Disability
Resources:
Film by Christine Sun Kim
‘Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from Touring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee’ by Khairani Barokka
Terms of Reference Journal from Shades of Noir (SoN) The Disability Calendar.
How could you apply the resources to your own teaching practice?
I have had a couple of students with hearing difficulties on the course, as it is a Sound Arts course they are often interested in the subject through their own experience. Many students have experienced sonic phenomena or difficulties with hearing that are considered part of auraldiversity. I have referred to Christine Sun Kim’s work in classes as an example of a deaf sound artist, and her contributions to the sound arts canon in terms of representation of disabled sound artists, as well as making such sensitive work that allows students to explore the themes of disability as part of the art form rather than as only an accessibility issue for others to access their work. It’s important for us to present work by disabled artists as part of the experience of learning about the art form, rather than a separation, as this will just increase division between abled and disabled artists. I often cite Gaeylan Lea, an artist I toured with as an example of ocular bias. When I was speaking with the promoter, they told me they could only get a wheelchair ramp for the audience, but not one for an artist to access the stage. There was nowhere in the UK that would supply this. We see the need for access to the art, but less often do we see that we need access to the artists with disabilities, and therefore they need access to the arena the art form takes place in. Without this, our experience is diminished, and our references limited to abled artists.
The miscomprehension detailed in ‘Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies’ is a major stumbling block, as how can we deliver sessions that are inclusive of things we have never experienced? Creating an openness to learning where we, as the Lecturer, are also learning and allowing for this discussion to evolve with student’s input and also the references that are constantly growing is key to developing this inclusivity over time. I’ve found the Drake charity to be a really useful resource as they follow the social mobility model and develop current theoretical and practical research.
I would like to create more awareness within the department for the days in the disability calendar, however it is clear from looking through it that the disability calendar overlooks many forms of disability. Overall, the more general days, such as mental health awareness, are the most inclusive as they are umbrella terms. Getting into the specificity of certain days for specific illnesses and conditions could cause those who have lesser recognised disabilities to feel overlooked.
How could you integrate the research/work your students do on this subject into your teaching/professional practice?
I could expand on what I’m already doing when discussing the links between auraldiversity and neurodiversity to allow for more discussion on how we apply our own positionality and bias to our perception of difference. I’ve included work by students on neurodiversity as examples of good practice, such as an audio paper on neurodiversity, a dissertation on auraldiversity, a disability and accessibility focussed interactive fabric synth project. I include specific session on disability representation, but now I wonder if these separate sessions create a distinction for students in learning to form their own distinctions around protected characteristics, or would it be better to have these included piecemeal into all sessions so they are distributed throughout a unit instead of a focus for a specific session? Showing past work by students seems to be a great way to encourage students to approach themes around disability in their work that allows for the art form itself to be used as a platform to develop more knowledge and understanding. My aim to keep this cycle growing over time, so that more and more work can be developed along these lines. Developing methodologies to create work that encompass representation, inclusivity and accessibility for people who are disable will eventually impact on the existing Sound Arts Canon. We need more staff who have disabilities to ensure representation, and we need to invite more Visiting Practitioners who are disabled, so that we can discuss lived experience more, and allow disabled students to see themselves working in this art form. For this we need to create safe supported spaces for disabled staff and students, as a fundamental part of creating work, as well as referencing work by disabled artists.
3 responses to “Inclusive Practice Blog Task 1”
A really interesting read Ingrid. I’m listening to Gaelynn Lea as I write, so thank you for introducing this music as a reference. I find it unbelievable, but also very believable that music venues across the UK are doing so little to support artists with disabilities, or nothing at all by the sounds of it. I imagine that this is a massive drain on resources for artists like Gaelynn, who may (or may not) require additional support to access venues/set up equipment, and as a musician myself I understand all these services cost money, which is there a severe lack of in supporting artists as I’m sure you’re acutely aware, even more so those with disabilities.
I think your point regarding days in the disability/neurodiversity calendar is a good one in that, I see a lot of activity coming through in my UAL inbox regarding these days, but I’m unsure how much they are factored into actual curriculum teaching – and absolutely there has to be consideration to all marginalised groups. I think this is definitely best covered with a piecemeal practice, as I think this course has been structured – with ideas surrounding EDI and social justice have been interwoven throughout the course, rather than one unit that can be ‘completed’ as such – I think this would potentially benefit students and staff in developing habitual revisiting of these issues and practices, so perhaps that is a better approach than celebrating particular groups on particular days.
A really engaging post, I learnt a lot, thank you.
You made a really interesting point Ingrid about there being access for disabled people to view art and creative experiences as a bystander, an observer – but not enough being done to create spaces that are inclusive and accessible for disabled people to be the artist; or rather able to showcase their work as artists. I hadn’t really thought of it this way before and reflecting on it I can see the similarities within my practice of fashion. We’ve had multiple students who have created clothing for consumers with disabilities, whether this is wheelchair users, people with dexterity issues – but they are more often than not able-bodied students.
As it currently stands the studying environment for the course I teach on hasn’t made the space for students who are living these experiences to have a voice in the fashion space. There is no lift in the building so a barrier to access is immediate as soon as you come through the door; I’m hoping the move to Stratford for LCF will start to see a change in this. This will also hopefully open up the opportunity being able to get in more disabled staff and visiting practitioners as you mention later in the post.
Thanks for sharing Ingrid, your post has really given me some food for thought!
You made a really interesting point Ingrid about there being access for disabled people to view art and creative experiences as a bystander, an observer – but not enough being done to create spaces that are inclusive and accessible for disabled people to be the artist; or rather able to showcase their work as artists. I hadn’t really thought of it this way before and reflecting on it I can see the similarities within my practice of fashion. We’ve had multiple students who have created clothing for consumers with disabilities, whether this is wheelchair users, people with dexterity issues – but they are more often than not able-bodied students. As it currently stands the studying environment for the course I teach on hasn’t made the space for students who are living these experiences to have a voice in the fashion space. There is no lift in the building so a barrier to access is immediate as soon as you come through the door; I’m hoping the move to Stratford for LCF will start to see a change in this. This will also hopefully open up the opportunity being able to get in more disabled staff and visiting practitioners as you mention later in the post.
Thanks for sharing Ingrid, your post has really given me some food for thought!