New Year, New Job, New School, New House

Happy academic new year to everyone! I know I have not written a blog in about a month and I am sure folk are waiting for new Accessagogy podcast episodes, and also that accessible social media and visuals training I wanted to do for union, labour, and community outreach folk, and I promise those last two are coming as well, but I think I need to explain the radio silence to those of you who are waiting and wondering.

I started a new job at a new university two weeks ago. This also means that I moved house so basically for the last month I have been working on the incredibly time consuming thing that is all the things one needs to do in order to move to a new city into a new house for a new job. And I am still not 100% settled yet. I got keys to my new unit on Friday and I have spent the long weekend making this place my new space as I await the rest of my stuff in about a week and a half.

This is an exciting move for me; it is a position that allows me to continue educational development work that focuses on accessible pedagogy, but also allows me to work more closely with areas at the university in a more holistic manner, that can support instructors and students, and staff. It is also exciting because I get to work with some pretty awesome people. It also exciting because it means I got to move out of the big city and a place that I have been living for the last 10 years that really just didn't feel like home and felt more like I was in a holding pattern. Also having lived in Toronto for the last three decades (up 30 years!) and then just moving to a new city is a massive change. 

Change of course is never easy. I am getting to know a new city, and find out where everything is and how to use things like the transit here. It also allows me to compare accessibility of spaces and think about how inaccessible the default transit app is here and stay up at night wondering what folk without a smart phone do. I tried to cover my bases and bought a tangible 10 ride pass for the bus and the person who sold it to me couldn't even tell me how to use it because I have moved to a place where everyone assumes everyone drives. Even the transit website doesn't tell you how to actually use a tangible pass. So change, it comes with new lists of things to advocate for, like more accessible transit options.

But also change, it allows for completely different pace of life. People really seem to care about their quality of life here in a way that I never heard anyone speak about at any other higher ed institution. Like where else have you heard the president of an institution remind people to take their paid holiday time? 

It is also time of larger change. It is the first academic start-up without academic Twitter as we used to know it and I know I am not the only one who feels completely disconnected from the group of folk who used to share ideas on a regular basis. I know part of it is the move and me needing to get back to my old pace of social media use, but another part of it is the fact that many have moved to new social media spaces that are not accessible, for various reasons, for others so communities have really just broken up. 

It is also a time where people are still acting like we haven't been and continue to live through a pandemic, and the most vulnerable of folks are the ones who continue to be hurt by the decisions others make. A time of change, but also reverting back to some time of "what was" without realizing what still is. 

So there's a lot of things to be excited for in the fall, and I promise I will get back to a semblance of a regular schedule for the blog and the podcast, and all the other things I do. But I wouldn't be me if I didn't leave you with this ask for the fall term - stop and reflect about the assumptions folk are making around you that make spaces inaccessible, be that in classroom spaces, offices, at the grocery store, on the bus, and ask yourself, what can I do to make these inaccessible spaces more inclusive for others. Let's share more about this over the next few weeks. Have a good academic year, everyone! May it be more inclusive and accessible than the past!