The Victoria and Albert Museum presents a celebration of Disabled design and a call for action.
The V&A South Kensington Design and Disability, is an exhibition that centres disability as an identity and culture through design. This exhibition showcases the radical contributions of Disabled, Deaf, and neurodivergent people to contemporary design and culture from 1940s to now. It acts as both a celebration of Disabled-led design and a call for action, affirming the importance of embedding the experiences and expertise of Disabled people in design processes.
170 objects are on display across three sections – Visibility, Tools and Living – spanning design, art, architecture, fashion, and photography. It shows how Disabled people have designed for every aspect of life through their own experience and expertise as well as trace the political and social history of design and disability. Through examples of disability-first practices showcasing the work of Disabled people and their collaborators, the exhibition demonstrates how design can be made more equitable and accessible and aim towards design justice.
Designed with access integrated into every aspect of the exhibition, Design and Disability re-thinks what an exhibition needs to be truly accessible. The exhibition includes self-regulation and resting areas as well as additional seating, it has been designed to consider Deaf Space principles, and features an array of tactile objects, BSL guides and tactile surfaces and floors, to help orient blind and low vision visitors.
Natalie Kane, Curator of Design and Disability said: “This exhibition shows how Disabled people are the experts in our own lives, and have made invaluable contributions to our designed world. Design and Disability aims to honor Disabled life as it engages with creative practice, presenting a strong culture of making that has always been central to Disabled identity. In putting this show together, it is an act of joy and resistance.”
The exhibition also explores the rich history of Disabled designers challenging ableism in the design industry, as well as the practitioners working today to ‘hack’ pre-existing design to make it more usable. Industry-leading commercial design such as the world’s first commercially made adaptive Xbox controller by Microsoft and the original prototypes of the OXO Good Grips proposed by Betsey and Sam Farber with Smart Design are on display alongside DIY objects made in the home and zines produced by digital collectives, challenging our ideas of who society might view as a ‘designer’.
The exhibition has been curated by Natalie Kane with support from Exhibition Research Assistant Reuben Liebeskind. It is accompanied by a new V&A publication available from the V&A Shop.
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