The final 12 months and a half of our lives have been an eye-opening one in a variety of methods. We’ve all had little else to do however watch because the buildings supporting our society are confirmed to be flawed of their design, buckling underneath the added weight of this new viral risk.
Racism, misogyny, transphobia, and the very imperfect political infrastructure we trusted to maintain us protected in moments of disaster have all reared their ugly heads within the worst attainable methods. To not point out the sheer political and ideological extremism and division that’s cropped up- taking a look at you, anti-vaxxers and Q-anon. For sure, it’s been an eye-opening little time frame.
The pandemic is an expertise I’m positive a variety of us are eager to neglect as shortly as possible- I do know I’ve had moments the place I’ve wished it to vanish as shortly because it appeared to roll in. We miss normalcy, and that’s pure.
Nonetheless, when the world will get turned the wrong way up in such an sudden manner, there’s so much to be taught from the scenario. I’d argue that proper now, as we’re slowly gearing as much as attempt to flip our society right-way-up once more (due to the efforts of medical groups and vaccinations) we ought to be very rigorously contemplating how we’d wish to go about this.
As we’ve seen already, many components of our ‘outdated lives’ have been dysfunctional and harmful- maybe these ones are higher left previously. So how can we select what to banish to reminiscence and what to maintain with us in our new, post-pandemic lives? One huge reply is the way in which we’ve been taking a look at accessibility.
A indisputable fact that’s been fairly surprising and- dare I say- surprisingly nice is the way in which so many establishments and corporations managed to redirect their providers to a brand new, primarily-online mode over the previous 12 months and a bit. College lectures, staff conferences, and leisure actions have all settled themselves on the earth of Zoom and different such video conferencing software program, permitting an ease of entry that’s by no means actually been seen earlier than.
To make use of a private instance, college lectures are abruptly recorded and uploaded on a non-public server as a norm for watching in your individual time and for revision functions. As somebody who’s spent a not-insignificant period of time campaigning and nagging on the faculty board to implement such measures, it was a bittersweet feeling seeing it so simply enacted.
This begs the query: why have been they so reluctant to take this step within the first place?
Each time the query was requested, a unique reply was given- maybe it was to do with the lecturers’ private reluctance to be filmed. To others, it was about the truth that college students supposedly wouldn’t present as much as class anymore if all lectures have been recorded and uploaded on-line.
But now that we’ve taken the classroom out of the equation, we’re cataloging each bit of educating content material with ease. The accessibility key that so many with bodily disabilities, psychological sicknesses, and a bunch of different circumstances have been asking for is now lastly a actuality.
Individuals with disabilities have been hit more durable by COVID-19 than another demographic. Sure components of the general public have proven a level of disinterest in defending these with underlying circumstances that’s concerningly giant (see: anti-lockdown protestors who have been unsettlingly okay with placing the susceptible in peril for the sake of freedom pints down on the pub).
And now’s the time to be questioning that mentality- we’re all liable for upholding equality for all. Now, particularly, for folks with disabilities.
Different providers have made the notable transfer to on-line as properly. The normalisation of on-line docs’ appointments, remedy, and even enterprise conferences is a cultural norm I actually hope continues to stay round even after we’ve exited our ultimate lockdown. This pandemic has taught us what we do and don’t need- and what we undoubtedly don’t want is an unnecessarily tight schedule stuffed with back-and-forth commutes to conferences.
Even the schooling sector has seen booming development. Not solely has there been an enormous rise in instructional content material produced with the expressed intent of on-line consumption, however this has additionally turn into a normalised practise.
With this accessibility got here new doorways to be opened- sure alternatives which can have been beforehand unattainable at the moment are centralised on-line and some clicks away. It’s turning into increasingly frequent for professionals to show to the web to do some further coaching equivalent to the grasp of main schooling on-line. All in all, in some respects it’s by no means been simpler to entry a lot content material with such ease.
Then again, nevertheless, there may be nonetheless a lot work to be accomplished. As with all issues, COVID-19 has shined a lightweight on and exacerbated the inequalities we had already been residing with up till this point- and earnings inequality isn’t any exception. It’s no secret that the working class is without doubt one of the teams hit hardest by the pandemic as staff have been confronted with no alternative however to maintain working in probably perilous important roles, while many others discovered work from the consolation and security of their very own dwelling.
Younger folks additionally noticed a near-unprecedented stage of unemployment as many depend on hospitality work to be able to preserve themselves afloat- a sector that has been notoriously crumbled by the pandemic. With nightclubs, bars, and eating places unable to (legally) preserve their doorways open for very lengthy, big numbers of workers have been left with little to no earnings.
As if that wasn’t dangerous sufficient, a surprising 20% of the UK is alleged to dwell in a state of poverty.
While the transfer to on-line has confirmed to be extra accessible for many people, it’s additionally troublesome to neglect the reality that not everybody may have entry to a high quality web connection- one thing that’s really crucial for the technologically demanding nature of video conferencing specifically.
And, as we all know, video conferencing has turn into a brand new necessity. Along with this, entry to units able to connecting to and accessing the web isn’t one thing that’s assured. With so many households sharing a single laptop computer or pill, accessibility turns into, as soon as once more, decreased as availability is torn between a variety of customers.
In a post-pandemic world, how can we steadiness these wants and necessities in a manner that permits all contributors (in no matter this can be – work, schooling, or recreation) the entry they want with out endangering or alienating any group?
The reply appears to be a big mixture of strategies. Twin supply appears to be the key- conserving the brand new, digital infrastructure in place while additionally providing some pre-pandemic normalcy may provide an answer to this subject. The balancing of those totally different parts might take some getting used to.
Nonetheless, there’s a powerful hope that the final 12 months and a bit that we’ve all collectively gone by (and hopefully by no means need to ever once more) has opened our eyes to the failings in our system in a manner we’d by no means skilled earlier than. It’s not all the time been straightforward to see, nevertheless it’s essential that we do.
All of us have been conscious of the inequalities plaguing our societies in our pre-pandemic state of existence, I’m positive. Nonetheless, the blessing of this COVID-ridden time of our lives (of which there are admittedly only a few) is that it’s given us the instruments to concretely determine the areas we should goal, and given us the collective vitality to place these plans into motion.
In any case, when society has already been utterly metamorphosed in a single day by a catastrophe out with any of our controls, it seems like there’s nothing else to lose. Now’s the time to take a maintain of the way in which we dwell while it’s in such a pliable state and attempt to construct one thing higher again up from these scattered items. It’s clear now that our pre-pandemic world was damaged. And we’ve the possibility to repair it.
I hope that this collective expertise has proven what we’re able to and the way we’ve been falling brief. And I hope that we handle to maintain the momentum of social change we’ve not too long ago seen going with simply as much- and, if not, more- depth.
With the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter motion, the uproar over the deep-rooted misogynistic violence we normalised in our society, rising class consciousness, and a lot extra, we’re in a collective state that’s primed to vary the way in which we do issues. It’s about time we see it by as we work in direction of opening the world again up once more.
Change is troublesome, however we do it on a regular basis. The final 12 months and a half is a residing, respiration, a diseased testomony to that. It’s time we actually have a look at why we don’t do one thing so simple as report college lectures for the advantage of those that bodily can not all the time attend, to one thing as grand as narrowing the gaps in wealth in our nation.
