Not long ago I was asked to contribute a poem to a literary magazine which was planning an issue on disability and the environment. This was an honor for when you’re a poet being sought after is a significant kind of recognition. Moreover the journal understood that the disabled have a critical perspective on the global climate crisis. The magazine arrived and its lovely with oversized glossy pages and lots of visuals and alas for me it’s impossible to read. As a blind reader I must scan printed material in order to turn it into accessible documents. It hit me then that disability culture is insofar as blindness is concerned not as inclusive as it ought to be. The majority of American poetry magazines, even if they have websites, are inaccessible to the blind. Poetry Magazine is a terrific culprit.
I ask therefore what does disability culture mean?
Planet of the Blind 