical spaces, visual media captioning, and more to ensure that all were able to feel a part of the festivities. The Capital Pride Alliance works year-round to celebrate, educate, support, and inspire multi-faceted communities in order to grow and preserve LGBTQ+ history and protect the community’s rights for current and future generations. MAKERS caught up with Bryan Davis (he/him), Volunteer Manager at Capital Pride, to learn more about the organization’s work on accessible content and his perspective on how individuals and companies can participate in and benefit from this approach to inclusion.

Responses have been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

How do you describe accessible content, in your own words?

Accessible content is making what you produce available to as many people as possible – really, I think it’s taking a step beyond accessibility and making content inclusive. Accessibility is part of inclusion and to me is the means, not the way. Being inclusive also means we are being intentional about how we share content.

How are you all making content accessible at Capital Pride?

We try to apply universal design concepts in our planning – what things can we change to make our content available to the whole community? We’ve started adding image/video descriptions to photos that we post; we add captions (at a minimum) to our videos; we also provide transcripts for videos; we include people with disabilities in our videos; we create high-contrast documents for individuals to view.

Yahoo is this year’s Accessible Media Partner at Capital Pride. What can the media and content creators do to make accessible content an industry standard? What changes would you like to see?

We need content creators to make a conscious effort to learn how to use the accessibility features already available on their platforms. And, if there aren’t features (like adding captions, image descriptions, audio descriptions, etc.), they use their platform to press for these types of inclusion. They can also hire people with disabilities to be part of their team – representation matters. And the more people with disabilities we have “at the table” the more inclusive our content will become.

I’d like to see policies and even legislation being proposed to expand “virtual” accessibility standards… that starts with people who are pushing content.

The origins of Pride are protest, resistance, and the work for civil rights and accessibility is far from over. Why is it important to ensure demonstrations, marches, and celebrations like this are accessible?

Disability intersects with every part of the LGBT+ identity. Disabled people can be persons of color. And, unfortunately, people with disabilities are often an afterthought in planning events. Disability occurs at the intersection of the individual and their environment. So, we must be intentional about removing barriers that make our content and physical spaces inaccessible. Marsha P. Johnson (legendary gay and transgender rights activist) once said, “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.” Now, in her context, she was talking about the oppression of Trans women of color (namely by gay white men), but the sentiment rings true here too: if we exclude persons with disabilities from our movement, are we really making that much progress for all of us?

[T]his question alludes to people experiencing Pride in many ways. Therefore, it is incumbent upon Pride organizers to hold and make space that allows people to express their Pride, however they wish to experience it.

Pride fosters an amazing community not only at this event but all year round. What organizations or leaders do you look up to who prioritize accessibility and inclusivity?

I want to name two individuals who have worked with me, provided guidance, and have taken leadership in Capital Pride: Jennifer Heiser, who led Capital Pride in centering inclusion in everything we do (social media, event planning, and operations). Jennifer also informed our Board on taking a pulse in evaluating the organization’s understanding of accessibility and provided key feedback on where the organization could improve. As a result of Jennifer’s work, the Board expanded the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee also to include Accessibility (DEIA Committee). And most recently, LaRaven Gaymon, an advocate for the disability community here in DC, has provided us with insight and brought concerns to our attention with solutions that can be implemented.

Here in DC, there are many organizations that we can look to as we think about accessibility and inclusion: the DC Council on Developmental Disabilities; the American Association of People with Disabilities; the National Association of the Deaf; DC Area Black Deaf Advocates; Lavant Consulting; and many more.

I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the prevalence of pinkwashing… not just in DC, but everywhere. I implore organizations that come out and support during Pride Month, to apply that same energy at all levels of their organization 365 days a year (or 366, since next year is a leap year).

What’s your advice for young folks who want to get involved or think more intentionally about creating accessible spaces in the future?

Learn about the different accessibility features available on the platforms you are using and apply them. The more that we (even Pride organizations) make our content and physical spaces inclusive of everyone, there will be higher participation and representation of all parts of our community. And that will move us all forward.