Molonglo

Doing Disability Differently introduces new thought on the interconnectivity between disability and architecture. Arguing that the design of built space should begin with disability, as opposed to ending with disability compliance, author Jos Boys imagines the possibility of an architectural avant-garde that centres on designing with difference. Ultimately, the book suggests that rethinking disability is a vital means to reimagine how we design spaces underpinned by our rich bio- and neuro-diversity.

 

 

The first critical history of the Universal Design (UD) movement, Aimi Hamraie’s Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability, draws together scientific, social and political archival material, pairing it with critical theory to show how the Universal Design movement was not just concerned with the design of products and spaces but was and is an activist movement that has altered discourses around disability and access in a broader societal sense.

 

A study of the objects that furnish our environment and the spaces we occupy, Sara Hendren’s What Can a Body Do? How We Meet the Built World critiques the normative assumptions that govern the design of our built world. Drawing on stories of diverse lived experiences, the book begins with parts of the body, moving outward to explore the spaces we inhabit; first a chair, then a room, then to the street. Here is an audio excerpt of the book.

 

A collection of essays by writer and disability activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice is a powerful call for cooperative action in the movement to end disability injustice. Through collective care and radical love Leah discusses how QTBIPOC communities can rally together to build power and incite change. Weaving together lived experiences, critique and revolutionary thought, Leah outlines the road to liberation; one built on passion, community and care.

 

By exploring ideas of embodied beauty and imperfection in modern art, Tobin Siebers’s Disability Aesthetics rethinks the place of disability in the evolution of modern art and aesthetics. Through considering artworks by both non-disabled and disabled artists, Tobin suggests ways of engaging with non-normative bodies as creative generators of an alternative aesthetics.

 

In The Question of Access Tanya Titchkosky critiques the assumption that disability is merely a problem to be “fixed”. Rather than starting from conventional methods of access and inclusion based on signs, ramps and accessible toilets, Tanya investigates the underlying social meanings about who belongs where and when. Using the example of access in the contemporary university, the book investigates how policy and everyday practices intersect to reproduce “normal” ideas about space and its occupation, rather than seeing “access” as just a starting point for how disability can be rethought.

 

Beginning in the early 20th century, Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design charts the history of disability-led design, woven together with stories of innovation and activism. Design historian Bess Williamson considers key political and social moments in particular places, such as the aftermath of World War II and the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, to illustrate a long history of resistance in the fight for an accessibly-designed material world.

 

A rich collection of writings from more than 40 different disabled contributors, exploring how they negotiate their lives – the first book of its kind in Australia.

 

A prominent figure in Britain’s early Disability Rights Movement, Paul Hunt was an activist, writer and spokesperson who, through his liberation movement writing, explored disabled peoples place in society and the barriers imposed on them. Paul’s work is a reminder of how recently disabled people were removed from society and isolated in institutions; how they campaigned for independent living and other human rights; and the eloquence and often humour to be found in disabled people’s writing and campaigning.

 

A disability activist, writer and founder of the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS), Vic Finkelstein was an early advocate for the Social Model of Disability which he demonstrates through his 1975 essay, “To Deny or Not to Deny Disability”. A short allegorical story, Vic imagines a utopian village inhabited entirely by wheelchair users, democratically managed and fully functioning.  By flipping norms, so that an environment is designed to fit disabled people but does not work well for the non-disabled, the story shows how it is the shape of a society that is “disabling” not particular bodies. The story ends with a new emergent group of “able-bodied disabled”, banding together to campaign for their minority interests.

 

In this talk, disability rights activist, comedian and journalist Stella Young critiques the ways disabled people are perceived through society’s lens as objects of inspiration; exceptionalised by their disability so that even the most ordinary actions by disabled people are viewed as “extraordinary”. These societal modes of thought have been further perpetuated by social media, leading to what Young refers to as “inspiration porn”; images of disability with inspiring captions intended to make non-disabled people feel good about themselves.

 

In this video – part of a film titled Examined Life (2008), directed by Astra Taylor – philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler and disability activist Sunaura Taylor take a walk together, exploring how societal attitudes and built spaces are based on a socially constructed model of the “normal” body.

 

A bohemian camp for teenagers with disabilities, Camp Jened defied the conventional treatment facing disabled people in the 1960s. Influenced by the growing hippie culture, the camp became a freewheeling utopia by the early 1970s, a social and unstructured environment free of stigma – in sharp contrast to the isolation and discrimination disabled people typically faced. Future activists such as Judith Heumann and James LeBrecht met through the camp, with the film evolving into the story of the disability rights movement in America.

 

Edited by Alice Wong, Disability Visibility follows in a long tradition of disabled people offering diverse perspectives and narratives about the complexities of their experiences. The anthology brings together essays, blog posts, poems and eulogies, to highlight different concerns and passions, and to document the richness of current disability culture. It thus invites readers to question their own assumptions and understandings. See also the Disability Visibility podcast series.

 

In this chapter, Margaret Price first critiques the idea of inclusivity, and then suggests alternative ways of thinking about disability and built space, particularly through the idea of crip spacetime; showing how this is a way of understanding space as a social process. Via some case study research in university spaces, Margaret proposes new directions for architectural approaches to inclusivity.

 

“From Steep Steps” develops some of disability studies scholar, Jay Dolmage’s, access “metaphors” by exploring them in relation to what he calls changing spatial logics of capitalism. Jay, who like many other researchers in this field comes from a background in rhetoric and language studies, suggests how such metaphorical tools can help readers analyse built spaces from a disability rights perspective.

 

A practical guide in “doing disability differently”, The DisOrdinary Architecture Project’s guide offers seven steps to realise and better understand everyday attitudes toward disability, challenge ableist practices and explore disability differences as a catalyst for generating creative design ideas. The seven steps, or ‘assumed problems’ are a set of common misperceptions about disability that are present in both design and society. Aimed at non-disabled people, each “problem” is met with a reinterpretation of the problem based on a better understanding of disability biases, and finished with positive changes that can be actioned.

 

Liz Jackson is the founder of self-advocacy organisation the Disabled List and the WITH fellowship, which inserts disabled people into design consultancies to better integrate disabled perspectives into the design process. In this lecture, Liz critiques the assumptions non-disabled people often have about disabled people – as either to be pitied or seen as symbols of inspiration. Instead, Liz calls for the “radical act” of mutuality; “in lieu of gratitude, we ask questions.”

 

Aimi Hamraie, Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, & Society and American Studies at Vanderbilt University, and author of Building Access: Universal Design, discusses Critical Access Studies, “an emerging field that explores the common-sense ideologies underlying accessible design, including a more inclusive world for everyone”. In this lecture, Hamraie moves us away from accessibility as “de facto good” and asks us to explore how histories of race, class and gender have formed the figure of the disabled user in public space. Critical Access Studies explores ways in which accessibility must go beyond ADA compliance by asking: “Who do we imagine as disabled? Who benefits from accessibility? How do disability and race relate in the context of spatial environments?.” See also Aimi Hamriae’s Contra* Podcasts. 

 

In this podcast Manisha Amin, the CEO at The Centre for Inclusive Design discusses the importance of inclusive leadership within the workplace, identifying some of the specific traits and behaviours of inclusive leadership and offering practical advice for people looking to practice inclusive leadership within their work. Amin draws on the social model for disability and suggests that organisations need to adapt to accommodate the diverse ways in which people work as opposed to trying to fit employees into current organisational frameworks.

 

Sara Hendren is an artist, design researcher, and academic who makes material and digital artworks, informed by inclusive design. In this talk she explores how adaptive and assistive technologies can be creatively and provocatively improved through socially-engaged design practices.

 

In “Building a Normal World” Alastair Somerville, explores the “oddness of Normal”, looking at the ways in which Neurotypical (NT) people perceive and act in their self-built world. Using UX design, neuroscience and the perceptual loop as examples of NT acts of oddness, Alastair indicates how these biased notions of “normal” thinking and fixed NT perceptions have permeated design practices impacting our products and built environments. In recognising Neurodivergent perceptions and NT biases we can start designing inclusively.

 

“Constructing Normalcy” charts the history and social construction of “normal”, a term which entered our language in the 1840s and rose to popularity during mass industrialisation. Lennard J. Davis, Professor of disability studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, explores how concepts of normalcy, the bell curve and eugenics intercept and looks at how deviating from our world of societal norms is an act of rebellion. Lennard uses widespread cultural examples to demonstrate how normalcy has permeated all aspects of our society.

 

Here, Leopold Lambert considers Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s question – what can a body do? – put forward in part three of his renowned work, Ethics. As Spinoza famously asserted, “no one yet has determined what the body can do”, for Spinoza, the body could not be defined by predetermined categorisation but by its relation to, and involvement in, the built environment. Leopold explores these ideas through examples in fashion and architecture that challenge the notion of the standardised body and design, from the Spinozist approach of setting aside preconceived notions of the body’s capabilities.

 

A key figure in feminist disability issues, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson puts forward the term “misfit” in this 2011 article to highlight the ways the disabled body challenges presupposed normalcy through its societally defined “abnormal” attributes. “An account of a dynamic encounter between flesh and world”, the article offers the idea of a misfit to further explore the lived experience of disability in relation to outer surroundings.

 

Here, social justice advocate, writer and educator Mia Mingus delivers the keynote speech at the 2018 Disability and Intersectionality Summit. Mia begins by expressing the importance of spaces, such as the summit, in which disabled people can share their lived experiences and connect with others who understand the intersectionality between topics such as beauty, race, white supremacy and colonisation. Speaking of her early feelings of isolation as a disabled child in a white able-bodied world, Mia emphasises the importance of practising transformative love within the disabled community, in the fight against abled supremacy.

 

 

An exploration into the theory and practice of design justice, in which marginalised and underrepresented communities challenge structural inequalities through design, Sasha Costanza-Chock’s book indicates how universal design practices exclude the intersectionally-disadvantaged. Using examples of community-led social design movements, Design Justice advocates for “collective liberation and ecological survival”.

 

In this paper Helen Meekosha explores the problems for thinking about disability when ideas are dominated by experiences in the global North. For Helen, a focus on disability pride and celebration is in stark contrast to the realities in the global South of impairment created through war, environmental degradation and appalling work conditions, underpinned by histories of colonisation that have been both disabling and devastating for Indigenous inhabitants. She ends by exploring what a southern theory of disability might be like.

 

In this paper Nirmala Erevelles, Professor of Social and Cultural Studies in Education at The University of Alabama, highlights the challenges within disability studies theory. Speaking of her own experiences as a non-disabled woman of colour and scholar in the field, Erevelles, explores “how disability studies is disruptive of any boundaries that claim to police distinctions between disabled/non-disabled subject positions”. Working at the intersections of race, class and gender, Erevelles suggests a relational analysis of the materiality of disability.

 

A comprehensive introduction to the disability justice framework by disability rights advocate group, Sins Invalid, Skin, Tooth, and Bone, presents a clear and accessible outline of the movement alongside tools for self-organising, such as mobilising against police violence and access advice for public events. The second addition of the primer, it covers concepts of ableism, autism and deaf culture, alongside analysis and history of the expanding movement.

 

In this excerpt from Exile and Pride. Disability, Queerness and Liberation, Eli Clare uses the mountain as a metaphor for the struggles of marginalised people; those unable to reach the top in their wheelchairs, those that have the wrong accents or hold their bodies the wrong way. This metaphoric mountain – where the privileged live and benefit from society’s discriminatory structure – is unclimbable for the marginalised and Eli concludes by accepting the mountain remains unreachable whilst yearning for a society free of ableism.

 

“Beasts of Burden” by author and activist, Sunaura Taylor, argues the interconnectivity between disability and animal justice. A mix of philosophy, memoir and science, Sunaura encourages thought into the dividing factors between human and animal; disabled and non-disabled, inviting us to break down these differences and “to claim the animal and the vulnerable in ourselves”.

 

Bringing together the fields of disability studies and environmental studies, Sarah Jaquette Ray and Jay Sibara chart the history of the intersectional fields from the seventeenth century to the present day, drawing on key documents to examine issues such as eco-sickness and ableism. The reader considers under-explored areas of thought such “the ways in which toxic environments engender chronic illness and disability or how environmental illnesses disrupt dominant paradigms for scrutinising “disability”.

 

In Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect, Mel Y. Chen brings together the concept of animacy and disability theory. Using the term animacy, which refers to “the grammatical effects of the sentience or liveness of nouns”, Chen explores the “animacy hierarchy” within our society which begins with white able-bodied at the top and inanimate stuffs at the bottom, and in doing so considers the relation between bodies of varying animacy status. Read the introduction here.

 

A neurodivergent artist, writer and consultant, Sonia Boué’s work is concerned with objects, identity and location, often using family archives and memories to inform her work, including those from her Anglo-Spanish heritage. As a consultant, Sonia works alongside arts organisations to advise on best neuro-inclusive practice, a level of expertise achieved through a combination of lived experience and professional training. In addition to this, Sonia is a mentor to neurodivergent creatives and allies, establishing WEBworks in 2017, a network and support group for ND artists. Sonia is one of the contributors to the Three Bodies film.

 

Caroline Bowditch is a Glasgow-based performance artist, choreographer, educator and consultant. Her oeuvre includes the show Falling in Love with Frida, which explores Frida Kahlo’s lived experience with disability – which is rarely remembered – drawing on parallels between the two artists’ lives. Caroline has consulted internationally on the topics of accessibility and inclusivity for the likes of Skånes Dansteater, Sweden and a range of organisations in Australia, including: Access2Arts, Arts Access and the Australia Council for the Arts.

 

A choreographer, dancer and artistic director, Marc Brew’s work draws on the unique physicality of both disabled and non-disabled bodies. Founder of the Marc Brew Company, his choreography and artistic direction challenges dancers to question the limitations of their bodies, exploring new ways to move and redefine expectations of the physical. Based in Glasgow, Marc’s performances have toured globally, and prior to founding the Marc Brew Company, he worked at the Australian Ballet Company and Infinity Dance Theatre in New York, amongst many others.

 

Working across film, audio, text and performance, Roaring Girl Productions (RGP) is a creative media company driven by activism and the lack of disabled representation in the media. Founded in 1999 by artist and activist Liz Crow, and based in Bristol, UK, RGP tells marginalised and misrepresented stories that are both contemporary and historical. These portrayals of disability aim to encourage audience reflection and inspire change, whilst creating media that disabled people can relate to.

 

Artist Noëmi Lakmaier’s work explores notions of the “Other”. Working predominantly with her own body and the bodies of others she creates site-responsive pieces, installations and live performances. She is interested in perceptions of the self in contemporary society, exploring surroundings and identity. Usually long in duration, her performances encourage the viewer or “voyeur” to question their participation as the observer.

 

A theatre designer, collaborator and consultant, Gaelle Mellis has been working in arts and culture, internationally, for over 30 years. Through her work, Gaelle incites conversation around disability; conversations which are intended to realise change and advance disability-led art. Alongside her work as an independent designer and consultant, Gaelle is the Disability Screen Strategy Executive at the South Australian Film Corporation and Chair of disability-led Outlandish Arts.

 

An author, artist, activist, performer and filmmaker, Dolly’s work has been exhibited and performed internationally. Her words expand the discourse around disability; her humorous and disruptive writing has garnered an international following. Dolly’s art – much of which is performance-led – has taken her to California’s Death Row and up a tree in Regents Park, alongside venues such as The Young Vic, the Royal Festival Hall and various international sites. Dolly is also the founder of Section 136, named after the police power which allows the removal of mentally disordered persons without a warrant; the project questions the concept of madness “using art, love, rage and sheep”.

 

Jess Thom is a comedian, theatre-maker and co-founder of Touretteshero, her alter-ago and a playful and subversive project which reclaims Tourettes Syndrome through humour and creativity. The project takes a principally online presence, with excerpts of the blog turned into a book, Welcome to the Biscuit Land (2012). Jess takes to the stage both independently and through the Touretteshero alias – her 2014 production Backstage in Biscuit Land was widely celebrated, winning the Total Theatre Award; and her performance of Not I by Samuel Beckett demonstrating how to produce a fully integrated and inclusive show. You can view a short overview here.

 

A designer, maker and researcher, Natasha Trotman’s practice centres around neurodiversity and expanding the knowledge of mental differences. Her work focuses on reimagining mainstream views of equality in relation to these – often marginalised – mental differences, working with neurodivergent groups, including those with dementia, dyspraxia and autism to best understand and disrupt mainstream notions of disability. Her work is translated as sensory experiences, interactions, workshops and exhibitions, with clients including: The Wellcome Collection, The London Design Biennale, The V&A, The National Gallery, Tate Britain.

 

A multi-disciplinary artist principally working across performance and video, Aaron Williamson’s work is centred around his experience of becoming deaf and the warped mainstream attitudes surrounding the disability. With a humorous sensibility, Aaron brings to light issues of disability access and exclusion, in a career spanning 15 years. His oeuvre consists of over 300 performances, videos, installations and publications which have been shown internationally at venues such as the Tate Modern and exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale.

 

Founded by Chun-shan Sandie Yi, Crip Couture takes the form of wearable art which addresses the Crip experience. The pieces rethink conventional prosthetics and orthotics which aim to achieve a standardised body and through Crip Couture a new genre, disability fashion, is created. The objects draw directly from the individual medical, physical and mental experiences, providing not a physical aid but a bodily adornment and objects which spark conversation about identity, disability and ethics between wearer and viewer.

 

Jax Jacki Brown (they/them) is a disability and LGBTIQA+ rights activist, writer, and educator. Jax works as senior advisor in disability for a large health organisation as well as running their own business in LGBTIQA+ disability rights and inclusion where they provide guest speaking, education, workshops and training.