Adult Social Care Glossary, v 0.6

The opportunity to use, get or benefit from something. If you have a disability, you may need changes to be made to enable you to have full access to everything in your community, including services, facilities and information.

Accessing the community

In one of his many brilliant and powerful blog posts, Mark Neary writes “I wish they would drop this “accessing the community” stuff. Steven is the community. “Accessing” it means that he is on the outside of it, waiting to be given admittance. That reveals a strong attitude – “this is ours and you are not part of it unless we allow you to be””. [11]

A comment in response to Mark’s post reads, “my daughter doesn’t want to “access the community”. She likes going out, when she can choose where and when… She loves company, and chatting to people, but wants little to do with day centres or over-organised activities. The other night, she hid her shoes, because to her accessing the community sometimes means doing things that other people want her to do.”

The phrase ‘accessing the community’ shrieks difference.

We go out.

‘They’ access the community.

It suggests ‘the community’ is somewhere you go, not somewhere you’re already part of.

Somewhere you can ‘access’ as an ‘activity’ or an ‘outing’, depending on your schedule, when (and if) you’re ‘allowed’.

Somewhere you fit into. You’re fitted into.

Not somewhere you belong.

(Extracted from a longer article on Community. Click the link to read the whole thing.)