Response to the UAL Disability Service Webpage
The UAL Disability Service Webpage is a key resource for students and as well as staff. It presents the different types of supports that are available to disabled students at UAL. In my teaching practice, this resource is signposted to each student during the first tutorial. Even when it looks like they have no visible or apparent disabilities, it is important for students and staff to know where they get help and get screened. Sometimes, students may not be aware that they have ADHD or dyslexia. In the past year, I had a student who presented a certain type of behavior in class that did not look like a disability. After further communications with colleagues who also identified the same behavior, it was identified that the student had Pseudobulbar affect (PBA).
Response to the film by Christine Sun Kim
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that :’a disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restriction.’(CDC.gov, 2020)
In the film, we see a deaf female artist who can capture sound and create different artistic interpretations or experiences with it so that she can hear through vibrations. The reason why I included the definition of disability is that this film made me question the definition of the word disability itself. What we see is someone who is able to interpret sound through art in a way that not many able bodied people can do. It shows that disability is not always a limitation but an avenue to experience life through other senses. In our teaching practice, more could be done to encourage students to explore creativity through more than one sense or create interpretation of arts through different lenses. How could an image be interpreted through sound for example? I will definitely encourage my students to explore their senses more and utilize as many as possible in their creative process.
Response to #DisabilityTooWhite article/interview
The article opens a discussion regarding the perception of disability and lack of representation of disabled people of color. The creator of the hashtag #DisabilityTooWhite indicated that the tag was created incidentally. However, the power of social media, especially Twitter, helped in raising awareness around the lack of diversity and inclusivity of disabled people of color in the media and bringing the disabled community together. I found it interesting to learn that within the minority groups that are not disabled, there’s is still a lack of understanding and inclusion of the disabled people of color. This highlighted or emphasized the stigma within the African American and African communities who generally avoid conversations related to disability and mental health. If representation really matters, we, as a society must strive to represent our society as it is, not just part of it as it suits some groups. Do we applaud the intention of the media to be inclusive and show some form of representation or raise our voices so that space is given to real disabled actors to make them feel heard and included. Whenever there is controversy, people listen but why is it that for important conversations to happen, there needs to be some form of controversy? What happens to the conversation after the controversy or momentum around the issue looses traction? As part of their progression, my students have to create a product or service and build a business around it. Moving forward, students could be encouraged to use that opportunity and address pressing issues in the Fashion industry, be more inclusive and diverse in their choice of customer for example; moving from the stereotypical white male or female able-bodied profile.
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers Disease Control and Prevention, 2020. Disability and Health Overview. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/disability.html#:~:text=A%20disability%20is%20any%20condition,around%20them%20(participation%20restrictions) Accessed on 19/05/2023
4 responses to “Blog Task 1: Disability”
Thanks for your interesting post Genevieve. It’s interesting that you’ve put the disability definition in there and I agree, it looks like a rather out-dated and limited point of view doesn’t it. Perhaps it’s a problem with the word itself. Great to hear you are going to encourage your students to explore their senses more broadly – do you think you might use the video?
Also, I’m interested that you’re going to get your students to think about diverse body types in their business proposition. I wonder how you will set this up and how you think they’ll respond?
Thanks for your comment Amy. Yes, the video would be a great support to help student better understand this viewpoint. I will definitely use it. Concerning the body types, in their range plans for example, they have the tendency to always use standard body shapes to display their clothing items. I will encourage them to be more diverse. Also when they create a customer profile, there has never been a mention of a non-able bodied type. Could they target a minority type of customer? Could they design clothes for a person in a wheel chair for example? There is so much they could do outside of what is considered a standard body type, I am sure this will broaden their mind and push them to be even more creative. I am hoping so at least 🙂
Thanks Genevieve for your post, I also share the same thought about disabled people may be able to do more than able-bodied people. The ‘dis’ of the word ‘disabled’ infuses the word with negativity and pessimism, and that limits our view to see beyond their ‘disability’. I was amazed by how other senses of a disabled person are enhanced to almost a supernatural standard, like a blind person can hear things in 5x speed.
Thanks for your comment Fung Yan. That’s also what I find amazing. It makes you wonder if actually, we are limited when having all 5 senses enabled? It is truly fascinating.