Living our Values
Swallow-tailed Kite. Photo by Freya McGregor.
We all have values: actions, qualities and behaviors that we consider important. A business is no different — business decisions are driven by the owners’ values, and businesses have an opportunity to hold values that help them be responsible corporate citizens in making the world a better place.
In an effort to be transparent, to hold ourselves publicly accountable, and to practice what we preach, shared below are the three core values of Access Birding, LLC. But it’s not enough just to state them — anyone can make a claim like that. Below we’ve also shared some of the concrete actions we take to live these values. This has not been done in an effort to virtue signal, but to share with individuals and organizations who are thinking of working with Access Birding what really matters to us. If these things really matter to you, too, perhaps we’ll be a good fit!
Create, and maintain, safe and inclusive spaces for disabled, queer and BIPOC folks, and would-be allies of these communities
This is one of the most important aims of our work! Although our primary focus is disabled folks, many people hold multiple historically marginalized identities, and if we are only working to create and maintain safe and inclusive spaces for disabled people who are white, straight and cisgender we’re not actually creating or maintaining safe and inclusive spaces for all disabled people.
Actions we take to uphold this value:
At the beginning of online and in-person workshops we share a slide that states that in this space it is OK to not know the right word, ask a question you might be worried is inappropriate, and not know all the answers. This is intended to encourage a little vulnerability and make it safe for participants to speak up and learn more, rather than be worried they’re saying the wrong thing. We don’t shame anyone for getting a word wrong, and we teach with encouragement and a growth mindset. After all, allies need safe spaces to learn, too!
During virtual and in-person workshops, and on social media posts, we address comments, as soon as possible, that appear to have the intent of being racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, ageist or classist. We provide one opportunity for the person to clarify their intent (because it may have been an innocent mistake), but if they do not do so we request that they leave, we remove them from the virtual event, or we block their Instagram account.
We are a proud member of Safe Space Alliance, having pledged, “I agree to uphold Access Birding, LLC as a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community. A safe space is a space where the LGBTQIA+ community can freely express themselves without fear. It is a space that does not tolerate violence, bullying, or hate speech towards the LGBTQIA+ community. A safe space does not guarantee 100% safety, rather, it’s a space that has your back if an incident (violence, bullying, or hate speech) were to occur.” We encourage organizations we work with to consider joining Safe Space Alliance too.
We are excited to continue learning from the people we are trying to include in our work. We are committed to continuing our anti-racism journey, to learning more about the queer and trans experience, and to diving further into the work of disabled educators and self-advocates. There is always more to learn about intersectional feminism, changemaking, and how to be a good ally. As well as engaging in this work, we share these resources with others through the Access Birding Bookstore, our monthly newsletter, and on Instagram @access.birding to amplify their creators and help others engage in this work, too.
Share our knowledge and services equitably
We are all different, and we are all living different lives with different resources available to us. The same is true of the organizations that work with Access Birding. In an effort to provide effective and helpful services to organizations while also bringing enough revenue into the business to make a living, we do our best to share our knowledge and services equitably. On the surface, if an equity lens is one that you’re not used to looking through, this may read as unfair. But equity is about levelling the playing field so everyone gets a chance to kick a goal… and the playing field isn’t currently equitable.
Access Birding provides consulting services to staff and volunteers at nature-based organizations to help them improve access and inclusion for disabled birders. Some of these organizations have a national or international scope, with tens of thousands of members paying annual dues and donating money to support their work, on top of multiple full-time staff who are responsible for grant writing and fundraising efforts. Other organizations we work with operate at a state or local level with few staff, and still others are entirely volunteer-run and operate on a very small budget. The playing field isn’t currently equitable, but there are some things we can do to help level it out.
Actions we take to uphold this value:
We provide free information and resources on access and inclusion for disabled folks through our Instagram account @access.birding and via our monthly newsletter which anyone can sign up for. In addition, there is a wealth of free advice sprinkled throughout many of our media appearances (which anyone can access) from podcast episodes to newspaper articles.
We provide up to two hours of free consulting services a year to grassroots groups or organizations that have no paid staff and specifically create outdoor affinity spaces for disabled, BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ folks to help them increase access and inclusion for disabled folks. Please reach out if you’d like to take advantage of this.
We charge a different, higher, consulting rate for national or international organizations. Even when operating under a tight budget, larger organizations have the resources (see above) to pay slightly more (even if they will need to seek additional funding), and the impact that our services have on them will be greater because of their reach. This strategy is sometimes referred to as ‘value-based pricing’. This slightly higher rate helps offset the free consulting services we provide to disabled, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ outdoor affinity spaces.
Contribute to a better planet for us all
Climate change is real, y’all, and bird populations are declining dramatically all over the world. If we want to be able to keep enjoying birds (we do!), we need to make sure we’re supporting conservation and not making the situation worse.
Actions we take to uphold this value:
We are a proud 1% for the Planet member. Businesses that join the nonprofit 1% for the Planet pledge to donate 1% of their sales (not their profits) to environmental organizations. This gesture is small, but it adds up.
We reduce our carbon footprint by working from home (no commuting pollution!), and by keeping our house heated no higher than 68°F in the winter, and cooled no lower than 68°F in the summer. (Fleece lap blankets and wooly socks for the win!)
When shipping Access Birding caps and stickers, we reuse shipping boxes whenever possible. We recycle everything we can, and we use recycled paper for printing.