Shades of Noir, UK.

 

Interview by Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark.

Kalia Douglas-Micallef is the founder of Anti-Ableism. Anti-Ableism strives to promote an anti-ableist narrative and create systemic education reform for children and students with disabilities.

 

She is passionate about disability rights – with a profound lack of accountability when it comes to disability rights and justice she thinks it’s important to foster an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone to thrive and acquire knowledge together. Kalia loves meeting new people and connecting, heavy content/material films and documentaries, educational videos such as tutorials and workshops, writing, drinking coffee and tea, exercising, reading, researching and staying curious.

 

Shades of Noir sat down with Kalia Douglas-Micallef, founder of Anti-Ableism, to discuss her mission to spread awareness about ableism and audism documenting the lived realities of folks with disabilities, as a means to promote an anti-ableist narrative and create systemic education reform for children and students with disabilities.

 

We would like to thank Kalia for taking the time to speak with us.

 

Can you please give a brief overview of your role (positioning) and motivations?

 

Absolutely.

 

My name is Kalia-Douglas Micallef, I am 23 years old, and in 2017, I founded the Anti-Ableism movement which strives to build and spread awareness about ableism. In the future with more acquired skills and completed projects, I hope to expand the movement. One of my top goals is to work primarily in the education system.

 

I’m currently in school studying Interaction Design so I want to be able to implement those skills within workshops that I would like to present to school boards across the nation on how to make their curriculum more accessible and accommodating of students with disabilities, with or without an individual education plan as not every student has access to an education plan.

 

An education plan can only be acquired through a learning assessment, which is often not provided by school boards across the globe, nor are the expenses covered. Many disabled and otherwise marginalized students are put in classes that hinder their academic learning due to prejudiced and pre-conceived notions about the individual and their family regardless if a learning assessment has been formulated.

 

I want to focus on eliminating streaming that often targets disabled and students who belong to marginalized communities. How I plan to achieve this is by conducting research and accumulating data on the disparities that exist within the public education system. The skills acquired from interaction design will help me convey my message and data findings using various mediums and formats.

 

I am interested in designing accessible products (whether electronic or physical) from a multi-sensory design standpoint wherein the information provided can easily reach the masses and all demographics, but I want to present these possible solutions to school boards on the basis of equity and how ultimately following legal procedures regarding anti-discrimination policies within design and structure that exceed the classroom as I am also referring to the outer design and infrastructure of the institution itself.

 

All of these investments that so many companies and institutions deem unworthy will actually increase profits and capital gain. To me, it’s all about the presentation, and there’s a dire need for institutions, in particular, to come to terms with the fact that abiding by accessibility laws and including accessibility in your budget will inevitably allow your product to grow tenfold in the year of 2020 and beyond.

 

Can you speak a bit more for our audience about what is meant by [Anti]-Ableism?

 

Absolutely.

 

So, to me, ableism is specific discrimination against disabled people.

 

Growing up I never had a specific term for the discrimination that I faced and so when I learned what it was I thought ‘This is it. This is what it is’.

 

Ever since learning about the term and my personal relationship with it, I really wanted to spread more awareness about it as to educate others as well as myself regarding my journey inward. As frustrating and saddening that it was to continue to learn about the ways in which myself and my community are oppressed on a global scale, it simultaneously lit a fire in my belly that has yet to be put out. It continues to make me feel empowered and the work to be done is endless, and I don’t say that from a tedious point of view, I mean it in the sense that the opportunities for creation and change are limitless and it’s such an exciting community to be involved in and work alongside diverse disabled people.

 

When I learned specifically about systemic ableism that occurs within employment and education, I was just very passionate about doing what I could to spread the message and make it well known. So I then created my first educational video where I interviewed some of my friends from college and asked them to define the term ableism and to share their experience of ableism in school, whether because of a lack of accommodation from teachers and in classes or the actual physical structure of building architecture.

 

You just discussed it previously, but what were your overriding motivations in focusing on education, and do you think it could be situated anywhere else?

 

I would like to speak to multiple school boards across Ontario because that’s where I currently reside and where most of my discriminative experiences stem from. To start my foundation here I think would be so impactful for me not just on a systemic level, but a personal level as well. I feel ready to heal my inner child in that sense. Of course, ideally, I would like to extend it worldwide. That would be amazing. But right now I want to start off with the Toronto district school board because that’s my hometown and I feel ready to present what I have to offer, and with a vengeance!

 

Amazing. And what other activities have you been doing in your hometown? Can you tell me about how the community and if there are people who are helping you in your activism?

 

For Anti-Ableism it is just me as I’m a sole proprietor in this business that has yet to be developed in the ways I envision.

 

I’m not really looking to expand it right now in that sense, I just want to focus on my education first and foremost and to do my own little creative projects on the side. It’s really fun for me and I see it as such a positive outlet that I’m fine with taking the time to build this platform into what I believe it can be, but I want to have to something to show for it. Whatever comes my way, I’m more often than not willing to accept, but also I value assuredness and ensuring that what I’m doing with Anti Ableism always includes an element of passion.

 

I am actually looking to create an animated TV series, just as a little teaser to go along with a children’s book series I’d like to expand on. So that’s really exciting because I really care about educating the kids and also that they have a solid representation and to be able to see themselves on television. I rarely, if ever saw a proper representation of myself on TV growing up.

 

I was incredibly obsessed with television, and I never encounter a young Black girl with hearing aids. If I had been subjected to that, I think I would’ve spent a lot less time idolizing non-Black and specifically white female stars as to imagine morphing into them because my own existence seemed synthetic. There’s a difference between having Black dolls, dolls of colour and disabled dolls, and actually seeing that representation on television and having it be grounded in reality.

 

Dolls aren’t real.

 

And especially for Black girls and women growing up, the way non-Black people and particularly white people view us as subhuman and think our hair is some majestic creature to be touched, all of these micro-aggressions really impact you whether you’re aware of it or not. And so to have that proper representation in the media wherein Black disabled people are the star of the show, but it has nothing to do with their disability is even better, and we’re all still waiting for that in-depth, real-life, brilliant scriptwriting to be accepted by major TV networks.

 

There has been progress, but there needs to be more, and to try and contribute to that would be ideal. And I want to get to the place wherein it’s not just an ideal concept. It’s a real concept.

 

I feel that there is a very white narrative in terms of disability politics as I wanted to get your opinions around that; Around the different kind of intersection that happens if you’re a person of colour, let’s say, and then you have a disability.

 

Yeah. I think it’s really important specifically for Black people’s experiences to be centred within the conversation of Black History Month and speaking about all the ways in which we are oppressed.

 

Black disabled people are fought and murdered by the police at higher rates than non-disabled Black people. Black disabled people have been constantly erased from history, and so that’s why I think it’s essential for Black disabled people to be centred in these conversations so we can honour our Black disabled ancestors who paved the way.

 

Black disabled people exist and it’s time to start putting it to the forefront as no one is untouched from disability. I struggled a long time with the idea of Black disabled pride because being Black in itself is already a minority, and so it’s almost natural to want to dissociate from the reality of being doubly oppressed. All the more so I think it’s important to include prominent Black disabled figures specifically during Black History Month as to rid that erasure and let more pride come to the surface. I am really proud to identify as Black and deaf/ disabled.

 

I am so proud of my identity because I am layered, complex, brilliant, I have so much lived experience to bring to the table and so much wisdom and knowledge to execute to others. And even with this heightened self-esteem, I still have my moments, but it gets easier as you grow more comfortable in your skin. I look back at my childhood and I had really big colourful earmoulds, and I feel tremendous pride and love to know that I proudly wore them. Being able to look back at that innocent confidence, even with what I know now to be true about the harsh realities of the world, if I could do it then, I can do it even better now.

 

Flaunt yourself.

 

Definitely. 100%. I was doing some research around you and I read a statement you made about the power of infographics and data visualization to enhance your messaging.

 

So that’s what I’m learning right now in school with the program I am in. I wanted to conduct research specifically with deaf and hard of hearing students examine what accommodations that they need, the accommodations that are being provided, how many are involved in the public education system, to begin with. Oftentimes, they’re very separated from mainstream education as they have deaf and hard of hearing schools and programs.

 

I have mainstreamed my entire life and oftentimes I was the only one with hearing aids in the class. That basically meant that every day I walked into class, I had to give away so much of my brainpower to teach and remind educators about my accommodations only for it to hardly be followed through, which to me, I think is absolutely unacceptable.

 

So I want to research more into the segregation that we deaf and hard of hearing people experience in education and I want to take all of the various research topics and convey it in a way that is comprehensible to the majority and that makes people care. And I can leave that for the infographics to portray a rather creative visual.

 

And so when you’re having these conversations and making different outputs, are you, would you say, personally positioned within it?

 

Yeah. I definitely include and use my lived experience as one of my biggest assets because that’s another thing I wanted to be centred in my movement. Our experience matters and oftentimes disability justice/ advocacy circles, spaces and organizations are not lead by disabled people. I find it extremely ironic that able-bodied people will work at an organization catered to accessibility and disability justice but yet fail to provide such opportunities to the people they allege to be fighting for.

 

It’s a complete contradiction.

 

Many able-bodied people enter this field of work for the wrong reasons, and not because they actually care about the evolvement of a marginalized community. We are the experts on our lives; we’re the experts on our needs and what works for us based on our experiences rooted in ableism and negligence. People fail to understand that ableism involves medical negligence, illegal activity, financial fraud, lack of marital, and parental rights.

 

So I most definitely position myself in conversations within advocacy circles because I can speak as to what I had and didn’t have growing up that were extreme necessities for childhood development and the transition into adulthood

What do you think are some of the cultural factors that reinforce conversations around disability and impairment from your own perspective?

 

So there’s this huge argument around Identity first-person language that I think particularly with deaf and hard of hearing is that so often it’s labelled as an impairment and the deaf community actually object to that notion regardless of what your audiogram reveals. If you have profound hearing loss, you are deaf. Regardless if you identify with deaf culture or not. To hearing people, we will always be deaf and there’s nothing wrong with pridefully claiming that identity.

 

We’ve touched upon it, but I wanted to ask, in your opinion, what role does education play in inclusivity around disability movement?

 

I think that a sole reason as to why I’m most excited to produce my children’s book and that animated TV series because I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with the school.

 

I admire and respect education.

 

I think we’re all entitled to education and it wasn’t too long ago that deaf children were allowed in educational institutions, so there’s that part of me that wants to keep defying the odds and take advantage of that privilege. However, ableism in education is extremely rampant, and many fall through the cracks because they’re just tired and have lost the energy to fight. I also believe that we can make education fun for the kids; you can make it comprehensible for them so that they can understand and share with their classmates their experiences of disability.

 

As disability is so broad and there are many different types of disability – according to Canadian statistics one-in-five have a disability so it’s very common, you know, but it is just not talked about enough. And so I want teachers to be able to initiate that conversation with their student, and not from a standpoint of someone from the class, but just opening up the conversation and spreading awareness about it and allowing that conversation to take place.

 

You know, children often don’t know why, but children are very curious. They’re smart young ones who deserve to be taught in ways that will enhance and encourage them to utilize and advocate for every service that education has to offer. Give them a safe, inclusive, diverse, but also fun space to ask questions, you know?

 

So mainly I want staff and school boards, teachers to be educated on the matter and I want them to be able to undergo some kind of mandatory workshop at the beginning of the school term because I don’t care if there’s one autistic kid in the whole school or one deaf kid in the whole school, you have to know how to accommodate them from a legal standpoint.

 

That’s really what I’m concerned about the most. So it really starts at the foundational level and if the teachers don’t know then how are the children supposed to learn?

 

From a very young age, disability and accessibility need to be included in the education curriculum. And so I believe the board needs to feature this work as this kind of work because you have the standard ADA (American with Disabilities Act) or the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) that you are legally required to complete as part of your employment training.

 

An online course isn’t enough.

 

One workshop for the entire semester or academic year is not enough. There need to be accountability standards secured in place and if that protocol is breached, there need to be repercussions as severe as traumatizing a disabled child in education is.

 

Why then do you think it’s not part of the training. Why do you think it’s not something that’s already been sort of supplemented within their training as a teacher?

 

Well, it is to an extent, but what I’ve noticed even in employment, for example, whenever I’m getting a job and we would have to do AODA training, they often talked about customers with disabilities but they never talked about disability within the organization and workers rights.

 

I would ensure that not only are disabled people included in the recruitment process for hiring purposes but to enforce workers rights. I have yet to come across a job wherein disability discrimination is included within workers rights. More disabled people need to be in positions of power for this to occur accurately and at much higher rates.

 

So then what do you consider to be some anti-ableist strategies towards equity and, in your opinion, are there any clear defined strategies that you would say help to break down a very ablest narrative?

 

I think strategies start with the language first, and you know, how individuals have their own chosen identity, especially around disclosures as well – whether or not they want to disclose certain information and to be able to respect that and not have to prove constantly what your accommodations are, that’s a huge thing as well regarding the education system and access.

 

[*Pause*]

 

It is very individual and while I want to work, from a perspective of the group because it’s a common goal, the only responsibility or power that I have really is to be able to empower other disabled youth, children and adults, so that it can end up becoming the common goal in more spaces. The common goal referring to creating that safe space and demanding the rights they are entitled to within any institution.

 

100% You have also spoken about the ‘government policing of disability’ and so can you discuss what you meant by that and how that plays out in the everyday?

 

Absolutely. I mean particularly with the Ontario disability support program you constantly have to prove what your ‘needs’ are, say you have a documented disability and unfortunately it’s not set that way for everyone. Disability is complex and much as it is simple.

 

You have to constantly go back and prove your disability time and time again. It is seen at every institution as well, and it’s problematic and time-consuming and enforces too many barriers. It’s not right, it’s not fair. Disability is broad and so some might have physical needs, some might have medical needs, intellectual, whatever it is, but at the end of the day, it’s the common goal of getting to that place of being able to say and enforce “we all need access” and to have those access needs to be met.

 

So how often do you have to prove your needs?

 

I mean, it’s been, it’s been changing quite often, but I believe it’s like at least every three to five years, and it’s just ridiculous considering the fact that someone like me who was born with profound hearing loss, that’s not going to go away. Period.

 

And I mean, I think it’s really important when you do speak around things such as disclosure, maybe not wanting to have to sort of constantly go through that process again and again….

 

Exactly, yeah.

 

And so I guess my final question. I saw a picture of you in a top that says I’m not your inspiration and so I want to hear your thoughts on that?

 

Many disabled people growing up, we are used to seeing this online all the time. You know on Twitter, on Facebook with videos and such.

 

Unbeknownst to many, that ‘first time’ may take years, and a lot of able-bodied people start declaring ‘how inspirational, how heartwarming, which is actually very detrimental because not only are you showcasing a disabled child’s trauma, you know, something that is quite traumatic and life-changing and kind of emotional without their consent, but also that there are so many other underlying factors that they’re not otherwise seeing, especially with language, for example, within the deaf community.

 

There’s a huge argument around sign language and how American sign language, whatever type of sign language that deaf children should have access to sign language at a young age. Many deaf children go ‘Whoa. Okay, so I’m removed from sign language. Removed from culture.

 

The only issue with that is that language deprivation is so prevalent within the deaf community so when I was in speech therapy I received my hearing aid at 10 months old when most started speaking, so I was diagnosed very young. And there are others who were also diagnosed very young or later when they’re in school and they’re not catching up. They’re not participating very well because they’re having difficulty hearing. And so language deprivation is a really big issue in the deaf community which is the main issue with those ‘inspiration porn’ videos.

 

You know, hearing aids and cochlear implants do not solve language barriers. You know, these children, they’re missing all of that. And has the hearing aid helped me, absolutely, but I also had access to language. And even with the access I’ve had, I also had a ton that was missed or took a lot longer to acquire over the years than if I had access to sign language at an earlier date.

 

This is my mode of communication and deaf children should have access to both in order to be successful. And oftentimes because of inspiration porn, you get so used to it, you internalize it. So we start to belittle or change the meaning of our own works, like ‘Oh, I’m here to inspire people’ and it’s very detrimental mentally, you know because we’re not bigger or better I mean that’s very damaging to the ego.

 

It’s an idealistic vision to have about oneself, and that’s not the way society treats us in regards to the needs that have to be met in order to be successful i.e. education, employment etc. So it’s almost like acquiring this awful notion of ‘I have to be an inspiration or I’m nothing, you know?’ And it’s just unbelievable. We have to do our best do debunk this. It’s just really about having equality, you know?

 

No, hundred per cent I guess then my final question to you would be then, what advice would you give, and what has been really helpful to you in terms of finding your own position within it?.

 

I would, I would tell them not to be afraid to explore their identity, I would say do your research because that’s something that really helped me when I was younger and I was feeling really alone.

 

I decided to go on YouTube and search for hearing-loss and came across a one-woman show called ‘Lost In Sound’, and I mean, it resonated with me so deeply. It was a comedy play about hearing loss that I thought it was hilarious and it was something that I wanted to get into myself.

 

I ended up contacting the woman and we went back and forth several times over the year and it really made my senior year of high school that much more valuable. It really built confidence in me. Knowing that I could also go out and do that. So I would tell young people, don’t feel afraid to speak up about your life, no matter how many times you are shot down because that will happen, but continue to fight, right?

 

But also just don’t feel afraid to explore it and to research more about it and to learn more about it. You know, I think, I think there’s always a little bit of fear and vulnerability that comes with disability in general, but particularly those who are born with it, or those who acquire a disability at a very young age because there’s so much stigma already attached to it. And being very young and your brain isn’t fully developed and you internalize the messages and so often you’re just afraid to step outside of yourself and embrace your identity and actually learn about it and learn what works for you.

 

That is the most powerful and empowering thing that you can do for yourself because you can be the expert on your life.