Access, like many cultural spaces, has become contested. Terms such as equality, diversity and inclusion have become clichéd and often meaningless. They are generously broadcast, like bountiful seeds, only to fall on barren soil. Institutions are keen to use the language, be seen doing and saying the right things, whilst keeping their contribution to a minimum. These hollow actions create silent echoes in the vacuum of liberalised virtue signalling. Oh, the irony of performative access. Language is potent and more so when it is nuanced, distilled, and considered. So what do we mean when we say access and roll words like equality, diversity and inclusion off the tongue? Are these words still fit for purpose? Do we need a new lexicon of access? Then once we have a language, who does it apply to, and how?
Aidan Moesby (Mon,) studied this question.