Importance of Time: Time Use in an Inaccessible World

“Importance of Time: Time Use in an Inaccessible World,” in the centre on a white background. Navy blobs at the top and bottom opposite corners with purple outline blobs.

When we think about improving our quality of life, the discussion typically goes towards making sure you have a home, basic needs met, meaningful employment to you, and quality time with people you care about and the community. An underrated consideration of quality of life is the use of time in different activities that make up living a life. Think about this, what do you want to spend more time doing and what do you want to spend less time doing if the constraints of life do not exist?

Time is a precious resource that we cannot take back. Especially with human interactions and experiences. For persons with disabilities, time is something that is critical when additional time is required to do the same task as someone who is not living with a disability. In fact, sometimes utilizing the time efficiently may not exist as other factors make it difficult to move forward, even with the best intentions. Let’s consider some of the factors that persons with disabilities have to take into consideration in their day to day living that may impact their quality of life.

Energy

There are many disabilities where fatigue and fluctuations of energy are more common. However, there is also how energy is best utilized by the person due to ability or how information can be processed. The Spoon Theory is one of the best concepts that explains the energy conversation when living with disabilities. Every task requires a certain amount of spoons depending on your energy and ability which is different for everyone.

Usually there are either less spoons for persons with disabilities or more spoons are required to do a specific task. It changes day-to-day depending on what has happened and whether enough energy has been depleted on a regular basis or not. Time can be lost when energy is drained or having to consider energy into every task take more time to ensure you have enough to survive the day.

Additional Steps and Resources

Persons with disabilities sometimes have additional steps to consider in the same task. Depending on access to different resources, steps can be lessened or take less time to get through all the steps necessary to complete a task. Assistive devices, adaptable equipment, and human-centred services all play a role on whether or not a task can be easier and faster to complete.

Some options are simply putting in a process or using a device to help complete a task. Some are making sure sufficient extra time is considered when doing the task. When needing help that involves people, the extra time to contact, secure, and interact with people that can help can be substantial but improve quality of life.

In many ways, there are many steps that persons with disabilities will do out of necessity and survival to go about their day and participate in activities. Below are a few extra steps that are not typical in an able-bodied experience.

Researching: Want to participate in an activity? Need to find out if it is accessible or find ways to get accommodations. Most of the time, it is not easy to find and is a substantial amount of time that may come to nothing. There is also research to find options and services that can improve their life of living with a disability that also take quite some time if it is not easy to find or clear to understand.

Communicating: Similar to researching, it is likely along the way that you will have to communicate with someone to find more information or request accommodations and services. If communication is a barrier, it will be slower, take more time depending on the interaction.

Additional Care: If you rely on a human-centred service, time is highly dependent on the service secured. It will depend on the quality of the service, the frequency and consistency of the service, as well as how much of your life is dependent on the service. Time to request, obtain, and train people for services is significant to consider.

Waiting: With the researching, communicating, and additional care, the time spent waiting is the most impactful. It is likely that no one can move to the next step until whatever they are waiting for is confirmed. When considering accessibility and accommodations, it is ridiculous how much time is wasted waiting.

These additional steps and resources vary from person to person and can be a significant time drainer for persons with disabilities based on how accessible or inaccessible the environment is. Being mindful of how much time needs to be considered for persons with disabilities is crucial to access.

Environment Considerations

The additional steps and resources cannot be discussed without considering the environment that we live in. The accessibility of the built environment in private and public spaces, transportation, and communication systems can impact the use of time. If spaces are not accessible, if interactions are not inclusive, more time is needed to do the same task. Taking the environment into consideration when designing and planning goods, services, and activities means that you consider time valuable for everyone.

If you are wanting to be inclusive to persons with disabilities, understanding the additional time due to barriers and needs is the first step. Knowing those barriers and access needs will help close the gaps and remove barriers to limit the time it takes. It is also important to remember that someone needing additional time is not a bad thing. Be patient and add the additional time when needed, you may help someone’s energy and be more inclusive by considering someone’s needs instead of being pressured to the stress of productivity and time of society’s expectations.

Amanda