Accommodations

December 2004

Carl is the king of yard sales. Almost every Saturday morning, no matter where we are in the world, he goes on a hunt for the best deal of the day. A few weeks ago, he brought home an interesting book: The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht. For those who have no cable television or shy away from reality shows like me, it is my understanding that the worst-case-scenario books have been turned into a television show, airing, I think, on TBS. The basic gist of the series is to present case studies of the worst things that can happen in life and provide practical information on how to handle these far-out possibilities when they arrive. It is boyscout preparedness squared.

Reading these scenarios, which range from the absolutely absurd (crossing a piranha-infested river and being abducted by aliens) to the most practical (building a shelter in snow and treating a scorpion sting), I was struck by the number of situations that can happen when traveling. It occurred to me that this book is a perfect example of how accommodating needs is something every human being deserves and that even the most adventurous and capable among us finds himself in situations that require action.

I've written about the Americans with Disabilities Act extensively both in this column and in other places. The concept of reasonable accommodation is a highly practical concept, but it certainly was not an original one. People accommodate each other all the time. The ADA puts into law the requirement that such accommodation be extended to those who have special ability needs. But accommodating others is at the heart of most social relationships.

Reading the worst case scenarios brings up a parallel issue when considering accommodation. All people find themselves facing obstacles at some point or another in their lives. These scenarios may be the worst of these obstacles, but they are not the only obstacles that people face.

Travel can be stressful, even during the most restful of getaways. Travel usually represents an interruption in our schedules, our routines, the rhythms of our lives. Interestingly, we have found this to be true even when one travels all the time. Sitting still even for a week establishes rhythms and routines. Packing up the RV to move to another campground still represents a change, an interruption. So even in the best of circumstances, travel has obstacles to overcome.

Why does society regard the accommodations afforded some people as special while the accommodations afforded others are regarded as routine? My most concise explanation for this is stigma. The needs of privileged groups of people are accommodated and discussed as if they were natural. The needs of stigmatized groups are accommodated only when some external force requires it. The observation I am making here is not that this happens to people because they are intrinsically "privileged" or otherwise; it is that such treatment itself constitutes privilege. It is the thing itself. Thus, there is need for laws like the ADA.

Everyone presents a version of himself to others in daily life. However, that presentation is always colored by the perceptions that other people have of people. Stigma, or the spoiled identity, is an interaction that occurs when someone presents either by his appearance or his actions, wittingly or unwittingly, a persona that is regarded as inferior.

That is why Sociologist Erving Goffman, in his seminal work, Stigma, described the social phenomenon of stigma as a spoiled identity-no matter how a stigmatized person presents herself or himself, she or he will be uncertain as to how she or he is being understood. The question of the stigma is always in the background:

Goffman writes, "This uncertainty arises not merely from the stigmatized individual's not knowing which of several categories he will be placed in, but also, where the placement is favorable, from his knowing that in their hearts the others may be defining him in terms of his stigma during mixed contacts, the stigmatized individual is likely to feel that he is "on," having to be self-conscious and calculating about the impression he is making, to a degree and in areas of conduct which he assumes others are not."

This added stress of always having a difference in the background of social interactions means that travel is doubly stressful for the stigmatized person.

Reading the worst case scenarios, however, reminded me that there is a way to change the thinking about many of the stressors that stigmatized people face. The accommodations that many of us need are only regarded as special to the extent that they are "spoiled." Like the obstacles faced in the scenarios, most of the accommodations people need are a practical matter of solving a problem. The only thing that makes them special is prejudice, often coupled with a desire by those who install the barriers to ignore the fact that it was a decision on their part that created the barrier. All it takes is another decision to change things.

As this holiday season progresses, it is my hope that these prejudices will be left behind and that all people will find accommodations for their needs. We all deserve it. There is room for everyone.

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