ZOOM seminar - technical 

Thank you for all of you who joined us for the technical seminar. We recorded it and like to share it with you.

To make it an easy reference video, we added a list with all the starting times with each issue as discussed and demonstrated. You'll find it under the video in YouTube.

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Accessibility around the world

A couple of weeks ago, Abby got rejected at the Art Institute in Chicago, but after sending emails and posts on social media, the same day we received an email from them, saying that Alinkers are now welcome. 

This week it happened again in the Philadelphia Museum of art, Jeff got rejected and made to use one of their wheelchairs. His email is below. 

Some people, including me, sent an email, but to date they have not responded. If you could take a moment, and send this Museum an email, telling them about the Alinker, and why they should welcome Alinker users. 
Please E-mail: AccessProg@philamuseum.org



Here is the email that the Alinker sent. It includes Jeff's email to us in it and his description of experiencing the museum from the wheelchair is telling. 

My name is BE Alink, the inventor of the Alinker. 

As the Alinker is still a rather new device, it is often not understood. Curiosity would be preferred over rejection and judgements though. 

The Alinker fits within the footprint of a wheelchair, is not motorized, often people refer to it as "their legs".  The Alinker does no harm to art, does not pose a risk to other visitors. We understand that new things need exploring, and I hope you will, like many other museums around the world ( and a few in your own city already! ) , allow Alinker users to use their Alinker, having agency and experiencing art at eye level. 

Over the years, people shared with us how they were welcomed with their Alinkers in many museums, here are a few: MOMA, Kunsthaus Zürich, Tate Modern London, The sculpture garden at the New Orleans museum of art, "The Museum of Science & History" in Jacksonville, Florida, Kröller Muller, Netherlands
North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, The Rooms St.John's, Newfoundland &Labrador, The MET - Metropolitan Museum NY, Rijks Museum Amsterdam (after a similar social media action to raise awareness after an Alinker user was rudely treated), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, The Sarah Scaife / Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, The Frick Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, PA

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Art Institute of Chicago refused access to an Alinker user. We approached them, explained, and within a day, we received an email that Alinkers are now welcome there. 

We made a newsletter about museums around the world where people have visited on their Alinkers. LINK

I would like to share Jeff's kind email about how he experienced your museum after he was refused to use his Alinker, and by your current policies, was forced to use a wheelchair.  Jeff's message, as he shared with me (an gave me permission to share): "

We visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art on May 9. I was stopped at the West entrance  by a courteous and respectful guard, Angel, who informed me I could not bring my bike in the museum. We tried to explain that I was actually on a mobility device and even used the word 'walker,' which I hesitate to use because, of course, it really isn't, but we were flummoxed and in the lobby and I don't feel qualified or articulate enough to educate even such a polite guard about mobility devices.
Plus, the museum's policy seems to exclude such devices:

To ensure the safety of visitors and artwork, other types of mobility devices—including tricycles, standing scooters, carts, hoverboards, and gyroscopic devices—are not permitted. If your mobility device is not permitted, we will provide a free manual wheelchair (first-come, first-served)  

We conceded. My wife returned the Alinker to the car, and I received an education in what a museum visit is like from a wheelchair. The experience is certainly limited by the angle of view and it becomes tricky trying to get additional perspectives on art works. The museum was accessible and staff were respectful, but I was disappointed by having to be pushed and so visually limited. 

I think the device generates genuine excitement whenever I use it in Philly, but unfortunately staff have to take my word for the legitimacy of it being for enhancing my mobility.  The Alinker almost looks too cool to be seen so clinically. (I like to joke that you need to get your own Parkinson's to earn such a fun ride!)

I hope you understand that we hope you will welcome Alinker users in the future. 
Having agency and independence, while experiencing art at eye level on an Alinker, are issues that cannot be dismissed. The wheelchair is no option to that experience. 

I hope you follow in the footsteps of many other great museums. 

Kind regards and looking forward to your response. 

BE

So far we have not received a response from them, so please send them your email. 

We are in the process of communicating with the US ADA to see whether the Alinker can be included in the list of assistive devices. We'll keep you posted. Thank you all for your engagement to make the world more accessible for all. 

 

Donna wants us to know....


Donna completed the 80th campaign in Dec 2019 and it has changed her life. This is what she shared with us last week:

Hello
I have been using my alinker for over a year now and I love the freedom it has afforded me. It really is a game changer. I’ve started ice alinkering  ...I love the snow and cold weather, and I really missed ice skating. I am happy to report that anything really, is possible with the alinker and a drive to keep going.

This is not really why I am writing though...  I’m currently reading a book in which the main character becomes a single leg amputee.  At one point in the story she gets out of her hospital bed, and I immediately imagined her on an alinker. She is in fact, in a wheel chair and states that she can’t see anything because she is too low down. I was surprised that my frame of reference has completely changed.  Within my own life as an avid alinkerer, but also as societal norm.

I expect that one day, the alinker will be as common place as a wheel chair or walker for the differently abled.
Thanks BE Alink!  You have changed my life!  The world will not be far behind...

I would be thrilled if you shared my story, please feel free to share my name. When I’m on my alinker, people alway come up to me and ask about it.  I’m always happy to tell them that I can go fast again!
Many hugs ...or socially distanced elbow bumps, and much gratitude,

Donna Crow
Whitby, Ontario, Canada
A secondary progressive MS Warrior!

BE's hive
mental health awareness month 

This month is mental health awareness month. This last year has created a larger focus on mental health and contributed to more people dealing with mental health issues. But the pandemic has also unveiled existing isolation, depression and brought these issues more to the surface. People with disabilities know what isolation is, it is not new! 

I look at the world a bit differently. I have built my reverse design practices, which starts with: When you focus on a problem, all you see is a problem. And the possible solution is framed by the constructs of a problem. We are trained to identify problems and then fix them, but problems are often just the symptoms of a system that is not designed for our wellness, for equality and justice for all. By focusing on the perceived problems, we perpetuate the systems that are not healthy.

I always question language, because language is powerful. The current mental health crisis we face, I renamed it a 'spiritual draught'. We live in systems that make money over the back of sick people, subsidized non food that makes us sick, feeding the pharma industry that wants to medicate. Systems that measure in money only, and benefit from dividing people and creating wars, systems that benefit from racism and fear anything that is 'different'. Those systems are not healthy for humans, but we live here. 

Instead of focusing on the perceived problems, maybe we can practice the things we can do by choosing who we want to be and how we want to show up for each other. Kindness is a practice that seems a bit lost. Division and 'othering' people based on exterior characteristics seems to be the leading trend, but the results are devastating, for all of us.

If we were to summarize the current mental health issues as isolation, feeling massively overwhelmed by the suffering in the world, stressed because of all the losses around us, frustrated by political leaders who cannot get their strategies straight, misinformation, fear mongering media and depressed by not being able to see loved ones, touch people, be touched, feel loved.... well maybe then, if you do not have mental health issues, either there is something wrong with you, or you practice deep kindness in everything you do. Kindness and practicing kindness is powerful. Kindness is not easy, but I feel our only way to build a world more kind to all of us. 

I add below the recording of my True Confessions, a session I did during the SVI women conference and it has a lot more background on what I wrote here. Enjoy. And of you feel like talking more about it, I am quite open for conversations.
With kindness, BE

Italy: EMAIL