I have started writing this blog a number of times, but the truth is I am tired. Not a kind of tired that a half hour nap can fix either. I am tired of the way in which the world seems to have decided that, rather than embrace the accessibility that came in the Covid pandemic when the world went online, we should simply double down and undo all remote working. I am tired of hearing that productivity can only happen in the office. I am tired of being told that events cannot be put online - when 5 years ago we proved it could be done. I am just really, really tired of watching the world I inhabit become more restricted for no discernible reason I can think of. 

Outside of my world-weariness at the shrinking of remote, online access to work and events, there are a number of reasons why this accessibility is needed. The first, most obvious one is that shrinking the world down into that which is reachable by an individual, removes a global interconnectivity. In the field of Neurodivergence we talk about decolonisation and hearing marginalised voices, and then make sure to hold conferences and events that can only be accessed in person. The cost and ability to travel, including intercontinental travel, is not a small feat and comes at a huge personal and financial cost. The drive to return to in-person, non-hybrid events may have advantages for those on-site but perpetuates the hierarchies and oppressions that are so often discussed at the very same events that perpetuates them. 

If events are only accessible in person, we exclude scholars and activists who cannot travel. There are a million and more different reasons why people cannot travel to events. Take for example the Autistic person who finds the sensory experience of being in a crowded room overwhelming. Maybe you have a new mother running on sleep deprivation and the desire to stay up to date with the field they worked so hard to be part of. The leading academic working in a developing nation, who does not have the funding to travel half way round the world for a 1 day symposium. The list goes on - every single one of these voices is stifled and, once stifled, risks being lost to the wider collective knowledge and understanding of ways of Neurodivergent being.

The last reason I find the push for in person only events leaves an acrid taste in my mouth, is the planet is literally on fire. The wildfires were three kilometres from my family home this year; 10 years ago we didn’t have wildfires. The Caribbean has been hit with a Category 5 hurricane that is the result of out of control climate change. What gives us the right to use untold privilege to continue to travel the globe in the pursuit of knowledge, when we could all quite comfortably be able to have these conversations in the comfort and sanctity of our own home? We cannot keep the status quo of conferences and events that require international travel in the time of climate collapse. 

I might be on my soapbox this week, but honestly I am tired of a system that profits from our mindbodies as Neurodivergent research participants and lived experience experts. I am tired of a system that disables the voices of the Neurodivergent community as a wide experience of human existence, prizing those of us who are readily accessible. I am just so tired of a system that, rather than being adapted and replaced with a more equitable and sustainable practice, is being doubled down on to the detriment of all of us. The answers are all in our reach, it doesn’t take a philosopher in a bath to eureka the way in which we could make our work accessible. Why, when the answers are accessible, are our events and conferences not? I am tired.