From Rights to Radical

A Restroom’s Mirror in the Israeli Accessibility Law

nili R. Broyer

nili’s im

age. In

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irror D

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rbus –

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om

an in

a W

heelch

air (1

970)

Radical

This Sex Which Is Not One

“And so far as the organism is concerned, what happens if the mirror provides nothing to see?”

(Irigaray, 1985[1977]:117)

“[H]er sexual organ represents the horror of nothing to see. A defect in this systematics of representation.”

(Ibid, p. 26)

nili’s im

age

Between Seeing and Being Seen “The environment provides each and every one of us with a mirror through which we can define ourselves. This mirror that I get from the environment alienates me from myself. The responses make me see myself as strange, abnormal and maybe even monstrous. I want to move from the mirror that is reflected to me through other people's stares at me to a more materialistic mirror – the mirrors set in public spaces, such as the restroom at the mall. In each restroom there is a mirror that I can hardly ever see myself in. They are hardly suitable for me and begin somewhere around the top of my forehead. Lacking a mirror through which I can reveal myself, I am left with the distorted social mirror. In the public space, the only mirrors’ I have are the people around me and their stares. In order to build a positive self-image of myself I need a new mirror.”

(Broyer, 2010)

Rights

Israeli Accessibility Law

• The Israeli regulations pertaining to the Planning and Construction Act – 1971

• The Equal Rights for Persons with

Disabilities Law (Amendment no. 2) (Accessibility) — 2005

• The Israeli Standard IS 1918

section 3.1 – 2006

Personal / Political The marginality of the mirror in the Israeli Standard

Private / Public Mirror in the accessible toilet compartment

or in the lobby of the public toilet

Normalcy / Differences The length of the mirror leaves only the face or includes the body

Accessibility & Visibility

“The modern approach emphasizes a unique aspect of accessibility, which is visibility: the appearance of people with different disabilities in the normal fabric of social life, and the unmediated encounters lead to the elimination of prejudices and to increased awareness of people with disabilities as having equal rights.”

(Ophir & Orenstein, 2001:73)

Brittany and Abby Hensel in Steve Wewerka, Life Magazine (1996)

Radicalizing Accessibilty

Thank you nili’s im

age