Blog Task 1 – Disability

**I have decided to update my first post since watching the seminar. I’ve kept my old post at the end.**

Film by Christine Sun Kim

As a mostly able-bodied person, this film has made me aware of perspectives I have never considered before. “While growing up I constantly questioned the ownership of sound. People who have access to sound naturally own it and have a say in it.” My taking for granted that I can hear makes marginalised groups feel I am owning something that they do not have access to. This opens up my eyes to ensuring that I should be aware of the needs of various groups of people and educate myself further. My positionality as a teacher means that I have power in a classroom and can facilitate the dynamics to create a more inclusive atmosphere. I currently have not encountered any students that have declared they are D/deaf but this video may be a good resource in getting them to question ableism assumptions in their designs. 

I’ve recently been diagnosed with premature hearing loss myself so I am starting to understand in a small way what it is like to not be able to access what is easily accessed by others. 

UAL Disability Service Webpage

I’m sure I’ve come across this page during my training but didn’t have the pause to really consider the implications of students suffering from disabilities. This task behooved me to ask the course leader how many people have disabilities on our course and what the implications are. As a lecturer, this information was not shared with me but we actually had 4 disabled students. Now that I have signposted that the staff should be aware of this kind of information, he has made a note of letting the wider staff know during the past assessment. 

The discussion of neurodiversity is definitely becoming a more prominent discussion. “According to Google Trends, awareness of such disabilities has increased in recent years, with the term neurodiversity gaining interest rapidly since 2018.” (Scott 2022) In design there is a growing awareness to catering to the needs of those who don’t fit into conventional society. “We are witnessing a more empowering shift, one that takes into consideration the genuine qualities and lived experiences of neurodiverse consumers.” (Scott 2022) We have many students who draw from marginalised experiences in their Final Major Project, we can also encourage our students to design considering marginalised perspectives. In branding, Wolff Olins is already working with people with dyslexia and ADHD. 

#DisabilityTooWhite article/interview with Vilissa Thompson

This article shines a light on the intersectional group of being black and disabled and what it feels like to be underrepresented in the media. I am understanding that even as a disabled person, one can feel even less privileged in addition through colour of their skin. This has made me consider my use of images in my lectures. Though I make an effort to ensure that I am decolonising my material as much as I can, I also need to be considering intersectionality and making sure there’s inclusive representation. Our student projects tend towards ableist points of view, so we need to encourage them to consider diversity as well in their design thinking and as well outputs. 

‘Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from Touring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee’ by Khairani Barokka

I had to look up what “spoonies” meant. This article was a real eye-opener not only on the invisible disabilities that people, especially young intersection people suffer with, but also on the pressures of these groups to feel they need to represent their demographic in a white and ableist society. Despite the pain, Barokka felt that because she’s “a ‘model minority’… the only Indonesian artist at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that year, let alone the only Indonesian, disabled woman artist.” As a Chinese-American, I can relate to that notion. As a lecturer in UAL, I often feel that I am not only representing myself, I am also representing Asians and females. I am beginning to realise the psychological pressure this may have on oneself. 

‘Dyslexic not Dumb’ Shades of Noir (SoN)

This article highlighted the needs of an intersectional Dyslexic staff member who is also a student and outcomes of them speaking up. With 3 Dyslexic students currently in our cohort it was very useful to find out that open plan studios make it difficult for people with dyslexia to concentrate. As many modern buildings tend to be designed as open plan, it is good to be aware that this may not be so ideal and serve our students. I myself have found it difficult to hear because it does get very noisy. With the university returning to being onsite, this will be a consideration to raise with my course leader. Many of students grapple with subjects dealing with marginalised narratives. Though it may not be specifically on these conditions, we can use these sources to help them design for a diverse group of people. Compassionate Pedagogy teaches us to foster a sense of belonging for the students as a basic human need rooted in feelings (Baumeister and Leary, 1995).

Bibliography

Barokka, 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. doi: 10.1080/13569783.2017.1324778

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497

Scott, S. (2022). ‘Divergent Design.’ LSN:Global. Available at: https://www-lsnglobal-com.arts.idm.oclc.org/design-directions/article/28327/divergent-design (Accessed 20 Jul 2022)

Shades of Noir (2017) ‘Mental Health & Creative Healing.’ Available at: http://shadesofnoir.org.uk/mental-health-creative-healing/ (Accessed: 4 May 2022). 

The Selby (2012). Christine Sun Kim. [Online video]. Available from: https://vimeo.com/31083172 (Accessed: 4 May 2022).

Thompson, V. (2016) ‘Confronting the Whitewashing Of Disability: Interview with #DisabilityTooWhite Creator Vilissa Thompson’. Interviewed by Blahovec, S. Huff Post. 28th June. Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/confronting-the-whitewash_b_10574994?guccounter=1 (Accessed 4 May 2022).

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Disability is something I’ve been thinking more about lately but don’t know much about so I’m glad this subject has become part of the curriculum and is signposting UAL’s Disability Services. The multi-medium and diversity in races represented in the readings has widen my perspective and allowed me to emphathise more with various conditions and intersectionality. This discussion has provoked my reflection on my positionality and privilege as an able-bodied person.

I had only realised that one of my student’s had dyslexia through assessing his submission and since then have been wondering how to best way that I could support him. This task behooved me to ask my CL what the policy was on students with disabilities. Since this information is only disclosed to the CLs, I have requested to be made aware of who is on ISA and how I could also help support them. Khairani Barokka’s article and Christine Sun Kim’s video has highlighted the various forms of invisible disabilities and their struggles as well as the thoughts from their world.

I myself have recently been diagnosed with mild/moderate hearing loss and because of Covid have yet to be fitted for hearing aids. I have a hard time hearing the students in a classroom setting due to the acoustics of the room. Happening to come across PG Cert colleague Toby Cai’s blog post on his Disability Services Adventure, he inspired me to share my own disability as a way to start discussing it. It made me realise that I need to understand what I need before I can understand what others might need. Therefore I’ve emailed Disability Services to undergo the experience myself and I started reading up on Compassionate Pedagogy which fosters a sense of belonging for the students as a basic human need rooted in feelings (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). The SoN extended activity helped highlight that “signing praises about having a diversity student body means nothing if all students are being assessed in a one size fits all manner.”

Bibliography

Barokka, 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. doi: 10.1080/13569783.2017.1324778

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497

Shades of Noir (2017) ‘Mental Health & Creative Healing.’ Available at: http://shadesofnoir.org.uk/mental-health-creative-healing/ (Accessed: 4 May 2022).​

The Selby (2012). Christine Sun Kim. [Online video]. Available from: https://vimeo.com/31083172 (Accessed: 4 May 2022).

Thompson, V. (2016) ‘Confronting the Whitewashing Of Disability: Interview with #DisabilityTooWhite Creator Vilissa Thompson’. Interviewed by Blahovec, S. Huff Post. 28^th June. Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/confronting-the-whitewash_b_10574994?guccounter=1 (Accessed 4 May 2022).