Design and Disability: large print guide

Design plays a huge part in how people experience the world. But our environments have been designed in ways that privilege certain people over others. And, historically, disability has been seen as a problem for design to ‘solve’ rather than its own valid culture and identity.

Disabled people past and present have challenged and confronted the imbalance of design in society. By exploring approaches to design developed within Disabled, Deaf and Neurodivergent communities, and listening to the lived experiences of disabled users, we can understand how innovative design can address structural inequalities and create opportunities.

Disability should never be thought of as a monolith, and every disabled person’s experience in the world is their own.

This exhibition highlights disabled individuals at the heart of design history, from yesterday, today and tomorrow. It is both a celebration and a call to action.

Some of the themes that arise in this exhibition may be upsetting.

We encourage you to engage with them on your own terms. For those who are non-disabled or less impacted, we ask that you witness and engage as an act of solidarity.

Welcome. This introductory space offers you the chance to rest, orientate yourself and consider your access needs.

Access guides are available for each section of the exhibition.

Access Audio Description and British Sign Language interpretation

How do Disabled people make themselves feel visible?

Disabled communities have harnessed the power of protest to fight for visibility and disrupt norms of representation. Design activism isat the crux of this. Through demonstrations, fashion, photography, graphic design and zine culture, disabled makers have been and are claiming spaces, and expressing themselves autonomously in ways that can’t be ignored.

Here is a selection of projects from disabled practitioners that use art and design to assert themselves and the communities they reflect.

1.01 – BSL introduction video

Please watch this introductory film to the exhibition. Here you can find out about access information, wayfinding, and the main themes of the exhibition.

Running time: approximately 2 minutes

1.02 – Do you want us here or not

Like many public spaces, museums are notorious for their inadequate seating. Do you want us here or not is an ongoing series by artist Finnegan Shannon that draws attention to inaccessibility in public spaces. This artwork invites you to rest and protest at the same time.

Please sit here!

Finnegan Shannon, 2018 – ongoing, MDO and paint, assembled in London, UK; made in 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Deborah Schamoni

1.03 – Disability Pride flag (Above)

In 2019, Ann Magill designed the first Disability Pride flag to represent her community as a symbol of cross-disability solidarity. But, when scrolled on digital devices, its original zig-zag design sparked problems for people with visually triggered disabilities. Magill collaborated with online Disabled communities on platforms like Tumblr and Reddit to re-design the flag, and in 2021 a new, more accessible version was released. It is mostly for online use and was created using Microsoft Paint, showing how anyone can make something for their community with tools they have at home.

Ann Magill in collaboration with online Disabled communities, 2021, digital object, United States of America, assembled in London, UK; made in 2025

1.04 – Posters, Pickets and Front Pages

There can be no equity in society if Disabled experiences are ignored. For decades, Disabled people have used design and art as fundamental tools for activism to raise much-needed awareness for disability justice. T-shirts have been reimagined as wearable placards, posters rally communities on and offline, and everyday signage has been subversively transformed. From radical protests that spurned pity and charity, to disabled models on the front cover of fashion magazines, although a long way to go and still hard fought, representation comes in many forms.

1.05 – 504 Font

Emily Sara designed the 504 font to honour the hugely influential ‘504 Sit-ins’, a series of protests staged across the USA in April 1977. Emily created the font by taking each letter from activists’ placards at the sit-in and repurposing them into typography. ‘504’ refers to Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which demanded greater accessibility for Disabled people. The protest was led by many notable activists, including Judy Heumann whose photograph replaces the ‘Z’ in the font’s set. The phrase here speaks to the font’s links to the community that connect and support Emily wherever she is.

Please touch this tactile print!

Emily Sara, 2023, United States of America, 3D-printed plastic, printed in London, UK; made in 2025

1.06 – ‘Black Disabled Lives Matter’ poster

Black Disabled people experience police violence at a significantly higher rate than other groups in society. In the USA, recent data has shown that Black Disabled men are nearly 55% more likely to be arrested before reaching 30. In solidarity with her Black autistic son, the neurodivergent artist Jennifer White-Johnson created this striking graphic. This poster was originally created to be distributed online, before being printed for Black Lives Matter marches in Washington, D.C. and London simultaneously. It combines an image of a raised fist, used historically to represent Black power, with an infinity symbol to signify the complexity of neurodiversity.

Jennifer White-Johnson, 2020, risograph on paper, United States of America

1.07 – ‘School to Prison Line’ poster

The ‘school-to-prison pipeline’ outlines how people from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to go to prison because of social inequalities. This poster visualises that journey as a London Underground map. It flags the even greater risk for those with special educational needs and disabilities if they are excluded from school at a young age. The poster was made by students from south London. They subversively installed them as an act of ‘brandalism’ on the Tube on GCSE results day in 2018.

Produced as part of a campaign by ‘Education not Exclusions’, a group of activists trained by the Advocacy Academy, alongside artist Matt Bonner, 2018, poster (reproduction, printed 2025), United Kingdom

1.08 – ‘The best lovers are good with their hands’ poster

This tongue-in-cheek poster combines humour, sexuality and queer undertones to grab attention and cut through the stigma around HIV/AIDS. It was part of a campaign by the British Deaf Association with the grassroots organisation AIDS Ahead, whose mission was to give equal access about sexual health-related issues to Deaf people, in part by communicating via British Sign Language (BSL). Here, the message expressed in fingerspelling is to ‘Use a condom’. Harry McAuslan, 1987, lithograph poster, United Kingdom. Given by Peter W. Jackson, Director of AIDS Ahead. Musuem number: E.530-1993

1.09 – Dysfluent magazine

Dysfluent is a project by Conor Foran that uses graphic design to represent how people who stammer speak. But, more than that, it de-stigmatises stammering, and actively takes pride in it. For his magazine, Foran developed Dysfluent Mono, a font that gives form to stammering. 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.

Editor: Conor Foran, Producer: Bart Rzeznik, Design: Take Courage, 2023, paper, United Kingdom, Conor Foran

1.10 – Translating Interpreting

Christine Sun Kim’s practice challenges the role of sound in society, using graphic forms and notations sometimes seen in music. Here Kim considers the differences between interpreting and translating American Sign Language (ASL) into English, an experience that informs the artist’s day-to-day life. Exact translation between languages is not possible, as gaps in meaning appear. This work was commissioned by The New York Times to raise the importance of visibility of ASL and Deaf creatives in public life.

Christine Sun Kim, 2021, charcoal on paper, Berlin, Germany. Courtesy of the Artist, François Ghebaly and WHITE SPACE

1.11 – Sign Chorus(Above)

These brightly coloured banners, made by the artist Moi Tran in collaboration with teachers and students at Central Deaf Services in Da Nang, Vietnam, foreground non-speaking forms of communication. An archive of expressions and personal stories, the banners act as a performance score, inviting audiences to engage and join in with the movements they depict. They are an offering as to how we might communicate and learn beyond speaking or listening.

Moi Tran in collaboration with Central Deaf Services, Vietnam, 2022, cotton and synthetic mix, appliqué Vietnam

Banner titles:

1.12 – Kev’s ‘To boldly go where all others have gone before’ t‑shirt (Above)

The Disabled People’s Direct-Action Network (DAN) is a collective which used civil disobedience to campaign for the civil rights of Disabled people. This t-shirt is one of DAN’s earliest products, and was worn by Kev, one of its members. A nod to the TV show Star Trek, the slogan calls for changes to legislation and public infrastructure that would allow for a barrier-free and inclusive society for everyone.

Disabled People’s Direct-Action Network, about 1990, cotton, United Kingdom. Courtesy of Kev Towner, disability activist

1.13 – ‘Piss on Pity’ t‑shirt (Above)

The iconic slogan ‘Piss on Pity’ emerged at the 1990 ‘Block Telethon’ protest. It was coined by organisers Alan Holdsworth and Barbara Lisicki, who together with activist Sue Elsegood formed DAN (Disabled People’s Direct-Action Network). The irreverent phrase firmly rejected the demeaning depiction of Disabled people in the media and beyond as objects of charity, rather than equals. Only 100 of these t-shirts were made for the first event, but they have gone on to inspire disability activist and art movements for years.

Please touch this tactile print!

Sue Elsegood and DAN (Disabled People’s Direct-Action Network), 1992, cotton, United Kingdom. Courtesy of NDACA / NDMAC

1.14 – ‘DPAC’ t‑shirt (Above)

DPAC stands for ‘Disabled People Against Cuts’. The organisation was formed in 2010 to oppose the damage caused by the UK government’s austerity measures on Disabled communities. Its merchandise, especially t-shirts, has become part of disabled protest history. At the centre of the DPAC logo there is a black triangle. This refers to the identification badge Disabled people and others including Roma people, unhoused people, and sex-workers, were forced to wear in Nazi concentration camps, marking them as ‘antisocial’ and ‘work-shy’.

Disabled People Against Cuts, 2010 – ongoing, cotton, United Kingdom, Linda Burnip, co-founder of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC)

1.15 – Johnny Crescendo at the ‘Block Telethon’ Protest

In 1990 and 1992, Disabled people came together to protest ITV’s 24-hour charity telethon fundraiser. The show patronised Disabled people, portraying them as helpless recipients of charity. These pivotal protests changed the direction of disabled representation in the UK. Here, the activist and singer Alan Holdsworth is shown performing under his stage name, Johnny Crescendo. He organised the protest together with comedian and activist Barbara Lisicki. Today in Britain and beyond, Disabled people are still challenging how they are understood in society.

Sue Elsegood, 1990, photograph (reproduction, printed 2025), United Kingdom

1.16 – ‘Disabled People Fight Back’ banner (Above)

This banner was created as part of the ‘Disbanners’ collaborative project between the People’s History Museum and Full Circle Arts. Banner maker Ed Hall worked with Disabled people across north-west England to design signs confronting the impact of the government’s austerity programme on disabled communities. Its visual style harks back to classic Trade Union signs and evokes disability history’s rich tradition of using banners for creative activism.

Made by Ed Hall in collaboration with Disabled communities across north-west England, 2014–15, polyester, polyester-cotton blend and cotton, paint and appliqué, United Kingdom. Supported by the People’s History Museum and Full Circle Arts

Meet the Superhuman

In this film, the performance and video artist Katherine Araniello parodies Channel 4’s TV advert Meet the Superhumans, which they made for the 2012 Paralympic Games. In her satirical version, Araniello challenges the original ad’s presentation of Disabled people as ‘inspirational’, instead showing herself smoking, eating junk food and glugging champagne. Her point is that Disabled people shouldn’t have to use ‘triumph-over-tragedy’ narratives to be visible or valued.

Please be aware this film references substance use.

Katherine Araniello, 2012, United Kingdom

Running time: approximately 4 minutes

1.18 – Gucci Beauty’s ‘Unconventional Beauty’ campaign, starring Ellie Goldstein

In 2020, Ellie Goldstein was scouted through Instagram and became the face of Gucci Beauty’s ‘Unconventional Beauty’ campaign. She was the first model with Down’s syndrome to be signed to a luxury fashion campaign. The image gained over 800,000 likes (and counting), but it was only posted on Vogue Italia’s social media. Recent figures suggest models with visible disabilities feature in less than 1% of fashion campaigns.

Photography by David PD Hyde, 2020, photograph (reproduction, printed 2025), United Kingdom

1.19 – Glamour January 2023 issue – ‘Self‑Love’

Fashion and beauty industries play a huge role in how society perceives others, and for many years they have been at fault for upholding exclusionary standards. In 2023, Glamour magazine featured three influential Disabled advocates as cover stars in their third annual ‘Self-Love’ issue: Caprice-Kwai Ambersley, a business owner and model; Ellie Darby-Prangnell, founder of Look Deeper zine; and Shelby Lynch, a fashion and beauty influencer.

Glamour ‘Self-Love’ cover featuring Caprice-Kwai Ambersley

Glamour ‘Self-Love’ cover featuring Ellie Darby-Prangnell

Glamour ‘Self-Love’ cover featuring Shelby Lynch

Photography by Aitken Jolly, 2023, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United Kingdom

1.20 – British Vogue May 2023 issue – ‘Reframing Fashion’

In a historic first for British Vogue, its May 2023 issue was made available in Braille and audio versions. The issue, called ‘Reframing Fashion’, focused on themes of disability justice, accessibility and pride. Co-produced with the consultancy firm Tilting the Lens, the issue features 19 Disabled people from across the cultural sector. It was released with five covers, each spotlighting an influential disabled individual, including activist Sinéad Burke and model Aaron Rose Phillip.

Please touch this Braille Vogue!

British Vogue Braille version, May 2023, paper, spiral bound (reproduction, printed 2024), United Kingdom. Condé Nast and the Royal National Institute for the Blind

1.21 – ‘Access is Love’ t‑shirt (Above)

In 2019, the disability activists Sandy Ho, Mia Mingus and Alice Wong created the supportive campaign ‘Access is Love’. It seeks to place value on accessibility as an act of care, seeing it as collective responsibility. This focus on solidarity is a key tenet of disability justice. Proceeds from t-shirt sales raised money for the Disability Visibility Project, Wong’s online platform that amplifies disabled narratives.

Alice Wong, Mia Mingus and Sandy Ho, 2019, cotton, United States of America

1.22 – ‘Read Sick Writers’ fourth edition t‑shirt (Above)

The ‘Read Sick Writers’ series, by designer and publisher Kaiya Waerea, is a recommended reading list of chronically ill and sick writers printed on t-shirts. First produced in 2020, it has had four iterations, each edition carrying an updated list curated by Waerea. On the reverse of the t-shirt is a list of credits for the different typefaces. The t-shirt’s design is an affectionate reference to the radical legacy of disability activist t-shirts.

Kaiya Waerea, 2023, cotton, United Kingdom

Reading list assembled by Kaiya Waerea without permission or consultation, printed by We Are Print Social, typeface: Women’s Car Repair Collective by Nat Pyper & Avara by Raphaël Bastide

1.23 – Wheelchair users protesting an advert by the Guardian

Ableism often rears up alongside other forms of discrimination, like misogyny. In 1991, the Guardian newspaper ran a billboard advert showing an image of the female warrior Britannia in a wheelchair, as a metaphor for the UK’s economic weakness. Six women wheelchair users challenged this belittling caricature and successfully forced the advert’s removal.

1991, photograph (reproduction, printed 2025), United Kingdom, Brenda Prince, Format Photographers Archive @Bishopsgate Institute

1.24 – How to Dress Well

For Disabled people, the choices to make yourself seen through your clothes can be political. The clothes and accessories you wear impact the way you move through the world. They can help eliminate stigma, support your health and access, or make an important statement asserting your place in the world. The fashion industry has long erased or neglected Disabled people, but many designers are forcing change, from the catwalk to the carnival.

1.25 – ‘Everything Opens to Touch’

Known for her commitment to immersive and inclusive environments, the fashion designer Sinéad O’Dwyer created a fully accessible experience for her 2025 Copenhagen catwalk show ‘Everything Opens to Touch’. Working with the non-profit organisation Hair & Care, Blind and low vision guests and models were welcomed, tactile swatches were given to attendees, and the catwalk show was fully audio described, including a poem by Anastasiia Federova.

Listen to the audio-described catwalk and touch the samples here!

Sinéad O’Dwyer in collaboration with the Hair & Care CIC, spring/summer 2025, Ireland and Denmark. Audio descriptions produced and created by Hair & Care CIC

Running time: approximately 8 minutes

1.26 – Kathy D. Woods Collection dress

Disappointed with the lack of interesting designer clothing in her size, in 2012 Kathy D. Woods created a collection for Little People through her online clothing company. This leopard print dress was part of her first collection, premiering at the Little People National Conference Fashion Show in Dallas, USA. As the first African American to create a fashion line for people of short stature, Woods seeks to empower women through clothing.

Kathy D. Woods, 2012, stretch jersey, United States of America. From the collection of Sinéad Burke

1.27 – Dawn Adaptive kurta and dhoti pants ensemble

The Malaysian adaptive fashion company Dawn Adaptive, founded by Usha Nair, created this upcycled ensemble for a festival of local culture in Kuala Lumpur. Recycled from bedsheet and table runner fabrics, these traditional South Asian garments include removeable layers with Velcro and poppers that ensure easier independent dressing. Dawn Adaptive were keen to highlight the combination of sustainability and accessibility in adaptive fashion.

DAWN ADAPTIVE, Malaysia’s first Adaptive Fashion Brand, 2023, upcycled bedsheets, curtains and other repurposed traditional textiles, Malaysia

1.28 – Slickchicks adaptive bra and bikini briefs

Having the option to dress independently and feel dignified and confident in what we wear should be a universal right. Slickchicks is an adaptive clothing company specialising in underwear, loungewear and activewear for people with limited mobility. Originally designed as post-partum surgery wear (the briefs have side fasteners, so you don’t have to bend), the clothing has since been embraced by Disabled communities, with many using it as a platform to discuss sex and dating.

Slickchicks, 2024, cotton and spandex, United States of America

1.29 – Unhidden Seated Wrap Trousers and Hi Lo Shirt

Unhidden was created in 2017 after its disabled founder, Victoria Jenkins, noticed a gap for stylish, easily available adaptive clothing. Their ready-to-order capsule collection has been created with a number of key features. All trousers have elasticated waistbands and side zips for easy access to equipment like stoma bags and ports. Shirts undo quickly with poppers on the front and the sleeves to allow access for medical care.

Unhidden, 2022, cotton, elastane, United Kingdom

1.30 – Maya Scarlette’s carnival costume ‘The Birth of Venus’

A vision in pastels, this costume debuted at Notting Hill Carnival in 2024. It was created and worn by Maya Scarlette, a fashion designer with ectrodactyly – a limb difference mostly affecting the fingers or toes. Scarlette was hand-stitched into the costume, a painstaking process that took hours. The look was inspired by Sandro Botticelli’s painting the Birth of Venus, depicting the goddess of love balanced on a giant seashell, cresting a wave.

Maya Scarlette, 2024, glitter spandex, Lycra, rhinestones, pearls, faux resin shells, foam, satin, artificial flowers, organza, power mesh, United Kingdom

1.31 – Customised walking stick with Disability Pride flag pattern and diamanté encrusted crutches

Mobility aids like crutches and walking sticks are used by all kinds of people. But standard issue mobility aids are designed as a one-style-fits-all, and for many they feel plain and uncomfortable. Cool Crutches, co-founded by Amelia Peckham and Clare Braddel following Peckham’s own spinal injury, create customisable walking sticks and crutches in an array of colours and sizes. Confidence, comfort and self-expression are at the centre of their design principles.

Cool Crutches, 2024, metal, plastic, United Kingdom

1.32 – Rebirth Garments dragon‑scale headdress and binder

Rebirth Garments, founded by designer and activist Sky Cubacub, aims to makes the wearer ‘radically visible’ through gender-affirming, adaptive garments. This dragon-scale headpiece acts as a wearable weighted blanket, calming the person dressed in it while asserting their presence. The binder is both functional and fashionable. Using bright colours and innovative styles, Cubacub’s designs make Disabled and queer communities hard to ignore.

Sky Cubacub, binder: 2024; headpiece: 2017 Spandex, power net, plastic, metal, United States of America, Sky Cubacub, Rebirth Garments

1.33 – Adapted wedding dress and orthopaedic shoes

Often the right fit needs a little adjustment. Janet Jones (née Powell), a competition ballroom dancer, had a leg difference that meant many of her shop-bought clothes needed to be adapted with a seamstress. Her wedding dress was tailored for her in order to sit straight against the hem. For her wedding day, Jones painted a pair of her own bespoke orthopaedic shoes white to match.

Janet Jones and unknown dressmaker, 1967, nylon, plastic, metal, United Kingdom. Given by Christine Plummer. Museum number T.24,25-2023

1.34 – Design Story – Why Marketing Matters

‘These are products designed to create access for disabled people, but the marketing often erases disability.’
– Liz Jackson and Jaipreet Virdi

For the 2021 release of the Go FlyEase trainer, which easily hinges to click on and off with the movement of a foot, Nike neglected to use any mention of the word ‘disabled’ in the marketing. The company also did not explicitly show Disabled people wearing the shoe, opting for more neutral terms like ‘hands-free’.

In contrast, Etsuo Miyoshi, the founder and salesman of SWANY, always forefronted his identity as a disabled person when marketing his innovative luggage products. Miyoshi found this strategy significantly improved sales, as well as destigmatising disability in Japan.

Nike Go Flyease

Nike, 2021, rubber, mixed fabrics, plastics, foam, designed in United States of America, made in East Asia

SWANY
2001, paper (reproduction, printed 2025) Japan

Liz Jackson and Jaipreet Virdi, Slate.com, ‘Why won’t Nike use the word Disabled to promote its new Go FlyEase Shoe?’

1.35 – ‘Functional Fashions’ brochure

In 1958, the deaf fashion designer Helen Cookman, working alongside occupational therapist Muriel Zimmerman, created the Functional Fashions clothing method, featuring a collection of pieces available for mail order. Cookman went on to collaborate with over 30 designers between 1955 and 1976, including Vera Maxwell and Bonnie Cashin, before creating the first pair of adaptive Levi’s.

1958, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United States of America. Courtesy The State Historical Society of Missouri

1.36 – Ostique Sk.ns colostomy bags

Ostique are the first company to create colostomy bag covers in a choice of colours. Previously, stoma bags (used to collect waste output from the body) only came in grey or ‘neutral’ skin tones. This lack of diverse representation demonstrated a wider problem in healthcare, with ‘nude’ only really equating to pale skin. Rethinking how ostomy products are designed and marketed as solely practical objects to be hidden away, Ostique’s bags focus on comfort, agency and confidence.

Ostique, 2023, nylon blend with polyurethane coating and plastic, United States of America

1.37 – Crocs Adaptive

The Crocs Adaptive range shows how mainstream clothing companies can engage meaningfully with adaptive design. Collaboratively created over 18 months with a focus group of Disabled people, these Crocs maintain the brand’s signature design, but with some key changes tested for accessibility and comfort, like adjustable heel straps and slip resistant soles. The ad campaign also involved and celebrated Disabled people.

Crocs, 2022, polyethylene vinyl acetate, United States of America

1.38 – MCP/CMC/IP splint ring by EvaBelle Jewelry

An alternative to traditional finger splints, splint rings still provide functional support but don’t look obviously medical. Made to order and customisable to the wearer’s personalities, these statement pieces provide customers with access, autonomy and style. This particular thumb splint became famous when shared by crocheter and yarn dyer Hailey Bailey on Instagram, who told her followers how it had enabled her to sustain her pattern design business.

Ring Splints by EvaBelle, Fabiano Cassan and Sharina Fernandez, 2012, silver, United States of America

1.39 – Deafmetal hearing aid jewellery

Jenni Ahtiainen created Deafmetal, a line of accessories for hearing aid users, after struggling with stigma when she started using hearing aids herself. She processed this change by customising her own hearing devices, transforming medical kit into stylish jewellery. Her accessories create an important opportunity for choice, allowing users to celebrate their access aid or make it more discreet.

‘Bride Coil Hat’ with golden chains, 2018, Finnish reindeer leather with silver chains plated in gold with sweetwater pearls

‘Viqueen’ with silver chains, 2024, recycled silver, patinated with sulfuric acid and fire

Jenni Ahtiainen, Finland, Deafmetal®

1.40 – Wheelchair handle grip spikes

In 2019, the activist Bronwyn Berg became so fed up with people touching her wheelchair without consent, she and her partner Hal Bennett made spikes to cover its handles. This sparked a conversation about Disabled people’s autonomy, with many people sharing similar experiences of their consent being violated. These 3D-printed spikes, available for purchase online, offer a simple but powerful way for wheelchair users to take control.

WilbursFinest, 2023, 3D-printed plastic, United States of America

1.41 – Guide Beauty – Artistry Made Easy collection

Guide Beauty creates make-up tools that can be used by a range of users, including people with limited dexterity and essential tremors. Artistry Made Easy was their first collection. These make-up tools have features like enlarged handles, finger indentations and replaceable, flexible nibs that give greater control and stability. The designs enable users to apply their make-up comfortably and confidently.

Please touch these make-up tools!

Guide Beauty, designed 2020, purchased 2025, plastic, glass, rubber, United States of America

1.42 – Self‑ Representation and Image

It can be a radical act to take control of your own image, especially to try and divorce it from set media narratives about disability. Artists have looked to photography, self-portraiture, and publishing cultures to present themselves and their communities on their own terms. Whether it is exposing the realities of life as a disabled person in all its complexity, or sharing a moment of joy, here are some of the many, deeply personal ways Disabled communities have chosen to show themselves.

1.43 – First Swim after Rebirth (On wall)

Photography can be a means to capture and process emotions that are difficult to put into words. This joyous self-portrait was taken by Marvel Harris following gender affirming surgery. As an autistic person who has dealt with issues of self-acceptance, wellbeing and gender identity, Harris uses photography to connect with the world and create their own visual language and expression.

Marvel Harris, made 2018; printed 2023, inkjet print on Canson Infinity Platine Fibre Rag 310gsm, The Netherlands, presented by Art Fund. Museum number E.1183-2023

1.44 – Narratives of dis‑ease (On wall)

British photographer Jo Spence (1934–1992) confronted her experiences with breast cancer with a wry sense of humour. This photograph was part of a wider series challenging tropes of women in society, made in collaboration with Spence’s doctor, Tim Sheard. The project led Spence to develop the practice of ‘phototherapy’ with her fellow artist and activist, Rosy Martin, which approaches personal trauma through photography.

Jo Spence, 1989, colour photograph, United Kingdom. Given by Terry Dennett and The Jo Spence Memorial Archive. Museum number: E.400-2010

1.45 – Untangling (YOU LOOK OKAY TO ME) (On wall)

Filmmaker, artist, advocate and writer Jameisha Prescod lives much of their life in an artfully curated online sphere. But in this unfiltered portrait, they ask for viewers’ compassion. Untangling is an unflinching portrayal of chronic illness and the impact of Covid-19-induced lockdowns on the artist’s mental health. Prescod, who had to self-isolate, is shown engrossed in knitting, a moment of calm amongst chaos.

Jameisha Prescod, 2021, photograph (reproduction, printed 2025), United Kingdom

1.46 – just one of those things #002 (On wall)

Artist Mari Katayama launched the High Heel Project as a space to question ‘Is fashion a luxury item? How can we give freedom of choice for everyone?’ She worked with creative collaborators to design customised high-heeled shoes for prosthetic legs (as seen in this self-portrait). The project confronts broader assumptions about what is natural or artificial, and how prosthetics wearers are often offered very limited, functional options.

Mari Katayama, 2021, C-print, Japan. Gift of the artist. Museum number PH.3386-2024

1.47 – Davina Starr (On wall)

Davina Starr is a core member of Drag Syndrome, a ‘fierce and fantastic’ collective of London-based drag performers with Down’s syndrome. Through sassy and bold performances, the troupe knock down pre-conceived ideas of disability, sexuality and gender. This photograph was taken by long-time collaborator Scallywag Fox, who has photographed the group for several years.

Scallywag Fox, 2020, photograph (reproduction, printed 2025), United Kingdom

1.48 – POWER OFF (On wall)

‘Selfies’ are a way to represent ourselves in an online world where our image can often feel out of our control. In this work, Qualeasha Wood makes intimate aspects of her digital life physical. Within a richly layered jacquard tapestry, she combines traditional craft and the look and feel of the internet in its early days. Asking what it means to have autonomy over your own image, Wood explores mental health and self-representation in relation to the Black American femme and its exposure online.

Qualeasha Wood, 2023, woven jacquard and glass beads, United States of America. Arte Collectum. Courtesy of the artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London

1.49 – Self‑representation

DIY cultures like self-publishing and podcasting are essential alternatives to mainstream media, holding a space where Disabled people can create ‘by and for’ themselves. Here, we offer a small selection of zines and podcasts that centre disability. Ranging from publications that share gossip and DIY hacks, to reimagining rest as a radical act, zines are a slower, creative way to share ideas. Please read, listen and spend some time with them, reflecting on themes of self-representation and visibility.

Listen to these podcasts!

Sick zine Issue 6, 2025, United Kingdom, Sick Zine

LookDeeper zine Issue 3, 2022, United Kingdom, Founding Editor and Creative Director: Ellie Darby-Prangnell, Deputy editor: Keely Shannon, cover shot by: Wren Brooks Cover model: Wil Eaton

Toomey J Gazette, 1959 (reproduction, printed 2025), United States of America, Toomey J Gazette

Neuro Photo Therapy, 2023, United Kingdom, Sonia Boué

Able zine Issue 1, 2018, United Kingdom, Editor-in-Chief: Claudia Rose Walder

Asylum magazine (Volume 32, No.1), Spring 2025, United Kingdom, Asylum magazine special issue on surveillance, guest edited by Stop Oxevision

The White Pube, Slow Art, September 2024, United Kingdom, The White Pube™

Say My Meme, ‘Cats, Cats, Cats’ podcast, February 2021, United States of America, Be My Eyes and Scribely

Contra*, ‘Making with Corbett O’Toole’ podcast, October 2024, United States of America, Critical Design Lab

1.50 – Still Ill: Corona Diary

In the early stages of the pandemic, illustrator Monique Jackson caught Covid-19. She was ill for over a year and felt baffled and isolated by her experiences, as Long Covid was not well understood by doctors. This visual journal of digital drawings chronicled her symptoms and experiences with healthcare providers, which she shared in real-time on Instagram. Since starting the project, Jackson has harnessed her online platform to advocate for others living with Long Covid, front-line healthcare workers and those experiencing medical racism.

Please explore by scrolling through the tablet here

Monique Jackson, 2020–22, digital images, United Kingdom

Where is disability in design?

Society has often characterised designers as creative experts and disabled people as passive users who just benefit from that knowledge. And in the past, the contributions of Disabled people have been erased from stories of design innovation. But Disabled people have always been here, inventing, breaking, adapting and subverting the designed world.

These projects consider how Disabled communities create design networks and work together collaboratively or individually to make new things. They also look to how design confronts systemic imbalances, and the many ways to shape time.

2.01 – Design Story – Why Technology isn’t Always the Solution

‘In some ways the humble white cane has proved to be unimprovable.’
– Alex Lee

For some, technology is seen as the answer to all complex real-world problems. But think about the white cane, designed in the 1920s yet still a highly effective tool for Blind and low vision users. Non-disabled designers have tried to improve it with additional elements like GPS or robotics, without talking to users to understand that extras like this can be distracting and dangerous.

In fact, the modifications that have stuck came from users, like this foldable example from the 1950s. It resulted from a simple request from a woman in 1945, who asked the National Institute for the Blind for a cane that would fit into a shopping bag.

Supplied by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, 1956–57, metal body in four sections with braided rubber tubing interior, graphite tip, elastic cord at the top for carrying, United Kingdom

Alex Lee, tech and culture writer, wellcomecollection.org

2.02 – Design Story – Why Disabled Design Works for Everyone

‘The Touchstream saved my career. I’m a software engineer and I couldn’t use a wheel mouse.’
– Steve

It’s hard to remember a time before touch screens, especially since the rise of smartphones in the 2000s. But this technology originated with Wayne Westerman, an engineer who developed a way to replace a keyboard with a touchpad, partly because of his severe hand pain. He and his FingerWorks co-founder, John Elias, created the Touchstream keyboard, which uses sensors to track movements like pinching, swiping and scrolling.

Initially marketed to people with hand disabilities, in 2005 FingerWorks sold its invention to Apple. They incorporated its multi-touch features into the iPhone 1, revolutionising the tech industry.

Wayne Westerman and John Elias, 2005, United Kingdom. Museum number CD.11-2024

Steve, previous owner of FingerWorks Touchstream

Collaboration

You need a range of perspectives to drive inclusive and innovative design. Here we explore some of the different ways collaboration can create better design, from sharing expertise through networking, to disabled and non-disabled people teaming up across design processes. These projects exemplify the activist slogan ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’, and illustrate where Disabled people have been at the core of creating tools and design processes.

2.04 – AdaptedPlayStationDualShock4 controller and Adapted Xbox 360 controller

Grant Stoner is a videogames and disability journalist. When he flagged that his Xbox 360 controller was inaccessible, his brother, Hudson, adapted it using just an ice lolly stick and hot glue so he could play. Other frustrated users and small companies have responded similarly, creating a rich community of making and hacking. This is Grant’s PS4 DualShock controller, customised for him by the company Evil Controllers.

Evil Controllers; Microsoft and Hudson Stoner, 2014; 2009, plastic, electrical tape, wooden popsicle stick, United States of America. Grant and Hudson Stoner

2.05 – Xbox Adaptive Controller

The Microsoft Adaptive Controller was the first of its kind designed to meet the needs of users with a range of physical abilities, manufactured at scale by a leading tech company. It was created in consultation with Disabled games communities, such as AbleGamers and SpecialEffect, who developed the user experience. Disabled gamers have used their own workarounds to access videogames for a long time, as common controller designs are based on limited assumptions about their users. The Adaptive Controller was designed with customisation and flexibility in mind.

Microsoft, 2018, plastic and electronic parts, United States of America. Museum number CD.39-2018

2.06 – OXO Good Grips prototypes

Creating the right design can take many hands. Betsey Farber, previously design director for OXO, found it difficult to use kitchen tools because of her arthritis. Betsey worked with her husband Sam, an industrial designer and co-founder of OXO, to suggest a new, more ergonomic grip system. After years of research and consultation (including with chefs and a New York based arthritis group), the Farbers and the design consultancy Smart Design launched an innovative range of cooking equipment with non-slip rubber grips. These prototypes show how the handles developed with user research.

Prototypes: Grip Study: Good Grips, plastic, wood, carved foam

Prototypes for a peeler and handle: Good Grips, rubber (a), metal (b); foam, plastic; Santoprene™, thermoplastic rubber (Santoprene™), ABS plastic, metal; thermoplastic rubber (Santoprene™), polypropylene, metal

Betsey Farber, Sam Farber, Patricia Moore, Smart Design (Dan Formosa, Davin Stowell), 1990, United States of America. Gift of Smart Design, Inc. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution 2011-50-6; 7; 9; 14-a.b; 15, 18, 19, 20

2.07 – Hands of X

What if a prosthetic hand could be unapologetically artificial, but in an understated way? What if you could browse a nuanced palette of materials, in a non-medicalised consultation similar to choosing a pair of glasses? Hands of X invites prosthetics wearers with a limb difference or an amputation to design collaboratively with prosthetists. Wearers are envisaged as curators of their designs, gaining more of a feeling of ownership and connection with their prothesis.

Graham Pullin, Andrew Cook, Eddie Small and Corinne Hutton, 2016–20, waxed cedar wood, dark turtle cellulose acetate, aniline lamb’s leather, cardboard, paper, United Kingdom

2.08 – 3D Occupational Therapy

The intersection of 3D printing and occupational therapy has opened up a world of possibilities in creating customised assistive devices, tailored to the specific needs of individuals. Made by occupational therapists and makers (many of them disabled people themselves), these adaptive designs can be downloaded through open-source assistive technology, tweaked, hacked, and reproduced all over the world.

Makers Making Change, 3D-printed adaptive nail polish holder, 2018, Canada

Francesca Puglisi Thumb book holder, 2018, Italy

Print Lab, Drag pen, 2024, United Kingdom

TechOWL, AAC Keyguard for tablet devices, date unknown, United States of America

2.09 – TechOWL videos (Behind)

TechOWL, based in Pennsylvania, is part of an America-wide Assistive Technology Act government programme that offers disabled people help with the tools they need to be independent. So their resources can reach as many people as possible, the team, many disabled themselves, use social media to publicise their programme and educate people on assistive technology. In these videos, TechOWL explain who assistive devices might be for and how people can access them.

TechOWL, 2023, United States of America

Running time: approximately 1 minute

2.10 – Adapt/Hack

Many aspects of the designed world do not considerately allow for or include Disabled people. So, Disabled people, either alone or with others, are creatively problem solving a world that was not designed for them. The principles of universal design, first created by disabled architect Ronald Mace in 1997, aimed to create access for as many people as possible. However, in recent years its too-broad use has lost many of its original, disability-first intentions that can benefit all. Through repurposing or subverting the designed world, hacking and creating new design possibilities, Disabled makers are pushing back on the idea that design needs to ‘fix’ disability.

Adaptive Hacks

How do you find the right accessible object for you? Providing a network of knowledge and support, Adaptive Hacks is an Instagram account run by Mary Slattery where followers collaborate to find solutions to an inaccessible world. Those with an access need make a request, and Adaptive Hacks will help source suggestions, built on tried-and-tested disabled expertise.

Mary Slattery, 2021

Running time: approximately 1 minute, 30 seconds

2.12 – Hackability Toolkit

Finding an adaptive wardrobe shouldn’t mean starting from scratch. This tool kit allows for any piece of clothing to be modified through tabs, loops and pocket hacks. The kit, which features adaptive tools like a needle threader with an ergonomic grip, was created by Open Style Lab, a disability-led non-profit organisation, during a 2019 summer research programme in New York.

Open Style Lab Board and 2019 Open Style Lab Research Fellows, 2019, plastic, fabric, metal, paper, cardboard, United States of America

2.13 – ‘Kintsugi’ shoe prototype and sketchbook

The ‘Kintsugi’ shoe was created by Open Style Lab fellows in 2024. The designer-client was Levi Waterhouse, a team member with dwarfism (specifically achondroplasia) who was usually forced to buy children’s shoes that do not have the right proportions for his feet. The name ‘Kintsugi’ references the Japanese idea of taking broken pieces and creating something stronger and more beautiful.

(Final) shoe prototype, shoe sketchbook, shoe kit

2024, Leather, Plastic, Fabric; Paper; Resin, United States of America, Open Style Lab Fellows: Levi Waterhouse, Hiral Parmar, and Laura Caron-Parker, Open Style Lab and Open Style Lab Board

2.14 – Engineering at home

When Cindy became disabled in her 70s, her life drastically changed. Everyday tasks became hugely challenging, but her clever yet simple adaptations, like attaching a wall hook to a screw-top lid of a beauty cream to open it more easily, let her return to a more normal life. Engineering at home is a research project that archives the designs made by Cindy and her collaborations with her prosthetists, which challenge and expand our ideas of engineering. These hacked prosthetics for eating ultimately became more useful to Cindy than her expensive robotic hand.

From top: Cable tie purse; eyeliner holder; wall hook pot; silicone knife holder; silicone fork holder

Engineering at Home, 2016 (reproductions 2017), plastic, silicone, United States of America, Cindy Wack Garni, Sara Hendren and Caitrin Lynch, with Greig Martino, Gary Martino, Henry Adorno (United Prosthetics). Museum number CD.4-8-2024

2.15 – Design for Disability

Product designer Jessica Ryan-Ndegwa created ‘Design for Disability’ as a collaborative approach to reconsidering access products.

It explores the unique perspective of Disabled designers, especially when creating for fellow disabled people. Ryan-Ndegwa, who lives with cerebral palsy, designed the Button-Hook Hairclip for herself as a multifunctional tool to help with buttoned clothing. The Zip-Pull Dog Tag was made for a research participant to use zips independently. It can then be folded into a wearable necklace when not in use.

Zip-Pull Dog Tag, stainless steel and magnets

Button-Hook Hairclip, modelling clay in pink with stainless steel wire, 2017, United Kingdom, Jessica Ryan-Ndegwa for Design for Disability Ltd Both products made with the support of tutors of the 3D department; designed and produced at Kingston University London

2.16 – Fidget Spinner

Although not designed for disabled people and originally considered to just be a distracting toy, the Fidget Spinner is now a popular ‘stim’ object. ‘Stimming’ or ‘self-stimulation’ is something that many neurodivergent people use to process and regulate sensory input, reduce stress and use their time to concentrate more effectively. The Fidget Spinner is just one example of how popular designs have been reappropriated by Disabled communities.

Christmas Concepts, designed 2018, purchased 2024, plastic, United Kingdom

2.17 – Design and Debility

Many disabilities around the world are brought on by economic and political factors – capitalism, wars, colonial occupation – that disable people over time and geographies. The writer and academic Jasbir Puar calls this ‘debility’, a concept which looks at the ways in which external factors can slowly disable people, for example, how someone’s race or where they live disadvantages their access to healthcare. The projects in this section acknowledge that disability rights and activism do not always include everyone.

2.18 – Gaza Sunbirds (Above)

In 2018, the competitive cyclist Alaa al-Dali was shot by an Israeli sniper in Gaza. His leg was amputated, but after months of recovery, he rechannelled his energies into co-creating the Gaza Sunbirds, a para-cycling team. Since 2023 the Sunbirds have also distributed food and aid across the region. The team’s resourcing of their kit and bike adaptations has been compromised by extreme circumstances, with their ability to enter national competitions like the Paralympics affected by relentless assaults on Gaza. Alaa’s bike is the only item he brought with him when he left Gaza.

Alaa’s bike; Alaa’s bike adaption; Gaza Sunbirds jersey

Jersey and bike stickers designed by Karim Ali; leg support designed by Alessandro Antonio Taverna, ‘Cicli Vetta’ di Padova, date unknown

Leg support: welded steel pipes and repurposed arm rest; Alaa’s Bike: Giant carbon disc wheel system, carbon fibre frame and SL-Grade composite fork, metal gears and chain, plastic brake wires, rubber handles and seat, metal spokes, Palestine, Gaza Sunbirds

2.19 – Jaipur Foot project

The Jaipur Foot project 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 costs around £80 to make and is water-resistant, sturdy, and has parts that are easy and cheap to replace. Designed to allow for squatting, sitting cross-legged, and going barefoot – all common behaviours in Indian society – skilled technicians can fit and assemble a lower limb prosthetic in a matter of days.

Photographs by Simon Way, 2014 (reproduction, printed 2025), India

2.20 – iPhone 6

Today, smartphones are essential for disabled and non-disabled people alike. iPhones have unique access features that make them almost indispensable to many disabled people, like Text-to-Speech, which reads on-screen content out loud, and VoiceOver, which gives audio descriptions. Although making attempts to reassess its supply chains, many of the materials in the iPhone, like gold, tantalum and cobalt, rely on resource extraction and labour exploitation, which disable and debilitate people on a massive scale. Technology should exist that gives accessibility and freedom without abusing others, pushing us to ask for a more equitable world.

Apple Inc., 2014, designed in United States of America, made in China

2.21 – Fingertip Pulse oximeter

Pulse oximeters test how fast your heart is beating, and the levels of oxygen in your blood. The simple device became well-used during the Covid-19 pandemic, helping with the early detection of potentially fatal respiratory conditions. But in 2021, research revealed that the light-emitting device was less accurate when used on darker skin tones, underlining the importance of awareness and investigation into racial bias in medical devices.

aCurio 2021,plastic and electronic parts, China. Museum number CD.2-2022

2.22 – Crip Time

For Disabled people, time is experienced and organised differently. This could mean the extra time it takes to travel through a city or a government system, or the hours needed to arrange medical appointments and care. When we talk about ‘crip time’, described by the feminist scholar Alison Kafer as ‘the clock bending to meet disabled bodies and minds’, we mean something flexible and, in some ways, liberating. It can be about accepting a different pace to non-disabled norms, challenging conventions of productivity, and resting in radical ways that would actually benefit society at large.

2.23 – gōlī’āṁ khā la’ī’āṁ hana? (u taken ur tablets?)

The artist Yasmeen Fathima Thantrey drew on and reclaimed her own archive of medical information to create this artwork. Made from a continuous piece of printed silk, the canopy is embellished with the artist’s unflinching medical history. This highly personal piece reflects on how time is lost, given, taken, and felt for marginalised disabled and sick people interacting with healthcare systems.

Please listen along or read using this transcript!

Yasmeen Fathima Thantrey, 2023, synthetic material, United Kingdom

Running time: 24 minutes

2.24 – Unpacking

Unpacking is a puzzle game where the player arranges the belongings of an unseen protagonist, slowly disclosing their story through intimate details. Objects like medication, hot water bottles and a cane reveal a subtle disability narrative. The game is an example of crip time in creative practice, encouraging slower, reflective play. It offers a unique approach to storytelling in videogames.

Have a go at playing!

WitchBeam, 2021, United States of America

2.25 – Visible app

Rather than targeting fitness users, the Visible app supports people with energy-limiting conditions like Long Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The app tracks the user’s activities and encourages them to pace themselves and manage their symptoms, to help them feel more in control of their illness. It is a subversive take on the usual health technology apps that come built into smartphones, inviting you to rest rather than regularly stand up and move.

Harry Leeming, 2022, United Kingdom

Running time: approximately 1 minute

2.26 – Saving Time

In 1913, the home economist Christine Frederick proposed a series of labour-saving devices that would revolutionise the home. These gadgets would make chores easier and a homemaker’s life more productive. For disabled people, objects that are often marketed as futuristic technological innovations, like meal replacement drinks or robotic vacuums, can collapse time in ways that create relief or opportunity. The Kenwood food processor was considered a space-age marvel when it debuted in 1979, but for many today, it is a simple integrated way to prepare quick, healthy meals.

The New Housekeeping, Christine Frederick, 1919, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United States of America

Robotic Vacuum Cleaner, Bagotte BG 600, 2019, plastic, metal, China

Food processor, Kenwood FP120, 2024, plastic, metal, electronics, moving parts, China

Huel, designed 2015, purchased 2025, plant-based protein ingredients, vitamins, minerals, United States of America

2.27 – Drosophila Clock y

Drosophila Clock y by Sharona Franklin is a meditation on crip time, intimacy and domesticity. Composed of a set of silver teaspoons arranged like clock hands, each spoon holds pills and is adorned with enamel images of the artist’s daily antibody syringes. The artwork is both a reflection on how medication dictates the rhythms of Franklin’s life, and an attempt to embellish a mundane, yet sustaining process.

Sharona Franklin, 2021, silver, brass, aluminium, mixed metal, expired pharmaceuticals, wood, foraged bone, antler, photographs, enamel, Belgium. Courtesy of the artist and LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina

2.28 – Deaths by Welfare timeline

The Deaths by Welfare Project documents the history of state violence against Disabled people in Britain. Where naturally progress should be made over time, it actually shows the degradation of rights through the years, and how policies have directly led to people’s deaths. This timeline highlights the systemic impact of the welfare system, and disabled activism and resistance since 1942. Using lived experience and the voices of bereaved families, it builds solidarity and advocates life-affirming systems driven by disability justice.

Please explore the Deaths by Welfare timeline, by scrolling through the tablet here.

Content warnings and various access offers are available at the start page.

Arjun Harrison Mann and Healing Justice London, 2022, United Kingdom, Deaths by Welfare Project at Healing Justice London, John Pring at Disability News Service, Access Power Visibility, and Door in the Wall Arts Access

How do we live together, and how can Disabled people thrive?

The social model of disability argues that it is the political, environmental and behavioural barriers in society that disable people, rather than someone’s disability. When designers, city planners and architects have made assumptions over who can occupy certain spaces and why, the world becomes a place to negotiate with, rather than to live in.

In this section, we explore stories of Disabled people claiming space. Through design in its many forms, Disabled people are imagining the worlds that they want, because ultimately, what good is the city if it doesn’t work for its people?

3.01 – Challenging the City

Public space should be open to all, but barriers exist across transport, attitudes and legislation. More often than not, the built environment denies independent movement, and inclusions like ramps, accessible buttons and low counters are still relatively new. For decades, Disabled people across the world have been pushing back through protest, designs and artistic interventions. Displayed here are some creative strategies that imagine and achieve new and better possibilities to unlock access.

3.02 – 504 Sit‑ins and solidarity

The 1977 ‘504 Sit-ins’ were a pivotal protest moment in the American Disability Rights movement. In San Francisco, around 120 Disabled activists occupied the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (H.E.W.) offices for 25 days, forcing the government to sign disability rights into law, including those for transport and infrastructure. Many groups came together to support this action, including the local branch of the Black Panther Party. Brad Lomax, a member of the Black Panthers and a disability rights leader, encouraged the Panthers to offer public solidarity and practical support.

‘Handicapped Win Demands – H.E.W. Occupation’

The Black Panther Party newspaper 7 May, 1977, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United States of America

Section ‘504 Sit-in’ photograph, Jim Palmer 1977, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), AP Photo/JP, United States of America

3.03 – Curb Cut Protests, Denver

Curb cuts (sloped ramps between pavements and roads) are common today, but this wasn’t always the case. In the 1970s and ’80s, protests were staged in Denver and other American cities, demanding inclusive urban design. Some demonstrators physically smashed curbs with sledgehammers to build their own ramps. These actions pushed forward disability rights, influencing the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

John Sunderland for The Denver Post, 1980, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United States of America. Photo by John Sunderland/The Denver Post via Getty Images, July 1980

3.04 – Accessible Transport Protests, Across the UK

Where the city doesn’t work for you, sometimes action is needed to force attention. Hundreds of protests were organised across the UK to highlight insufficient transport provisions for disabled people. The demonstration was part a strategy of direct action by the British Disability Rights movement across the UK. Protesters from organisations such as Disabled People‘s Direct Action Network (DAN) and The Campaign for Accessible Transport (CAT) blocked traffic and buses to rail against inaccessible infrastructure and transport.

1994, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United Kingdom, The Disabled People’s Archive, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People

3.05 – Yokohama Bus Routes Protests, Kawasaki

Today, Japan’s buses are some of the most accessible in the world. But this was made possible by protests staged by Aoi Shiba (‘Green Grass’), a group formed by people with cerebral palsy. In 1977, members of Aoi Shiba blocked buses at Kawasaki station in Yokohama by laying on the ground, to draw attention to the exclusion and poor treatment of wheelchair users on public transport. Aoi Shiba continued to negotiate with political parties for over 20 years in an attempt to improve accessibility.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper 12 April, 1977, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), Japan. Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images

3.06 – Slope: Intercept (Above)

Slope: Intercept explores the ramp as a dual tool for motion and social connection. This project by artist and engineer Sara Hendren features modular ramps designed for both wheelchair users and skateboarders in Boston and New York. She envisages the ramp as a shared creative space as well as a point of access – a machine for experimentation and a way to open up the world.

Sara Hendren, 2013 – ongoing Ply, United States of America, assembled in London, UK; made in 2025

3.07 – Anti‑Stairs Club Lounge Protest

In 2019, Finnegan Shannon staged the Anti-Stairs Club Lounge protest in response to designer Thomas Heatherwick’s 16-storey installation, Vessel. Costing $150 million, the structure in New York’s Hudson Yards comprises 2,500 interconnected steps. Shannon challenged the building’s inaccessibility, staging a protest at its base with petitions calling for a permanent Anti-Stairs Club Lounge with the same investment.

Anti-Stairs Club Lounge (Vessel) hat, petition and cushion, Finnegan Shannon, 2019, wool, paper, cotton, acrylic, United States of America. Courtesy of the artist and Deborah Schamoni

In the 1960s, the architect Selwyn Goldsmith wrote an updated version of Designing for the Disabled after visiting Norwich and speaking to disabled residents there. This architectural planning manual revolved around how the lack of access to public facilities – especially toilets – impacted disabled people the most. This remains true today, as public provisions are still inadequate. But initiatives like Changing Places, which calls for toilets to have features to meet varied access needs, and Radar Keys, offering disabled people independent access to locked public toilets, are working to improve this.

Designing for the Disabled, Selwyn Goldsmith, 1967, paper, United Kingdom

Radar Key, Disability and Rehabilitation (Radar) / Disability Rights UK and Nicholls & Clarke , 1981, metal, United Kingdom

Map showing the network of Changing Places toilets in London, PAMIS, MDUK and Changing Places Ongoing project, screenshot on paper, printed 2025, United Kingdom. For more information please visit: changing-places.org

Young V&A, changing Places toilet, paper, printed 2025, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

3.09 – Access All Areas

How do we encourage others to make access a priority? The SAD Access code was an early guide written by the Black and Asian feminist group Sisters Against Disablement advocating for venues to be more accessible and open for disabled participation. Wearable approaches like Transport for London’s ‘Please Offer Me a Seat’ badge, or the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower logo, let users voluntarily share that they have a disability that might not be obvious. However, progress in both insitutional and personal mindsets remains to be seen.

Sunflower lanyard, Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme, 2016, cotton, plastic, metal, United Kingdom

SAD Access code, Sisters Against Disablement, 1985, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), London, United Kingdom. Courtesy of Bishop’s Gate Archive

‘Please Offer Me a Seat’ badge, Transport for London, 2017, plastic, metal, United Kingdom

3.10 – Tactile Paving Slab (Above)

Navigating inaccessible urban environments requires many strategies. Inspired by Braille, in 1965 Seiichi Miyake developed the tactile paving slab or ‘Tenji brick’, allowing Blind people and those with low vision to feel for the edge of train platforms and roads. Navigational aids like this are important but can often be misused as decorative touches in urban design, confusing those who actually require them.

Seiichi Miyake, about 1965 (designed), 2016 (manufactured), polyurethane, Japan. Given by Rupert Faulkner V&A: CD.154-2016

3.11 – Mobility Device

The non-visual artist Carmen Papalia devised his performance piece, Mobility Device, with a joyful approach to accessibility that was both creative and defined by the user. Papalia replaced his white cane with Vancouver’s Carnival Band, who guided him through an improvised park walk by playing a site-reactive score. Papalia highlights the power of collaborative support to foster agency and inclusion, while reimagining access as a collective practice.

Carmen Papalia,October 2021, Kitsilano Park, Vancouver, Canada. Courtesy of the artist

Running time: 12 minutes

3.12 – Access Justice

What does it mean to have easy and equitable access to public life? Where can design begin to forge a path towards a fairer approach for those who don’t have it? Many disabled people experience multiple, simultaneous marginalisations, like racial or religious discrimination, and acknowledging where disability is only one of many factors allows us to reflect on this. In this section, design responds to elements of public life where access hasn’t been considered.

3.13 – Public S/Pacing

This bold, bright blanket and pillow offer an escape from the demands and hyper productivity of society, and an invitation to rest whenever and wherever you need. By celebrating rest, which is so often maligned by societal norms, the blanket highlights the failures of the design of public spaces to include disabled people, challenging ableist assumptions with care and visibility.

Helen Stratford with contributors and practitioners, including Rhonda Allen, Rhiannon Armstrong, Emma Bolland, Liz Crow Sarah Hopfinger, Bella Milroy, Poppy Nash, 2024

Second-hand wool base with satin edges, digitally printed twill cotton appliqué, screen printed cotton and poly-cotton appliqué, faux fur and digital embroidery, United Kingdom. Supported by Arts Council England and Bloc Projects Sheffield

Detail of blanket reverse with embroidery by Poppy Nash and quote from ‘The Radical Act of Stopping’ by Rhiannon Armstrong. Photograph courtesy of Helen Stratford

3.14 – Touching The News

It is not unusual for news articles to include infographics to communicate ideas quickly and ‘at a glance’. However, for Blind and low vision people, this can often mean they miss out as screen readers cannot translate this visual information. Lighthouse’s Media and Accessible Design Lab is an initiative that renders The New York Times infographics and other topical information as tactile graphics. Their first was The Times’ ‘Flattening the Coronavirus Curve’ graph, a life-saving graphic explaining steps to slow the spread of the virus.

Please touch the graphics!

‘Suez Canal maps: where was the Ever Given stuck and what is the main alternative route?’, 2021

‘What does Flattening the Curve look like?’, 2020, Assistant Director, Media and Accessible Design (MAD) Lab, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, San Francisco, tactile paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United States of America

3.15 – B1 Blue Flame Football

Blind football is an adaptive form of the game designed for Blind and Partially sighted players. All players (except goalkeepers) must cover their eyes to account for differences in vision, so sound is crucial. With its design originating in the late 19th century, this rattling football allows players to follow the noise it makes, find and kick it.

Pick up the football and shake it!

Handi Life Sport Probably, 2020, PU, bell, Denmark

3.16 – Deaf Rave set and Woojer Vest

DJ Troi Lee founded Deaf Rave in 2004, creating events designed for Deaf clubbers and performers. Deaf Raves are dedicated to celebrating and sharing Deaf identity and culture, and have a strong visual and sensory experience. Deaf Rave provides participants with Woojer vests, which are embedded with vibrating tactile discs, translating sound into a tangible experience. Wearers become immersed in the bass and beat of the music. This Woojer Vest is playing a set by Deaf Rave. Touch the vest to feel its vibrations.

Deaf Rave and Woojer, Woojer Vest Edge Haptic Vest and Deaf Rave t-shirt, 2020, mixed media, United States of America

3.17 – McGonagle Reader

Voting should be a universal right, yet many Blind and low vision people need assistance to do so, meaning they cannot vote with privacy and dignity. Released in some parts of the country in time for the 2024 UK General Election, the McGonagle Reader is an audio-assisted tactile voting device designed to let people vote independently. Combining an audio player with a series of ‘ringing doorbells’, it enables users to listen to and feel their way through filling out a ballot paper.

Pakflatt, 2022, plastic, metal, Derry, Northern Ireland. Museum number CD.1-2025

3.18 – Liberator Pathfinder

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a range of strategies and tools to help non-speaking people. These range from simple picture boards to sophisticated digital devices. The Liberator Pathfinder, released in 2000, was the first AAC device with an integrated touchscreen. AAC devices are essential communication systems to users, but they can be expensive, with critics calling out having to pay for the right to communicate. Awareness and understanding from the public can also be limited.

Prentke Romich Company, 2001, plastic, metal, electronics, United States of America, Centre for computing history, Cambridge: CH60468

3.19 – FaceView Mask KN95 with clear window

Wearing a mask was, and still is, one of the most effective methods of keeping ourselves and others safe from airborne viruses. But for those who rely on lipreading and sign language to communicate, masks are a significant barrier. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people responded by cutting and stitching clear windows into masks. DIY versions were an imperfect solution in the early days of the virus, but years later, clear window FaceView masks are available to keep us safe.

FaceView, 2024, polypropylene, foam, aluminium, United States of America

3.20 – You’re So Amazing

You’re So Amazing is a children’s book about Joe, a boy with one leg. Everywhere Joe goes, people call him ‘amazing’, but Joe just wants to be himself. The story challenges the idea that disabled people are automatically ‘inspirational’, illustrating how these labels can feel alienating. Instead, it shows how children and adults can be respectful and attentive to disability without singling it out as something to overcome.

James and Lucy Catchpole, 2023, paper, United Kingdom

3.21 – Easy Read Ramadan diary

Participating in prayer and ritual with your community is an important part of having faith. Ana Huna, a local Muslim community group in Greenwich, aims to make mosques and places of worship accessible for disabled children. Every year the project creates an Easy Read Ramadan booklet that lets disabled children and their families celebrate Ramadan at their own pace, using a day-by-day illustrated diary.

Ana Huna, 2023, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United Kingdom

3.22 – Proxy Protest Tool Kit

This is a DIY toolkit that helps anyone unable to attend a protest to assign a proxy on their behalf. Created by Arjun Harrison-Mann, Benjamin Redgrove and Kaiya Waerea, and a variety of collaborators including Disabled People Against Cuts, it offers a community-enabled alternative to disabled people being ostracised from protests. Onsite participants wear a harness made from easy to find items and then strap a mobile device to their bodies, so offsite participants can connect via an encrypted livestream with the access tools of their choice.

Proxy Protest Tool Kit, zine, and video by Access Power Visibility: Arjun Harrison-Mann, Benjamin Redgrove and Kaiya Waerea

2020, blue fabric sash, yellow rubber elastic bands, A5 risograph zine, printed stickers, cardboard box, United Kingdom

Running time: approximately 4 minutes

For more information please visit: proxyprotest.com

3.23 – Independent Living

Everyone wants to live how they choose, or with the ones they love. But for hundreds of years, and even now, disabled people were institutionalised and denied the chance to live independently. Claiming this fundamental right has been hard fought for, and Disabled people have led the charge for revolutionary architectural and legislative change. In this section, design expertise marries with lived experience, and we look at what it means to work, live and have fun on your own terms.

3.24 – Design Story – Why ‘Positive’ Change can Threaten Disability Rights

‘Disabled people don’t want to have to put their own care above the environment – but it seems no one is considering the impact of future legislative changes on our wellbeing.’
– Penny Pepper

Since 1 October 2020, it has been illegal to provide or sell single-use plastic straws in the UK. Although this environmentally conscious initiative is well-meaning, it has had a significant negative effect on disabled people with high support needs. It can mean people going without a drink in public, as single-use plastic straws are stronger, safer, more hygienic and more flexible than their paper, metal or reuseable counterparts. Single-use items are often indispensable for disabled users, despite their environmental impact.

Penny Pepper, writer and disability rights activist, The Guardian, 2018

Joseph B. Friedman, 1939 (patented), 2024 (this model), thermoplastic polymer polypropylene, United States of America

3.25 – Design for Independent Living

In 1969, the Berkeley-based professor Raymond Lifchez founded the first architectural design course with collaboration at its core. Students could learn directly from the experiences of disabled people, who advised on projects as clients. Lifchez and his fellow architect and lecturer, Barbara Winslow, collaborated on this book, which highlighted the role of design education in achieving access equity, and encouraged a focus on process rather than solution.

Raymond Lifchez and Barbara Winslow, 1979, paper, United States of America

3.26 – The Heart of the Home

The Heart Kitchen was a rehabilitation project for female cardiac patients, designed by the industrial engineer and home economist Lillian Gilbreth. In her work, Gilbreth applied the rationalising principles of time management to household chores. This demonstration kitchen has moveable furniture and reduced distances between surfaces built into the design, to spare exertion and allow homemakers to move efficiently and productively.

Lillian Gilbreth, 1948, paper, United States of America

3.27 – Handicapped Homemakers Project

In America in the 1950s, researchers at the University of Connecticut ran a study recording how disabled homemakers and their families adapted their homes through creative acts of engineering that remodelled existing designs. The study resulted in an educational manual, which tried to capture the replicable principles of these adaptations so they might be rolled out at scale. This proved extremely difficult however, as each individual customisation was so ingenious.

Photography by Jerauld A. Manter, 1960s, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United States of America. Courtesy of Handicapped Homemakers Project, UConn Photograph Collection, Archives and Special Collections, UConn Library

3.28 – Grove Road Housing Project

In 1976, pushed by the desire for privacy, intimacy and freedom (none of which offered by institutional care), the disabled campaigners Maggie and Ken Davis designed the Grove Road Housing Project. This was the first independent living social housing project designed by disabled people, for disabled people. It challenged the idea that people who need care should live in institutions, and enabled wheelchair users and non-disabled ‘supporters’ to cohabit.

Maggie and Ken Davis, 1976, paper (reproduction, printed 2025) Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom, RIBA Collections

3.29 – Lois Curtis and the Olmstead Act

In 1999, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Olmstead vs. L.C. that ‘unjustified segregation of persons with disabilities constitutes discrimination’. The case’s lead plaintiff, Lois Curtis (pictured here), spent most of her adult life asking to be removed from institutionalised care, and arguing for the law to change. The ability for her to live independently and with community support catalysed her artistic career.

2009, paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United States of America. ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

3.30 – Anti Bedroom Tax and Benefit Justice Federation Placard

Introduced by the UK Conservative government in 2013, the bedroom tax means people get less housing benefits to help with rent if their home is deemed ‘larger than needed’. Bedroom tax disproportionately affects disabled people, many of whom need overnight carers or cannot share a bed with their loved ones. The bedroom tax still operates today, and up to 25% of claimants’ housing benefits can be cut.

Anti Bedroom Tax and Benefit Justice Federation, 2014, paper, United Kingdom. Lent by National Museums Liverpool, Museum of Liverpool

3.31 – Eureka A4

A breakthrough in assistive computing, the Eureka A4 was the first laptop computer for Blind people and people with low vision, offering access to a rapidly developing technological landscape. Its sleek, user-friendly design included a Braille keyboard, synthesised voice output, and tools for writing, making music, and personal organisation. It was embraced by a diverse and committed community of users, from children and working professionals, to megastar musicians like Stevie Wonder.

Robotron, 1990, plastic, metal, electronics, Australia, Centre for computing history, Cambridge: CH32122

3.32 – Prejudice and Potential

These digital projects challenge the ableist and often infantilising treatment of people with Down’s syndrome by mainstream society. In 2024, CoorDown launched their advocacy campaign ‘Assume that I can’. It was inspired by a speech to the United Nations given by Marta Sodano, an Italian woman with Down’s syndrome, which skewered the prejudicial low expectations she had received her whole life. The TikTok video by Open Future Learning uses comedy to poke at assumptions, riffing on the challenges people with learning disabilities can experience on a night out.

CoorDown, 2023, Italy, CoorDown in collaboration with SMALL, New York and Indiana Production

Running time: approximately 1 minute

Open Future Learning, 2024, video, United Kingdom

Running time: approximately 2 minutes

For more information please visit: openfuturelearning.org

3.33 – All my friends are out of Spoons (after Leah Clements, Carolyn Lazard and Bella Milroy)

For people who spend most of their time in bed or housebound, connection across networks of care become essential to daily life. Jamila Prowse’s work is built from six months of exchanging voice-notes with a group of disabled artists. Their chat is about their personal relationship to Spoons Theory – a visualisation describing the need to ration mental or physical energy in spoonfuls.

Jamila Prowse, 2023, textile banner, embroidery and appliqué, based on oral histories collated as part of Spoons (After Carolyn Lazard), 2023, United Kingdom

3.34 – Squeeze Chair (chaise longue)

This chair was developed by artist Wendy Jacob with the autistic animal scientist and agriculturalist Temple Grandin, inventor of the ‘Hug Machine’. It embraces the sitter between two red mohair arms, providing comforting sensory feedback for those who appreciate deep pressure stimulation. Its luxurious form subverts conventional pared-back medical aesthetics.

Wendy Jacob with Temple Grandin, 1997, wood, mohair, polyurethane, pneumatic system with airbags, pump and hoses, United States of America. Collection of the artist

3.35 – Enby 2

The Enby (named after the acronym ‘NB’, short for ‘non-binary’) is an accessible, gender-free sex toy designed to suit all kinds of bodies. Wild Flower, the product’s designers, created the innovative vibrator for people with limited mobility, as it is fully flexible and has a hands-free grip at its base. They described it as giving people the chance to ‘write their own sexual script’, away from the prescriptiveness of more usual sex toy designs.

Wild Flower, 2021, moulded silicone body, ABS plastic shell inside, various electronic components, PCBs and a vibration motor, designed in New York, made in China, Boyajian Products LLC

3.36 – Being with Buildings

What is a disability-first perspective on the built environment, and how can we go beyond statutory compliance? In this section, we approach designing spaces from many different angles, scales and perspectives. The objects here shift from purely architectural solutions to ask what it means to build. From assessing what stops us getting into a building at all, here we go beyond walls to traverse gardens, neighbourhoods, schools and art galleries.

3.37 – Block Party: From Independent Living to Disability Communalism

Block Party was proposed in 2022 to offer a critique of urban planning, which all too often excludes Disabled people and marginalised communities. Focusing on one block in Prince Street in South Berkeley, California, itself a site of significant disability history, it offers a number of collaborative disability-first proposals. Through a creative reimagining of public and private space, it subverts codes and regulations to support ‘communal flourishing’ and enjoyable living.

Please touch the tactile model!

Irene Cheng, David Gissen, Brett Snyder, Georgina Kleege, Chip Lord, Jerrod Herman, 2022, models: plastic, paper, wood, mural: paper (reproduction, printed 2025), United States of America, Block Party

3.38 – Unlimited Cards for Inclusion

Designed to help arts organisations plan accessible events, this simple card game opens up the built environment as a place for interrogation and possibility. Choosing three cards – ‘What?’ which gives an activity, ‘Where?’ to address a typical environment, and ‘Barrier?’ to highlight specific access challenges, players can come together to find possible solutions.

Produced by Unlimited, Illustrated by Seo Hye Lee, 2018, paper, card (reproduction, printed 2025), United Kingdom

3.29 –Deaf Architecture Front and Signstrokes

As Adolfs Kristapsons and Chris Laing approached the final stage of qualifying as architects, finding agreed terms for architectural words in British Sign Language (their native language) proved a barrier. The pair worked with University College London and Frank Barnes School to create Signstrokes, a new set of BSL vocabulary for architecture terminology. Deaf Architecture Front, founded by Laing, aims to further advocate for a bridge between the Deaf community and the architectural industry. Much of their work highlights the significant gap in Deaf representation within the field.

Signstrokes GIFs, Jayden Ali (Project Coordinator), Adolfs Kristapsons (Project Lead), Chris Laing (Project Lead), Sevinc Kisacik (Consultant), Milly Wood (Consultant), Dr Kate Rowley / DCAL (Consultant), Marcos Villalba (Graphic Designer), Martin Glover (Contributor), Haworth Tompkins (Knowledge Exchange Partner), UAL / CSM (Knowledge Exchange Partner), Frank Barnes School (Knowledge Exchange Partner), 2021, United Kingdom

Running time: approximately 1 minute

Deaf Architecture Front Graphics, 2025, United Kingdom, paper on dibond, Deaf Space diagram (Illustrator) Project Lead: Chris Laing Illustration: Andrew Baillie. Courtesy of Chris Laing with illustration by Andrew Baillie

3.40 – SEALAB – School for Blind and Visually Impaired Children

Designed with sensory navigation in mind, this school uses texture across each wall, read by touch, to indicate the changing nature of a room. Students can also use sound to get around, using echoes to tell them when a corridor comes to an end. Smells from an aromatic courtyard draw students outside. Light and contrast is also considered, as pops of colour mark thresholds. The SEALAB team actively involved students and teachers from the outset, using tactile 3D prototypes to imagine the future of the school.

Please touch the tactile model and tiles!

Meeting with Students, 2018 (On wall, top)

School Entrance, 2021 (On wall, bottom), photographs by Dhrupad Shukla (reproductions, printed 2025)

Tactile Plan, 2021, (On display surface, top)

Code of Textures, 2018, (On display surface, bottom), left to right: corridor, junction, garden, courtyard, stage, outside, 3D-printed plastic, printed in London, UK; made in 2025

Gujarat, India, © SEALAB

3.41 – Horatio’s Garden London and South East

Horatio’s Garden blooms at the heart of an NHS spinal injury centre. For people with this kind of injury, rehabilitation is often a medicalised and prescriptive process. But the impact of healing in nature is increasingly being understood as a critical part of this journey. In the garden, plants like hellebores and mimosa have been thoughtfully selected to give colour and scent all year round, contrasting with the clinical indoor spaces of the wards.

From left to right: pressed flowers – hellebores (for colour); epimedium (for sound); mimosa (for scent); heuchera (for touch); parsley (for taste)

Designed by Tom Stuart-Smith, photography by Eva Nemeth, 2021 (reproduction, printed 2025)

3.42 – A Space for Joy

Solidarity comes from mutual kinship, especially when society underestimates you. In the examples across this section, the coming together of disabled-led art, design and political action creates the opportunity for change, and, perhaps more importantly, joy. For others, finding a collective where you belong can mean new creative possibilities and movements. These spaces, places and groups imagine futures in which Disabled people could thrive, if only society followed their example.

3.43 – Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution

Located close to Woodstock in upstate New York and sharing its counterculture values, Camp Jened was a summer camp for disabled teenagers in the 1970s. Affectionately nicknamed ‘Crip Camp’ by the teens, its laid-back environment offered the campers a chance to be themselves, away from their parents, their rigid medical treatments, and the stigma of society. Free to debate and confront how their societal needs were being ignored, the experience became a powder keg of disability activism, with many members, like camp counsellor Judy Heumann, going on to demand political change.

Crip Camp, Director: JimLeBrecht and Sara Bolder, 2020, United States of America. Courtesy of Netflix

Running time: approximately 12 minutes

3.44 – Benches from ‘The Clearing’, Theaterformen

These hacked benches are part of a wider project that brought together Deaf and disabled artists to disrupt assumptions about access needs. Made from converted bike-racks, they shift support from the more to less mobile members of the community, encouraging rest and conversation. ‘The Clearing’ started from concepts of Deaf Gain and Deaf Space, which promote the qualities that sign language brings to society through open seating formations.

Please sit down on the benches, but don’t climb on the plinths!

DisOrdinary Architecture, 2022, steel, wood Germany, assembled in London; made in 2025

3.45 – Pineapple Cloak / Rainbow Wolf from the series ‘Ballets Russes’

Christian Ovonlen is a member of the Intoart collective in Peckham. Intoart champion the work of learning disabled and autistic artists, designers and makers. Christian works mostly on paper, but for this series inspired by the ‘Ballets Russes’ (the renowned 19th-century avant-garde dance company founded by Serge Pavlovich Diaghilev), a different energy was needed. His bold pastel and painted designs were printed onto bright silks with acid dyes, imbuing his drawings with movement and life.

Christian Ovonlen, 2021, textile hanging, United Kingdom. Museum number T.81-2022

3.46 – Jewellery Becomes Law

This sculptural garment, created from Ntiense Eno-Amooquaye’s illustrations and kaleidoscopic printed textiles, is intended to change the shape of the wearer’s body as a performance piece. It originated through research into historic costume and avant-garde couture undertaken by the artist at the London-based collective, IntoArt, which foregrounds rigorous arts education in a supportive environment. Inspired by fantastical narratives, Ntiense sees this work as a portal of transformation, embedding it within layers of the artist’s worldbuilding. Ntiense is a member of the Intoart collective in Peckham.

Ntiense Eno-Amooquaye, 2024, printed cotton, United Kingdom, Intoart Collection

3.47 – Nodeul School for the Disabled (노들장애인야학)

The Nodeul School, a self-organised multidisciplinary school for Disabled adults, is at the centre of the disability rights movement in South Korea. Established in 1993, the school works to empower its students, who divide their time between the classroom and protesting on the streets. Much of their performance art challenges South Korea’s attitudes towards productivity and resilience, asserting the importance and visibility of disabled life in society. In 2023, Paolo Caffoni and Yon Natalie Mik visited the school and produced The Invisible Archive: Nodeul as a document and testament to the school’s philosophies.

Philosopher and Nodeul school lecturer Goh Byeong-gwon (고 병권) teaching philosophy on the street, 2008. Photo: Kim Yumi (reproduction, printed 2025)

Nodeul School work vest with the slogan ‘This is also labour’, (이것도 노동이다), 2024. Photo: Goh Byeong-gwon (reproduction, printed 2025)

The Invisible Archive: Nodeul School for the Disabled, Paolo Caffoni (English), Yon Natalie Mik (Korean), 2024

3.48 – (sound of subtitles)

In this silent work, Seo Hye Lee explores an abstract and emotional connection to captioning. As an artist who often relies on closed captions to interpret sound, here Seo Hye created a more personal interpretation of moving images, expanding the possibility of a medium traditionally used to give access. Using archival footage of pottery and craft film, all are welcome to experience the varied meanings given by each different subtitle, and find a new relationship to listening that does not rely on sound.

Please listen to the Audio Description or read using this transcript!

3.49 – Label for Missing Objects

This is an acknowledgement for all the objects that did not make it into this exhibition, but are just as important to the story of what it means to make, break, create and reinvent design as a disabled person. Many objects will be in your lives already as small, radical acts of invention. Where design has failed to meet your needs and expectations, you may have found yourself an accidental designer, but a designer no less. All of this is part of the story of making, and a chance to celebrate your own contributions alongside the objects you have seen here today. For those allies among us, it is a call to action to listen and be worthy collaborators.