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Hope, Joy, and a Joy Plan

Ever since the disastrous 2024 US presidential election I’ve been thinking about hope and joy. But not the happy, smiling, confident, elation kind.

If you know me or read my writings, you know I am generally an optimistic, hopeful person. Helen Keller’s quote that “nothing can be accomplished without hope and confidence” is a staple in my talks and is cited in my book.

Yet you also know I find nothing to be optimistic, hopeful, or happy about in the election outcome. I’m still afraid of Project 2025’s hurtful impact on disabled people, immigrants, the environment, healthcare, LGBTQIA people, democracy, DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) and more. I’m still grieving Kamala Harris’ loss.

Yet I’m also still looking for joy. And even the possibility of hope.

I’m looking for a joy rooted in community that doesn’t lose sight of goodness despite what’s swirling around. A joy that is a state of mind, an intentional decision to find and recognize hope in unexpected places, even in times like these. A strategy for navigating the next four years.

My thoughts that joy could be a legitimate post-election response crystalized and were strenghtened after I read a wonderful post on LinkedIn by University of Pennsylvania professor Desmond Patton. Among other things Professor Patton is a sociologist, an AI ethicist, and the Founding Faculty Director of the SAFElab and Penn Center for Inclusive Innovation and Technology. He was also in the 2023 inaugural class of the Obama Foundation’s Leaders USA program.

Professor Patton’s mid-November 2024 post was about the “Journey to Joy” class he teaches at U.Penn (lucky students!). In it, he talks about encouraging his students (and all of us) to develop a Joy Plan.

“Joy,” Professor Patton writes, “is one of the few things you do have control over. It’s yours to shape, to nurture, to call on when you need it.”

With his permission Professor Patton’s post is shared in full below. You can also read it on LinkedIn here.)

I love his encouragement that we each design our own joy plan. And his idea that

Joy not just about feeling good; it’s about creating a world where justice and healing are at the core of joy.”

It got me thinking: What is my Joy Plan? And what might be the elements of a Joy Plan that could benefit the digital accessibility community?

I define the digital accessibility community as one comprised of disabled and non-disabled people working to create a disability-inclusive digital world around the globe. A community of people working in many different roles in the public, private, and non-profit (NGO) worlds. A community, especially in the U.S., that is rightfully feeling threatened and fearful of what the next four years might bring.

A community where, from my perspective, hope and optimism have long been essential.

Neil Marcus was a disability culture-changer and a disabled playwright, actor, dancer, story-teller, and more. In his wonderful book, I, Spastic: The Autobiography of Neil Marcus, he writes about his strategy for hope in hard times.

Marcus died in 2022 but his words about something that gave him “a feeling of hope” seem written for my post-election mood:

These days, whenever hope shows up at my door, I immediately fit him out in armor from head to toe, to prepare him for a single combat with disappointment. Call it iron-clad hope.Neil Marcus, I Spastic p. 356

This teaches me that I’m going to have to work harder for hope. To protect it where I find it so it can be part of my Joy Plan.

My thoughts for my person and professional joy plan are below. I welcome learning about yours. (Lainey’s Contact Page here)

The LFLegal Digital Accessibility Joy Plan

Reading Professor Desmond Patton’s post below about designing a Joy Plan reminds us that joy can be “communal, individual, familial, and everything in between.” My Digital Accessibility Joy Plan is many of these things.

I’ve never been very good at work/life boundaries. I’ve worked for myself in an upstairs bedroom (in collaboration with many many others) for almost thirty years. My plan is designed for both the personal and accessibility sides of myself. But you’ll notice overlap because my life doesn’t neatly separate into those divisions.

It is also a plan in flux. A plan I expect to change over the course of the coming years, as I gain ideas from others, and discover how the next four years unfold at the national level in the United States.

Digital accessibility elements of my #JoyPlan

• Always remember that digital accessibility is a global community, even as it has become an industry. I’ve been lucky to be part of that community for many years. I know first hand that it offers support and connection whatever your role because it has offered that to me as a lawyer.

  Find members of the accessibility community on social media, at conferences, in your workplace. Contribute to the community’s growth, share its vibrancy. Remember accessibility is not just a western phenomenon. Find connections with the overlapping global accessibility and disability communities around the world. I am especially interesting in growing my network in the global south, including India, Africa, and South America. US accessibility work gets done there without, in my view, enough acknowledgment or opportunities for advancement of accessibility workers.

• Never forget the “why” of digital accessibility which I briefly describe as disability inclusion in all things tech. The “why” is how I begin most of my talks, no matter the experience of the audience. The “why” reminds us that accessibility is the bridge that connects disabled people to all of today’s technology. And that accessibility is the door that opens the digital world to inclusion. These values will hold long after the current US political and democratic crisis passes.
• Remember that accessibility is a civil and human right of people with disabilities. It is not a checklist or a set of guidelines (tho those might be helpful). Our work impacts over one billion people around the world and must be seen as an ethical imperative. Whatever our role we are contributing to an inclusive digital world.
• Appreciate and celebrate small steps. This has long been one of my mantras and a cornerstone of the success of Structured Negotiation for the past 25+ years. Good things in accessibility happen every day. Celebrate them and the people who make them possible.
• Embrace uncertainty. This was the theme of my post-election webinar on the U.S. Digital Accessibility Legal Framework. While I have offered this free webinar through the generosity of 3Play Media for many years, this year was different. In addition to talking about laws, regulations, and implementation strategies, successes, and challenges, I shared my thoughts on what the republican administration might mean for the legal side of disability inclusion in the digital space. You can watch the recording, read the transcript, and download the slides here.
• Don’t obey in advance. The first “lesson” in Yale University professor Timothy Snyder’s 2017 book “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” is titled “Do not obey in advance:”
  

  Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.

  As with embracing uncertainty, this aspect of the Joy Plan boils down to “don’t jump to (negative) conclusions.” The legal foundation for digital accessibility is deep and strong as we enter 2025. It is a foundation rooted in both federal and state laws and decades of advocacy, court rulings, and government actions.

  In the coming years some federal government positions may change, and are even likely to change. Yet we don’t know how, what, or when. Until the law changes, it has not changed. (And remember — if parts of the federal landscape changes, the digital accessibility legal foundation in the states will not, and may even expand. The European Accessibility Act and individual accessibility laws of EU member States are scheduled to go into effect this year and impact US-based organizations doing business in the EU. Of course accessibility laws outside the United States are unaffected by what happens here.

  As I and others have said many (many) times – the law is just one reason to design, build, and maintain tech that disabled people can use as creators and consumers. Not the only reason, not even the most important. Even as a lawyer my Joy Plan insists on remembering this and using it as a basis for my advocacy.

• Keep learning. For me, both accessibility and joy need care and attention and constant learning. Especially in the age of Artificial Intelligence, I want to stay current with what is happening in accessibility. And with oceans of content, I want to learn with discernment, careful to investigate who I’m learning from.

  Check out the LinkedIn Accessibility Book Group as a way to learn in community. And shout out to the Inclusive Design 24 (ID24) conference that every year offers 24 hours of free online digital accessibility goodness.

What else should be on the digital accessibility side of my 2025 Joy Plan? What’s on yours?

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Personal elements of my #JoyPlan

• More novels. This is already working to keep me away from doom scrolling and news reading, listening and watching.
• More music. WUMB Boston and Folk Alley are the soundtracks to my life and I will continue to support these non-profit no-ad offerings.

  I also have a plan underway with a colleague to gather songs useful for digital accessibility concepts (this could go either in the personal or digital accessibility aspects of my Joy Plan.) Obvious example? The 2009 Web Accessibility WCAG theme song by David McDonald! This collection will be similar to my Accessibility is Delicious article that is chock full of food analogies for accessibility. Stay tuned and please send me any songs we should include.

• More lunch in the yard (without the phone). Less phone generally.
• More cooking of random things. Yesterday I made hummus from dried beans for the first time. Almost too easy to call it cooking.
• More family and friend time.
• More time in nature. Started this part of the plan with a hike about an hour from my house on January 2d where the image of a river with banks of lush vegetation accompanying this text was taken.
• More time out of the country. This is another place where personal and professional overlap as much as I can make it happen. In 2024 I added speaking at the Paris Web Conference to a trip to France. In 2023 I was in London and Ireland for Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) week after vacation. That year I also combined the wonderful Barrier Break Inclusive India: Digital First event with my first visit to India (that also included a wedding!).

  Remembering that I am part of a global accessibility community, being with that community, and expanding global connections and friendships, definitely brings me joy. I’m hoping for more of the same going forward.

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Professor Desmond Patton’s post on designing a Joy Plan

Here is Professor Desmond Patton’s LinkedIn post about Joy Plans that prompted me to write this article. Thank you Professor Patton!

I teach a course on the “Journey to Joy” at University of Pennsylvania, where we use science, personal experience, and observation to understand joy from diverse perspectives. We believe joy can be leveraged for better research, practice, and policy. Since the election, we’ve talked a lot about developing joy plans to navigate the next few years.

I wanted to share a few things we’ve discussed, hoping it helps you in creating your own joy plan:

Joy is in the mundane and everything. It doesn’t have to be Instagram-worthy—though it can be. It’s in the small moments, the unnoticed details, and the everyday that often go unappreciated.

Joy can be both public and private. It’s not just for big moments in front of the world; it’s also for quiet, intimate spaces with yourself or loved ones.

Joy grows from pain, trauma, and grief. It isn’t always separate from hardship. In fact, joy often shifts, morphs, and strengthens as it grows from those deeper, harder places.

Joy is communal, individual, familial, and everything in between. It’s not one-size-fits-all. It can be shared or something you hold just for yourself.

Joy can—and should—be a vehicle for transformational justice. It’s not just about feeling good; it’s about creating a world where justice and healing are at the core of joy.

Joy helps you know when you’re ready for action and advocacy—and when you need to step back for some rest. It’s knowing when to show up for the fight, and when to sip your tea, belly-laugh, or indulge in that luxurious bath.

Joy is one of the few things you do have control over. It’s yours to shape, to nurture, to call on when you need it.

I hope these thoughts help you as you design your own joy plan. Joy isn’t just an end goal—it’s a practice, and it’s something we can all choose, cultivate, and carry with us.Desmond Patton, November 2024 LinkedIn post