LONDON.- V&A South Kensington opened Design and Disability, an exhibition that centres disability as an identity and culture through design. This exhibition showcases the radical contributions of Disabled, Deaf, and neurodivergent people to contemporary design and culture from 1940s to now. It acts as both a celebration of Disabled-led design and a call for action, affirming the importance of embedding the experiences and expertise of Disabled people in design processes.
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170 objects are on display across three sections – Visibility, Tools and Living – spanning design, art, architecture, fashion, and photography. It shows how Disabled people have designed for every aspect of life through their own experience and expertise as well as trace the political and social history of design and disability. Through examples of disability-first practices showcasing the work of Disabled people and their collaborators, the exhibition demonstrates how design can be made more equitable and accessible and aim towards design justice.
Designed with access integrated into every aspect of the exhibition, Design and Disability re-thinks what an exhibition needs to be truly accessible. The exhibition includes self-regulation and resting areas as well as additional seating, it has been designed to consider Deaf Space principles, and features an array of tactile objects, BSL guides and tactile surfaces and floors, to help orient blind and low vision visitors.
Natalie Kane, Curator of Design and Disability said: “This exhibition shows how Disabled people are the experts in our own lives, and have made invaluable contributions to our designed world. Design and Disability aims to honor Disabled life as it engages with creative practice, presenting a strong culture of making that has always been central to Disabled identity. In putting this show together, it is an act of joy and resistance.”
The exhibition also explores the rich history of Disabled designers challenging ableism in the design industry, as well as the practitioners working today to ‘hack’ pre-existing design to make it more usable. Industry-leading commercial design such as the world’s first commercially made adaptive Xbox controller by Microsoft and the original prototypes of the OXO Good Grips proposed by Betsey and Sam Farber with Smart Design are on display alongside DIY objects made in the home and zines produced by digital collectives, challenging our ideas of who society might view as a ‘designer’.
Design and Disability begins with a welcome and rest space for visitors to orient themselves and address any access needs. A tactile map, audio description and BSL welcome will be available to visitors, as well as both large print, sensory map and plain English guides.
The exhibition’s first section, Visibility, explores how Disabled makers visualise and express their own identities across fashion, photography, demonstrations, graphic design and zine culture. Highlights include the hyper visual ensemble by designer and activist Sky Cubacub, including their gender-affirming, adaptive garment Rebirth Garments Binder, which matches the Dragon Scale Head Dress that functions as a wearable weighted blanket; a handsewn Notting Hill Carnival Costume, inspired by Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus by Maya Scarlette, a fashion designer with ectrodactyly. Portrait photography in this section includes Marvel Harris’ ‘First Swim after Rebirth’, a joyous self-portrait taken following gender-affirming surgery. Harris is an autistic person who has dealt with issues of self-acceptance, well-being and gender identity, and their work celebrates Disabled joy. Also on display is a portrait by Scallywag Fox of performer Davina Starr, a member of Drag Syndrome Collective, the world's first drag troop featuring drag Queens and Kings with Down's Syndrome.
On display are examples of how disability has been represented in editorial and media, including the May 23’ issue of British Vogue Reframing Fashion, the disability justice special, featuring Sinéad Burke, accessibility advocate and CEO of Tilting the Lens and Aaron Rose Phillip Antiguan American model, artist and media personality, as well as examples of adaptive wear from global brands including Adaptive Crocs (2022) and the Nike Adaptive Trainer (2021).
Finally, the power of grassroot and digital communities is celebrated through the display of graphic design and typography including zines such as Able Zine, a zine which aims to increase representation for Disabled and chronically ill creatives and Bed Zine, which is an exploration of the complicated feelings Disabled people have about the beds. Another example of editorial representation of disability is Dysfluent Magazine, which uses graphic and font design by Conor Foran to represent how people who stammer speak, de-stigmatizing stammering, and actively taking pride in it. Derived from the word ‘dysfluency', meaning a disruption in the flow of speech, the typeface repeats or stretches letterforms, giving stammering its own visual identity.
The second section, Tools, explores the creativity of Disabled people in adapting and subverting designed objects to suit a greater diversity of access needs. This section challenges the way society views Disabled people as passive users of design, instead focusing on their inventing, breaking, adapting and ‘hacking’ the designed world for themselves. Projects in this section consider how Disabled communities create design networks and work together collaboratively or individually to make new things.
On display are the Touchstream keyboard by Wayne Westerman and Fingerworks (2005), a technology which revolutionised the tech industry and was later used in the iPhone 1. Designed to help with his severe hand pain, the touchpad replaces a traditional keyboard, utilizing sensors to track movements like pinching, swiping and scrolling. Other examples of tools include the adaptive Xbox controller by Microsoft, the first of its kind designed and manufactured at large-scale, and a landmark moment in videogame play, as well as a selection of hacked prosthetics including silicone cutlery holders and eyeliner holders used at home by Cindy Garni. Simple, clever, and ultimately more useful to Cindy than her expensive robotic hand, the prosthetics have challenged and expanded our ideas of engineering and have been studied and chronicled by design engineering team Engineering at Home.
This section also looks at the relationship between design and disability across the world. On display are the photographs taken by Simon Way, which document Jaipur Foot, who makes free prosthetic legs, feet and arms for millions of people across India, many of whom became Disabled because of landmines, war, illnesses like polio, or railway accidents. Each rubber-based prosthetic is specifically designed for normal movement, allowing for squatting, sitting cross-legged and going barefoot, and are made at a low cost with parts that are easy and cheap to replace.
Finally, it shows examples of how designers have created complex, layered narratives to illustrate their worlds. The Still Ill: Corona Diary recorded Monique Jackson’s experiences of Long Covid and medical injustice, the project was hand-drawn and published over a series of months on Instagram. Also, Unpacking by Witch Beam a videogame that uncovers a story of queerness and chronic illness as you play.
The final section Living explores how Disabled people have imagined the worlds that they want to live in through design, how they have affected change in the environment around them through protest, and finally how they can thrive in society today. It explores how Disabled people have advocated for access and design through artistic interventions and solidarity movements such as the Anti-Stairs Club by Finnegan Shannon and Camp Jened, a summer camp for Disabled people in New York that became crucial to the disability rights movement.
Highlight objects in this section include the McGonagle Reader, an audio-assisted voting device to help Blind and low vision people to vote independently, which was released in some parts of the country in time for the 2024 UK General Election. Also on display is ‘Public S/Pacing’ Public S/Pacing by Helen Stratford, a rest blanket for use in public spaces, which celebrates rest and highlights the failures of the design of public spaces to include Disabled people, challenging ableist assumptions with care and visibility.
The Squeeze Chaise Longue, a red recliner developed by artist Wendy Jacob, is also displayed in this section. The chair embraces the sitter between two red mohair arms, providing comforting sensory feedback for those who appreciate deep pressure stimulation. Wendy was inspired to create the work with autistic animal scientist and agriculturalist Temple Grandin, inventor of the 'Hug Machine' on the design. The luxurious form of the chaise longue subverts conventional pared-back medical aesthetics.
The finale of this section is a specially designed decompression zone, for self-regulation, reflection, and rest. The area includes comfortable seats, a collection of objects designed by occupational therapists - many of them Disabled themselves - to adapt existing designs, books and objects, as well as an installation by artist Seo Hye Lee [sound of subtitles] which uses creative, emotive subtitling to reimagine archival film.
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