By Jillian Enright: For Complete Post, Click Here…
An update to my micro-aggressions and ableism story.
The saga continues
Last month, I wrote about my negative experience with a local branch of our public library. As a Hard of Hearing person, I was asking for reasonable accommodation and accessibility when booking their tutoring room, and was met with micro-aggressions and outright ableism from their staff.
After that, I booked in person whenever I could, and emailed as far in advance as possible whenever I wasn’t able to reserve the tutoring room in person. I understand public libraries are under-funded and under-resourced, so I was willing to be flexible. Things seemed to be resolved… until today.
This morning, the same issue which arose on March 6 resurfaced. Myself and the student I am tutoring had just settled into the room when a staff member came in and said I must check in at the desk every single time I use the room.
When I asked why, they said it was to ensure people are showing up for their bookings. I said we’re the same two people arriving on the same day at the same time, it is pretty clear that we are showing up for each booking every time, so there is no need for us to check in.
The staff member insisted it was “protocol” and said “yes you do have to”. They made us leave the tutoring room and said someone else had booked it before I did, despite the fact that I booked by email and had received confirmation a few days prior.
When I explained that I had received confirmation by email, the staff person very curtly said “well, we have our own booking system, so they wouldn’t know if this room was already booked.”
