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Stage a Protest

Staging a protest is a last-resort form of advocacy when users -- especially disabled people -- encounter persistent, systemic inaccessibility with no recourse. Protests may be physical (sit‑ins, marches), digital (social media campaigns, hashtag storms), or symbolic (boycotts, media attention). These actions shouldn't be part of a product lifecycle -- they're triggered by continued neglect and exclusion.

Role in the ENABLE Model​

This is where the responsibility for accessibility is placed entirely to the user. People are most likely to protest after failures at every prior stage. Disabled people's recourses are pushed downstream until they must mobilize public pressure. In this model, protest becomes a compensation for institutional failure.

Why it Happens​

Because every formal route to accessibility has failed:

  • Support tickets ignored or closed
  • Feedback loops broken
  • Legal remedies inaccessible or ineffective

Once those channels close, protest becomes the only option to demand recognition and change.

If access fails, protest becomes both tool and burden -- a sign that care was bypassed every step of the way.

Examples​

  • California -- National Federation of the Blind organizes Ridedshare Rallies at Uber and Lyft headquarters to protest discrimination (2024): NFB hosts rally to draw attention to the companies’ failure to stop discrimination against blind individuals, particularly those accompanied by guide dogs.

  • The 504 Sit‑In (1977): Disability activists occupied federal HEW offices -- including in San Francisco and D.C. -- for up to 25 days (the longest sit-in at a federal building as of 2025), demanding implementation of Section 504, the first federal civil rights protection for people with disabilities.

  • The 1990 “Capitol Crawl”: Approximately 60 wheelchair users left their wheelchairs and crawled up the U.S. Capitol steps to dramatize the inaccessibility of public buildings, catalyzing support for the ADA.

  • Subway Elevator Protests (NYC): In 2023–24, Disability advocates (e.g., Rise & Resist / Elevator Action Group) staged rallies and sit-ins at MTA headquarters and stations, calling out chronic elevator outages and forcing the MTA to agree to accessibility settlements.

  • Overlay Open Letters: In 2021 hundreds of accessibility advocates signed open letters and social-media campaigns condemning overlay widgets like accessiBe as deceptive “quick-fixes” and pressuring companies to instead fix code during design and development.

Compensation sounds like​

“We tried filing tickets. We tried waiting. Now we're showing up at their headquarters with signs."
“They ignored our surveys, but public shame got their attention.”

Burden sounds like​

“I just wanted to book a flight. Instead, I became an activist.”
“Raising awareness took more time than the trip itself.”

Real-world Scenario​

Talia, a Deaf voter, faced inaccessible online registration: broken tab order and missing labels. After emailing support and filing formal complaints with no response, she organized a viral Twitter campaign tagging election officials. News outlets followed. The site was temporarily fixed -- but with every update, it regresses again. Now, Talia must monitor and re-advocate every election cycle -- a cyclical labor born of neglect.