This panel features papers that consider a range of topics and approaches relating to accessibility and graphic narrative: access needs of comics’ artists and audiences, disability as identity, and the framework of universal design. Universal design, a concept based in architecture and adapted for education, requires that creators begin with the assumption that users have varied access needs rather than make accommodations after the original design. This framework of minimizing assistive technology in favor of designs that accommodate all producers and users has immediate applications for what Casey Brienza and Paddy Johnson call “the cultures of comics work.” Building on scholarship that has explored comics’ representation of disability, such as that authored by Susan Squiers and José Alaniz, this panel trains its perspective on comics produced for and by people with varied access needs, including those who proudly identify as disabled. In other words, we hope to move beyond the implicit assumption that comics represent disability for abled readers, and instead center disabled people who engage in comics as creators, readers and subjects.

First, Michelle Ann Abate will question the ableist assumptions our field often makes about comics and their creators, through a careful review of Charles Schultz career creating Peanuts. Abate’s talk will move Schulz’s possession of essential tremor from the background to the forefront of consideration. For more than half of its run, Peanuts was not only drawn by an artist with an impairment, but this condition is also a highly visible aspect of his cartooning. In spite of the fact that Schulz never directly addressed ET in his newspaper strip, it appears anyway, via the presence of his wavy line. Just as importantly, the role that ET played in the production, reception, and aesthetic of Peanuts adds a new facet to the way in which disability has been presented in sequential art.

Next, Benjamin Fraser will examine one innovative comics text for its lessons in accessibility. Positioned at the intersection of disability studies and urban comics studies, this presentation explores the artistic form, content and social engagement of the tactile comic “A Boat Tour” (2017). which was developed through a collaborative process as part of the Catalan contribution to La Biennale di Venezia. Using both braille and a form of haut-relief braille-like texture, the comics sensory representation of a boat tour experience is significant on two levels: first for its contributions to a transnational disability culture and its general avoidance of the problems common in disability representation; and second for its innovations within the tactile comics form. The disabled body is not on display here, not marshaled for ableist sensation.

Last, a team of collaborators (Sousanis, Siu, Fleet & Beitiks) will share their work as the Accessible Comics Coalition. In 2021, the Accessible Comics Coalition) at San Francisco State University (a collaboration between the Longmore Institute on Disability, Comics Studies, and Program in Visual Impairments) launched two international events that brought together scholars and artists in comics and disability studies, and education to explore the intersection of comics making and nonvisual information accessibility. Makers, scholars, and accessibility experts shared their expertise and insights regarding accessible media design and fundamental questions about what makes a comic even when translated into other modalities including audio, tactile, and haptic or other emerging technologies. This presentation will showcase lessons shared by event participants (including considerations for community engagement, equity in design thinking, and seeding collaborations with key stakeholders), offer an overview of previous works of accessible comics, share the prototype comics produced for the charrette, as well as offer ongoing directions for interdisciplinary research and practice.