Able-Bodied Access Intimacy

I've been thinking of how accessibility shows up in my life through access intimacy. Access intimacy is hard to describe, but one way to according to Mia Mingus is "...that elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone else 'gets' your access needs. The kind of eerie comfort that your disabled self feels with someone on a purely access level."

Sometimes I wonder if access intimacy is stronger between chronically ill people, but then I think on the ways my able-bodied loved ones show that intimacy. There’s the vulnerable feeling as my dad calls an Uber when I can’t drive and my heart searches for hints of inconvenience unsuccessfully. Bear's coat warms my hands when I lean on him when I'm having trouble standing. Static reaches my shoulders when Bee reminds me to bring a chair before I begin bleaching their roots. They will ask me if I need a break right before I feel vibrations in my muscles. Josie learns from other disabled people about my conditions so she understands better. My friends will gaze lovingly at me from faraway as I remove my mask to eat food in a park with no sense of urgency. Access Intimacy is... <3