Halloween. An exciting holiday filled with candy, costumes, and the scariest thing of all: inaccessibility.
With the holiday season underway, I’ve been reflecting upon accessibility, or lack thereof, during the holidays, and I wanted to share my own experience particularly during Halloween and advice on making the holidays more accessible and inclusive.
This past Halloween, some friends and I went trick-or-treating. It had been a few years since I’d gone trick-or-treating, so I had partially forgotten the extent to which this fan-favorite holiday was inaccessible. However, no sooner had the night begun than all the memories came flooding back.
On Halloween night, I met up with two friends, one, an able-bodied individual, and the other, a power wheelchair-user, like me. A regular barrier I’ve faced on Halloweens past is inaccessible sidewalks, complete with a lack of curb cuts and several cracks and tree roots growing, making them uneven. This year we trick-or-treated in my friend’s community, which happened to not have sidewalks (which, looking back, wasn’t safe either), so we set out on our night, and with no sidewalks to worry about, I thought nothing could go badly. I was wrong. Throughout the night we were met with seemingly endless inaccessibility and ableism.
Many houses had steps to the door, one of the larger barriers facing wheelchair-users, as it renders independence practically unfeasible. While it is a hindrance, it by no means renders the night unenjoyable. We had our able-bodied friend with us, who was happy to retrieve us candy from those inaccessible houses. However, we shouldn’t need someone else to ensure we have access.
Our accessibility problems persisted. Several times when our friend went to get us candy from an inaccessible house, she was met with skepticism and rudeness. People assumed she was scamming them, and only after they realized they were incorrect, would begrudgingly give candy. In one instance, a man answered the door, and initially he was also skeptical about giving my friend candy for the three of us. However, he then proceeded to look directly at my other friend and me; and while giving her the candy, asked our able-bodied friend why we didn’t want to come up to the door. Our friend politely told him that we couldn’t due to the stairs leading up to his home. The man then, without saying much of anything, perhaps realizing the absurdity of his question, simply went back inside.