An Inclusive Space Until a Disabled Person Needs It
An inclusive space is a space designed to accommodate as many disabilities as possible, with staff trained to respond to different access needs and where, thanks to those measures, disabled people can participate, move around, and exist independently, safely, and with dignity.
Lately, it has become fashionable to label almost any place as “inclusive”: spaces where disabled people are tolerated, where “everyone is welcome,” and where inclusion measures amount to little more than allowing disabled people to be present—as long as they do not ask for accommodations that would enable them to participate on equal terms.
Have you ever wondered why there are so few disabled people in these spaces? Or why, when they do appear, they are often accompanied by someone else?
Because they are not inclusive.
Throughout my life, I have encountered hundreds of spaces, events, and organisations that proudly describe themselves as inclusive. The problem arises when a disabled person enters one of these spaces and requests an accommodation. Very often, that request is interpreted as a complaint, a demand, or even an attack on the organisers’ good intentions.
Inclusion affects architecture, signage, lighting, sound, communication, transport, organisation, policies, and, above all, the people who make up the space. It requires work, training, and planning, and in my experience, very few spaces have genuinely invested in those things.
When a space advertises itself as inclusive, it is inviting disabled people and other vulnerable groups to attend because it is supposedly accessible and equipped with inclusion and safety measures. When that promise is not fulfilled, the result is not simply a bad experience. The space can become uncomfortable, inaccessible, or even dangerous for the very people who trusted that label.
How to Tell Whether Your Space Is Truly Inclusive
- If the response to an accommodation request is to listen, adapt, and look for solutions, then you are probably dealing with an inclusive space.
- If the response is to question, minimise, raise voices, ridicule, blame, or hold the disabled person responsible for the barriers they encounter, then the space ceases to be inclusive, no matter how many policies, posters, or statements of intent it displays.
In every case, this misunderstanding of what a safe and inclusive space actually means has physical, psychological, and social consequences. A disabled person can easily become lost, suffer a fall, miss important information, become isolated, experience severe anxiety, or be forced to leave an activity altogether. In many cases, lack of accessibility means that disabled people become dependent on others or stop participating entirely.
The constant need to justify our needs leaves us carrying guilt and shame. We stop asking for help, withdraw from social life, and eventually leave activities, groups, and communities behind. That is why it is so important that spaces claiming to be inclusive are genuinely inclusive.
The consequences go far beyond a bad experience: anxiety, isolation, loss of autonomy, preventable accidents, abandonment of activities, and exclusion from social life.
Performing Legitimacy
A wonderful crossover between Elisa from Andalusia and Dahlia de la Cerda (@dahliadelacerda), made possible through the support of @weareunlimited and @britishcouncil via the International Micro Award 2026.