Through these resources, I have a new perspective on disability and experiences of disability. And the activism that disabled people are engaged with. What also struck me was the invisibility of a disability, how we overlook disability by visually assessing and judging people’s bodies and physical ableness. In SoN’s, Disabled People publication especially “There are many types of disabilities, such as those affect a person’s Vision, Hearing, Thinking, Learning, Movement, Mental health, Remembering, Communicating and Social relationships”. I also found the models interesting, Charity Models or tragedy, depicting disabled people as victims. And the older Religion and Moral models, depict disability as punishment by god for a sin. I hope we are beyond this, especially in Britain.
Blahovec’s interview with a black female disabled activist Vilissa Thompson was very interesting. Thompson highlighted the lack of representation of black disabled women, she successfully did this through the hashtags #DisabilityTooWhite. This found traction on Twitter and beyond. Thompson outlines, “We see people of colour being excluded from organizations when there’s a lack of diversity on the boards of disability advocacy and other service organizations. We need to pay more attention to how the world really works outside of white privilege, able-bodied privilege, or a combination of both”.
Disability is not a barrier to learning and creativity, the two artists Okka and Kim demonstrate creative art practices. Disability identity can be central to one’s practice or not. Artist Okka’s experience of chronic pain in her body during her performance and production of her solo poetry shows is unimaginable by others. She explains “Pain hides in plain sight. This assumption, that what another feels they perceive confirms absolutely: you are not in pain, is not unfamiliar to anyone who lives with chronic pain and lives the exact opposite truth. Yet the shock of distance, of misunderstandings from human beings so close to our bodies, to the truth, as we inhabit it in our bodies, can be something else entirely”. In the film of artist Kim, her deafness becomes her art and art making, she is reclaiming sound as she explains, growing up she never thought of sound as her property she thought it always belonged to others. By empowering herself with sound as material for art she explains “I wanted to use sound as a vehicle to connect with and reach a larger audience”. Kim had further challenges with communication and language with her parents, as they struggle to learn sign language and communicate with Kim, and the confusion with grammar from two languages. Kim felt ‘choked’, ‘frustrated’ and ‘boxed’ in. In my professional practice, I work with students often with invisible disabilities and no students of visual disability. My experience is with working with students with learning, thinking, mental health and anxiety disability.
At UAL Disability services pages, I thought it was well presented, under Disability and Dyslexia. prospective and current students can access support through ‘What to Expect’, ‘Allowances’, ‘Dyslexia screening and assessment’. And specialist mentoring, software, equipment and support.
Reading
Christine Sun Kim (2023) Vimeo. Available at: https://vimeo.com/31083172 (Accessed: May 4, 2023).
University of the Arts London. (2023) Disability and dyslexia, UAL. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia (Accessed: May 4, 2023).
Blahovec, S. (2016) “Confronting the Whitewashing Of Disability: Interview with #DisabilityTooWhite Creator Vilissa Thompson,” Huffpost, 28 June. Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/confronting-the-whitewash_b_10574994?guccounter=1 (Accessed: May 4, 2023).
Barokka (Okka), K. (2017) “Deaf-accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from touring Eve and Mary are Having Coffee while chronically ill,” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 22(3), pp. 387–392. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2017.1324778.
Shades of Noir, Disabled People: The Voice of Many. (2020) article, ‘Evolution of Disability Models: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’ https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people
I thought the models were really interesting too. When we first started looking at disability and inclusive practices in our team we did the ‘Core practices’ training with the disability team, which is excellent. They introduced us to the Social Model of Disability, which we have fully taken on. I thought it was quite a radical notion of disability and certainly I hadn’t come across it before. However, I can see it’s actually quite old and there are some criticisms of it. I’m interest to find out more about the nuances of this and what the ‘New radical model’ brings to the table.
Asuf, I too have been thinking the (in)visibility of disability particularly in regards to our students. In particular, I’ve been thinking about the things I can do better in my own teaching practice, such as providing written materials that I will be using in class ahead of time, but also trying to not be too tough on myself when I am unable to live up to those standards (ie, when I suddenly need to make a change to the day’s lesson plans). And like you, I was inspired by the example artists who have turned their disabilities into art making practices that help the world to see, hear, feel, think otherwise.
I also find Christine Sun Kim’s work really empowering. It is easy to say think outside the box, but hard to put it into actions. Seeing her breaking her ‘boxed’ situation is really inspiring.