Last January, in my disability infancy, I had a conundrum. I really really wanted to go to Camp A Low Hum, but knew that my back and shoulders would be very much opposed to the idea. Thinking of possible solutions, I emailed Blink to see what he thought about using a wheelchair at Camp Wainui. He said it wasn’t going to work;  the terrain is rough and uneven, and the stages are all over the place. Some of them wouldn’t be accessible at all. Basically, the site wasn’t set up for people with disabilities.

I decided I’d go anyway. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do everything, but figured it would still be worth going, even just to catch up with lots of  brilliant people in one very pretty location. The people and place were, indeed, pretty and brilliant, but to be honest, it wasn’t really fun. I had a lot of trouble getting to get to and from the tents, I couldn’t access lots of the stages and I had big FOMO. My muscles hurt, and I ended up self-medicating more than I’d intended just so I could join in, then feeling yucky about that, too. As I was waiting for my ride outta there, I reminded myself not to come back next year, as much as I knew I’d be tempted.

A few weeks ago my sister noticed that WOMAD were offering some free tickets for carers of people with disabilities, so I did some investigation. It turns out that TAFT, who run WOMAD, have gone to a lot of effort to make the festival accessible for people with disabilities. Not only do I get a free ticket for Emmie to come as my carer, but we’ll have a parking space right next to a special campground, shuttles running between the stages & campground every half hour, mobility scooters for loan, and special viewing platforms at three of the big stages. They’re also providing sign-language interpreters to make things better for deaf and hearing-impaired attendees. I’m so impressed.  And it’s got me thinking about responsiveness.

At some point, someone in the WOMAD picture has obviously said, “Hey, I bet there are lots of disabled people who would love this, how can we make it possible and worthwhile for them?”. I reckon that is the crux of responsiveness. Everything else, the parking, the ramps, the interpreters, they’re all important too, but not as important as asking that initial question. Now, Camp a Low Hum is on a totally different scale to WOMAD, and has a much less accessible site. It would be impossible for Blink to offer the kind of disability services WOMAD does. But it would be easy for him to ask the question, and just asking it might make all the difference for someone. Because cripples are hipsters too.