Info & Resources for #StrawBan #SuckItAbleism Advocates

If you’re here, either you’re trying to understand why people with disabilities need easy access to single-use, bendy, plastic drinking straws — OR, you already know and need easy access to links, resources, and ammunition.

This is NOT a comprehensive round-up of media links or resources. It never will be because there’s too many. I’ll be adding a few at a time, sporadically, as and when I’m able. Come back from time to time to see the additions.

But first, let me extend tremendous gratitude to Kirsten Schultz, who gathered MANY of these links in one place in Facebook. I have cribbed extensively from her work, so she deserves most of the credit.

Infographics

So why don’t those alternate straw solutions work for disabled people, like compostable paper straws, or metal, glass, silicon, pasta, etc.? Click here to find three handy infographics that summarize this complicated issue into a few bullets and charts. (Image descriptions are available at the link. And if you keep scrolling down past the last infographic and description, you’ll find a few answers to some of the more common questions and reactions to the infographics.)

Yes, Cities Really Are Banning Straws

Just a few examples of cities and companies that have either done it or are still debating it.

• New York
• San Francisco, Seattle, and also companies like Disney, Marriott, Starbucks, and certain airlines
• Vancouver. (Yeah, in Canada.)
• Santa Barbara — this is one of the most draconian bans which has NO EXEMPTIONS FOR DISABLED PEOPLE.
• Paris, Miami Beach, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, Taiwan. (Yeah, it’s international.)
• And more. No, I’m not going to complete this list because that isn’t the point. The point is just so people have a few links to throw at the people who have been living under a rock and are now trying to insist, “Oh, come on, no one is trying to ban straws!”

Why Straw Bans Harm Disabled People

Yes, disabled people care about the environment too. And disabled people are already doing what we can to save the environment. But some disabled folks confront more barriers in trying to engage in eco-friendly behavior. Want to fix the problem? Start listening to disabled people to understand the actual barriers.

Hint: Listening for five minutes then saying, “But why can’t you just–” isn’t really listening. All this is more complicated than most non-disabled people seem to realize. All this is more complicated than even *I* realized, and I already knew why straws are an important accessibility need for some disabled people. There is so much nuance and complexity I had not grasped until I started reading DOZENS of stories from people with disabilities. If you’ve only been reading for an hour or three? Then, honey, you haven’t even started.

• Read this worthwhile Twitter thread by Laura Dorwart @LauraWritesIt on why people wanting to understand the perspectives of disabled people should take the time to educate themselves and do their own research rather than expecting disabled people to do the work of educating or answering your questions. You can begin with the many links listed below, some of which will lead you to yet more links to review.
• CRITICAL COMMENTARY: The Rise and Fall of the Plastic Straw: Sucking in Crip Defiance by Alice Wong (Disability Visibility Project) .A marvelous parody leads into more serious commentary about how straw bans are hurting disabled people. Do scroll all the way to the bottom to see a long list of source citations and rich sources of information and analysis.
• Straw Bans are DANGEROUS for Disabled People. YouTube Video by Annie Segura. Explains just some of the reasons why alternatives to plastic straws are unusable or even a safety hazard for some disabled people. Also explains how banning plastic straws can be dangerous for disabled people and has been stigmatizing them. Video has human-edited captions, you may need to hit the CC symbol to toggle them on/off. October 6, 2019.
• The Plastic Straw Ban and how it Harms Disabled People. Blog post by Shona Louise, November 19, 2018
• StrawGate: The Ableism Behind Exclusionary Activism. The Establishment, July 27, 2018 (Talks about both the harm to disabled people and also why the focus on straws is a misguided way of helping the environment.)
• The bendy plastic straw was originally used in hospitals and vital for people with disabilities. Quartz, July 9, 2018
• The Last Straw: Why Disabled People Need Plastic Straws, by Alice Wong, Eater, July 19, 2018
• Plastic Straw Bans Ignore People with Disabilities. The Mercury News, July 29, 2018
• Milo Cress, the kid who started the straw ban movement doesn’t think banning straws is the answer. Mic, July 27, 2018
• Being Disabled isn’t Eco Friendly: Get Off Our Backs and Put In The Work. Crutches and Spice (personal blog by Imani Barbarin), June 6, 2018
• I rely on plastic straws and baby wipes. I’m disabled – I have no choice. The Guardian, July 9, 2018
• Ban inaccessibility, not plastic straws. Rooted in Rights (a disability rights blog), June 7, 2018
• Some People Rely on Straws to Drink. BBC Yorkshire, April 23, 2018
• Knee-Jerk Responses to Plastic Straw Campaigns ‘Risk Isolating Disabled People’. Disability News Service, February 22, 2018
• Anti-straw movement isn’t considering people with disabilities, advocates say. The Star, April 23, 2018
• Plastic straw ban disadvantages disabled people, says Paralympian. BBC News March 21, 2018.
• Why People with Disabilities Want Bans on Plastic Straws to Be More Flexible. NPR, July 11, 2018
• Disabled often forgotten in the effort to ban plastics. Daily Democrat, July 31, 2018
• Banning Straws Hurts People // The Last Straw. YouTube video, with human-edited captions, by Jessica Kelgren-Fozard, August 3, 2018
• Action on Plastic Shouldn’t Make Life Suck for Disabled People, Greenpeace UK, March 14, 2018.
• Another collection of resources on the Straw Ban issue, this one compiled by @RollWithThePunches
• If you’re in Twitter, follow the hashtag #SuckItAbleism for more insights from people with various disabilities on how straw bans affect their lives.

People Impacted by Straw Bans

• Detailed explanation by @RollWithThePunches via twitter about why they need straws for hydration and why the alternatives don’t work
• Story of one woman who was denied a straw at a restaurant, even though the waiter had one on her. By @EhlerDanosGrl

Why Straw Bans are a Misguided Way of Helping the Environment

• Two Truths and a Lie: Straw Bans, by Julie Gunlock at Independent Women’s Forum, January 14, 2020. Did you think that the US was responsible for most plastic in the ocean? Will removing plastic straws even make a dent in the problem? Check your facts.
• The Personal Will Not Save You What’s Really at Stake When We Partake in Performative Environmentalism, by s.e. smith at bitchmedia. January 7, 2020. Explains why individual acts of performative environmentalism (like advocating for straw bans) is actually worse than doing nothing. Points to examples of evidence-based advocacy shown to have more impact.
• Sunscreen, Straws and Subtlety: The Dangers of Oversimplifying a Complex Environmental Problem, by Dr. David Shiffman, Scuba Diving, May 31, 2019. Marine biologist explains why he opposes the straw ban movement.
• Banishing straws from $5 iced coffees isn’t going to save the oceans. Vancouver Sun, July 23, 2018
• StrawGate: The Ableism Behind Exclusionary Activism. The Establishment, July 27, 2018 (Talks about both the harm to disabled people and also why the focus on straws is a misguided way of helping the environment.)
• Jourdan Vian: Banning straws not the answer to pollution woes. La Crosse Tribune, July 21, 2018
• Starbucks Bans Plastic Straws, Winds Up Using More Plastic. Reason, July 12, 2018
• Plastic Straws Aren’t the Problem Skipping straws may be hip. But there are much better ways to fight pollution. Politics and Policy June 7, 2018

Satire

For people who want to use satire to make their point, @dfergusson wrote this brilliant Twitter thread using a fictional future ban on tampons to satire some of the political conflicts we have seen around the real world straw bans. It invites the reader to consider how straw bans take energy away from more productive means of fighting environmentalism while causing a lot of unintended harm to marginalized communities.