Design and Disability: Changing Perspectives and Opportunities

Design and Disability: Changing Perspectives and Opportunities

A history of the relationship between design and disability must acknowledge the significant ways in which design has contributed to the disabling of individuals and communities. Examples of design ingenuity and DIY innovation have always existed, but it was the twentieth century before disability began to enter mainstream design discourse. These early debates via the work of Victor Papanek, have since been challenged through critiques of universal design (Guffey, 2023) and critical access studies scholars.

Through the lens of crip theory (McRuer, 2006) initial insights from the social model of disability, including critiques of ableism and the systemic barriers of inaccessibility, have been extended to critique the logic of assimilation and highlight the intersectional nature of disability. Crip technoscience posits an alternative model of expertise, recognising that “disabled people are [...] designers of everyday life” (Hamraie and Fritsch, 2019:2).

This panel explores the changing nature of how design and designers engage with debates on disability. In doing so we hope to navigate these interdisciplinary intersections where the influence of areas such as critical disability studies, cripistemologies, and crip technoscience converge with design in opening up new spaces for practice, action, and reflection.

We welcome a range of potential topics, including but not limited to:

• Shifting approaches to access-making
• Positionality of the designer
• Material cultures of disability
• Disability design exhibitions
• Crip activism as design practice
• Role of technology in assistive practices
• Histories of crip adhocism
• Methodological insights in and outwith design
• Cripistemologies and design