{"id":319,"date":"2013-12-12T06:53:55","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T14:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/?p=319"},"modified":"2013-12-12T06:54:07","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T14:54:07","slug":"beth-prevor-on-diversity-disability-and-feeling-alone-in-a-room-of-peers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/2013\/12\/beth-prevor-on-diversity-disability-and-feeling-alone-in-a-room-of-peers.html","title":{"rendered":"Beth Prevor on Diversity, Disability, and Feeling Alone in a Room of Peers"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post from Beth Prevor, co-founder and executive director of Hands On<\/a>, a non-profit that provides accessibility to arts and culture events for the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. \u00a0At the National Arts Marketing Project Conference in November, Beth spoke eloquently about disability as an under-discussed aspect of diversity, and more generally of her feelings of isolation both at the conference and, in particular, when sitting in the diversity plenary session that I moderated. \u00a0I found Beth’s comments profound, and the sparked another moment of real self-reflection for me, so I asked her to contribute this piece in hopes of sparking similar thoughts in you. \u00a0Thank you Beth — CL<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Beth<\/a>By way of introduction to this blog, Clay graciously asked me to share some thoughts of my experiences at the National Arts Marketing Project Conference. I appreciate the invitation and hope I have something worthwhile to say.<\/p>\n

Portland was my first NAMPC.\u00a0 I was looking forward to a new experience.\u00a0 My field is not arts marketing per se.\u00a0 By trade \u2013 I\u2019m a sign language interpreter and have worked as an administrator in the \u2018deafness\u2019 field for more than 30 years.\u00a0 I\u2019m also a arts service provider \u2013 running a small nonprofit organization \u2013 Hands On, which provides accessibility services to theaters for deaf audiences primarily in NYC.\u00a0 I\u2019ve long held that audiences with disabilities including deaf audiences would benefit from being considered from a marketing perspective \u2013 to understand disability from a multi-cultural standpoint, rather than a strictly legal requirement.\u00a0 So I was looking forward to an arts marketing conference. \u00a0I think too we all need to inter-relate more often \u2013 we need to stop \u2018preaching to the choir\u2019 by only attending and speaking at conferences of like minded people and start to cross pollinate, for lack of a better phrase. \u00a0So for me going to a marketing conference and not a disability or deaf specific conference held the potential of doing some of that cross pollination I thought would help me learn and share disability issues in a non disability specific environment.<\/p>\n

I have to first say it was not as easy or as comfortable a time for me as I thought it would be.\u00a0 I was surprised at how \u2018different\u2019 and out of place I felt.\u00a0 I will admit that this was in no way due to anyone\u2019s comments or looks or anything that overtly made me feel different.\u00a0 It\u2019s more a statement of fact – I am different.\u00a0 I am a person with a disability. I walk with a cane and for longer distances I use a scooter.\u00a0 My diversity, the thing that makes me unique, is my disability \u2013 it\u2019s part of who I am and I\u2019m fine with that.\u00a0 So in looking at the conference schedule, a discussion about diversity (Sunday morning\u2019s 8:00am diversity discussion) was exciting and just the place for me. I assumed it would be representative and reflective of those for whom the discussion was about.\u00a0 Disability wasn\u2019t mentioned in the blurb about the talk \u2013 it was \u201cage, race, ethnicity…and more<\/span>\u201d \u2013 so I thought maybe disability was part of the \u2018and more\u2019 section.\u00a0 I looked to the panel for the diversity I was seeking – other people with disabilities \u2013and while it became a small part of the discussion, it wasn\u2019t discussed by anyone who looked like me or was like me (I thought).<\/p>\n

I am very much aware that anyone can have a disability, whether or not it can be seen.\u00a0 It is always possible (and probable) for anyone on any stage to have a disability \u2013 I just didn\u2019t realize how important it was for me to know that whoever was talking about disability was a person with a disability \u2013 someone who represented me and understood what I understood, someone with personal experience, someone with a disability.<\/p>\n

I commented on some of my thoughts at the panel discussion. \u00a0I have to admit, it was scary, I was shaking, and I don\u2019t remember much of what I said, I only knew that saying something was very important to me. \u00a0The loneliness of being the \u2018only one\u2019 at a place is not something I experience often.\u00a0 But a diversity panel was a place where I thought my singleness would be lessened \u2013 it was not.\u00a0 I do remember someone mentioning the idea that all people with diverse backgrounds need allies \u2013 we need others in the mainstream to work with and speak about issues of diversity. I completely agree.\u00a0 But more importantly we need to make sure that we include people with these diverse backgrounds to represent the cause.\u00a0 We, the diverse people, need to be able to see ourselves everywhere.<\/p>\n

Diversity is the discussion we all know is important and difficult. It means different things to different people, but for me it\u2019s also an incredibly personal issue.\u00a0 We all talk about engaging others but until we get our own people to talk about our own issues, we\u2019ll continue to be the \u2018other\u2019.\u00a0 I want to thank Clay for asking me to speak about my thoughts regarding the NAMPC.\u00a0 I\u2019ve tried to just give a little hint of my experience \u2013 I hope that it keeps the discussion going.\u00a0 I hope we can get people with disabilities more involved in every segment of society.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in the arts, that\u2019s my passion and I\u2019m going to keep going to places where my difference stands out so people with disabilities are seen everywhere.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post from Beth Prevor, co-founder and executive director of Hands On, a non-profit that provides accessibility to arts and culture events for the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. \u00a0At the National Arts Marketing Project Conference in November, Beth spoke eloquently about disability as an under-discussed aspect of diversity, and more generally of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-advocacy","8":"category-change","9":"category-main","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/newbeans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}