A success! Birdability and allyship in action at the San Diego Bird Festival
Last week, Birdability founder Virginia Rose and I were birding in Southern California. Soaking up the sunshine, meeting new people, having adventures and catching up with plenty of “lifers” (bird species we had never seen or heard before). And I was getting paid to do it! (It’s a dream job, right?!) Here’s a wrap up of why the San Diego Bird Festival, held by San Diego Audubon Society, was a success from Birdability’s perspective. It boils down to the fact that San Diego Audubon, and the festival coordinator Jen Hajj in particular, are wonderful allies.
Leading an accessible outing along the Birding and Walking Trail at Imperial Beach. Photo: Karina Ornelas.
Inclusion and access need to be a priority. Adding either of these values as an afterthought doesn’t work… and we can usually tell when this has happened. It was clear to us that San Diego Audubon, from the early planning stages, wanted to incorporate accessibility and inclusion into their festival. They invited us to participate as much as possible (more on that below). And all their field trip descriptions included information like “This event may be difficult for people with access challenges.” (We’d like to see more detail in equivalent statements, but it’s a great start!)
It takes more time and effort to be intentionally inclusive. The festival coordinator went out of her way to ensure that the hotel room for Virginia — a manual wheelchair user — was accessible, and that we would have access to a wheelchair accessible vehicle. As a walking person, it’s been rather horrifying to discover how difficult hotels make it for wheelchair users: there is no standard bed height, and individual hotels vary so much in their willingness (and in their ability to follow clear directions) to ensure that the bed is the necessary height. (This is vital so people can transfer in and out of their wheelchairs independently and easily without causing injury.) Wheelchair accessible vehicles are harder to find, and more expensive to rent, but it’s what you need if you cannot transfer into a regular car seat. Jen at San Diego Audubon never once hinted that this extra work was a burden… and we noticed that, and appreciated it.
Birdability founder and manual wheelchair user Virginia Rose on the pelagic boat trip at the San Diego Bird Festival 2022. Photo: Freya McGregor.
Think outside the box, and be willing to break down barriers. We’re not sure if this is a blanket statement, but it’s certainly true for the San Diego Bird Festival. On Friday February 18, 2022, Virginia Rose was the first wheelchair user to go on a pelagic bird trip. It did involve her being carried up five stairs onto the boat… and not everybody can be carried (and not everybody is OK with being carried!). (The real solution we’d love to see is a ramp…!) But it also involved the crew of the boat, and the festival organizers, being willing to say ‘yes’. Many people with disabilities have been met with, “Oh, that’s just not possible,” or “Our liability insurance wouldn’t cover us if you got injured.” Barriers in attitude sometimes hurt the most. But thinking outside the box allowed Virginia to participate the same as any walking person, and to catch up with 13 lifers too!
Show us you’re genuine about this work, and we’ll give you our best. You can usually tell when someone is trying to check their inclusion box, and when someone really wants to do the right thing. We were invited to hold a workshop for folks at Audubon chapters, bird clubs and other nature-based organizations involved in programming, to help them make their programs more inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities and other health concerns. San Diego Audubon had four staff members present: the education manager (school field trips!), the volunteer coordinator (so much potential!), the conservation manager (restoration activities!) and the executive director (who has the power to enable… or not). The message to us was clear: these folks are serious. That makes it worth our time and energy investing in them too.
Virginia and me delivering the keynote on Saturday. Photo: Ari Remmel.
Share your platform. We led field trips and hosted a workshop. We had a booth in the expo hall, where we could meet other birders with access challenges, share about our work with would-be allies, and connect with other vendors. And we were invited to give the Saturday keynote, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Virginia shared some of her powerful stories of birding from a wheelchair, and I expanded with messages about inclusion, access, disability etiquette and our work. We are brand new, and we are small, but we have an important message. San Diego Audubon gave us every available opportunity to meet new people, inspire change, and empower others. This matters. (And it’s fun!)
Bird festivals are a wonderful way to connect with others in the birding community, to explore new places, and to learn more about birds and birding. And as such big events, bird festivals can inspire wide-spread change in their local communities, and in the communities of their attendees. We want all bird festivals to offer accessible field trips in their schedule of events, and we will gladly help them do that! (Although, of course, anybody can lead an accessible bird outing.) And we really want festivals to genuinely want to be part of the work of ensuring that birding truly is for everybody. Thank you San Diego Audubon for being such great allies. We’ve got more festivals booked in for 2022, and we look forward to the inclusion and adventures that await us!
