Striving to remove barriers that prevent us from building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities!

The recent debacle involving Anna Landre, who was unable to collect her Freedom of the City of London award due to a lack of wheelchair access, starkly highlights the egregious injustice and hypocrisy embedded in community practices, in the form of systemic ableism. Despite being honored for her tireless advocacy for People with Disabilities, Landre was denied the basic accessibility necessary for her participation in the award ceremony. This glaring failure not only undermines the recognition given to Anna Landre for her outstanding efforts in advancing accessibility and inclusion for People with Disabilities but also starkly exposes the deep-seated systemic ableism prevalent in our community practices. While Landre’s contributions were publicly lauded, they blatantly failed to provide essential accessibility, highlighting a profound and egregious disconnect between the principles they claim to uphold and the deeply ingrained discriminatory actions.
This failure demonstrates a serious problem of systemic ableism, where People with Disabilities are frequently subjected to barriers even in environments that are supposedly inclusive. Such incidents underscore the urgent need for comprehensive changes to ensure that accessibility and inclusion are not just superficial commitments but genuine realities.
It is also essential to abstain from hypocrisy and blind imitation, inasmuch as their foul odour is soon detected by every man of understanding and wisdom. -Shoghi Effendi, The Compilation of Compilations vol II, p. 1
To address these injustices and build genuinely inclusive communities, we must take decisive action to remove barriers that prevent full participation for People with Disabilities in all aspects of community life. It’s critical to move beyond mere gestures and actively work towards creating environments that are truly accessible and equitable. To understand the full implications of this egregious injustice and its impact on our efforts to foster vibrant, diverse, and accessible communities, Read the Full Article: Freedom of City winner unable to collect award as organisers forgot wheelchair ramp
by: Henry Bodkin, SENIOR REPORTER
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