seyi

MANIFESTO

My name is Seyi (they/them) and I’m in my 2nd year studying Social Science, Community Development + Youth Work. I chose to come back to university after a disillusioning and inaccessible undergraduate law degree drove me to seek alternative frameworks for responding to social issues. I am neurodivergent and live with both physical disabilities and mental health conditions. 

I am a community organiser with all round personal, professional, paid and unpaid experience in a number of different roles concerning disability and accessibility. My care and community work is deeply politicised and operates under a radical framework of liberationist theories. In my role as disabled students officer, I will be centering Disability Justice - a social justice framework that examines how disability and ableism intersect with other forms of oppression. 

I reject the Medical Model of disability, which only looks at what is ‘wrong’ with a person and not what the person needs. I also know that the social model doesn’t represent every disabled person’s experience. I hope to be a compassionate and understanding point of contact for all disabled students on campus.

I take deep issue with many of the mainstream approaches to disability and accessibility. As it stands now, disabled students have to go through lengthy bureaucratic processes to access the support they are entitled to. These processes often alienate and act as barriers to multiply marginalised students who may not be able to easily meet certain administrative requirements. They also coerce disabled students into accepting labels or frameworks around their disability they might not agree with, in order for their access needs to be legitimised in the eyes of institutions - this is incredibly dehumanising and an example of lasting colonial logics I seek to challenge.

Whilst of course, personalised access plans should continue to be created and met, taking a completely individualistic approach to accessibility contributes to the othering of disabled students and creates a culture that can make us feel like burdens or like we’re being “difficult". I would like to see a shift towards a sense of collective responsibility when meeting people’s access needs. We all have access needs - it just so happens that for most abled people, these needs are already met in society. 

A big issue on campus I hope to respond to is that of Covid-19 Safety. Despite changed guidelines and the lifting of lockdown, COVID-19 is still a pandemic, and the coronavirus continues to mutate into other variants. As disabled students - this is absolutely our business. I want to ensure that the most vulnerable disabled students on campus are as protected as they can be. 

I have a strong understanding of our political context and the intentional, skilled, loving and layered, work that is needed to bring about a just world. I know the importance of building community-rooted relationships that are encouraging and supportive. I hope to bring this into my role as disabled student officer. 

If elected, I will aim to:

• Introduce certain covid precautions to ensure our most vulnerable students (and the rest of us) are protected

• Introduce widespread accessibility measures to improve conditions for disabled students who may not be able to access a RASA (this will benefit ALL students!)

• Plan and facilitate accessible events on and off campus

• Change the cultures of ableism present at Goldsmiths in tandem with other oppressions that live on campus through collaborative educational events, advocacy and campaigning