CRITICAL DISABILITY
“Critical Disability Theory in Design requires a reckoning by designers of the role they have played in propagating disability cultures and exclusions. It asks how design can disband the notion of the normal body by allowing for multiple types of use, by prioritizing disability as an agent of design, not just a design afterthought.”
— Wid Bibliography 2nd Ed.
Vaughn, Alexa. “DeafScape: Applying DeafSpace to Landscape.” Ground Up Journal, no. Issue 07: Consequence (2018). [project]
Building off of Gallaudet University’s DeafSpace Design Guidelines, this project seeks to apply Deafspace to the scale of landscape architecture and urban design, advocating for specific spatial elements that compose truly accessible public spaces. In the Urban Deafscape, the absence of sound creates an increased need for visual and tactile elements in the streetscape that go beyond simple ADA guidelines. These elements manifest in the form of textured transitions, wider pathways, and greater transparency, allowing increased spatial understanding and freedom of movement for deaf individuals while contributing to greater public safety and awareness for all.
“To the Deaf community, the landscape is a rich sensory experience; in the absence of sound, the visual, tactile, and even the olfactory senses are amplified.”
Vox. How Architecture Changes for the Deaf, 2016. [video]
In this video, Derrick Behm of Gallaudet University illustrates the principles of DeafSpace: an initiative that approaches architecture and design through the lens of how Deaf individuals perceive and inhabit our built environments. While group spaces and spacious walkways allow individuals the space to see each other clearly while signing, design principles such as visual range, color and light, reflection, and transparency allow for increased visibility. Behm illustrates the importance of designing visual cues and heavily visible environments, which are key to successful communication and greater accessibility.
“Very often, people refer to "hearing loss" which negatively frames the whole approach from the outset. Instead, we propose a different framing: that of "Deaf gain”. What is it that we gain by the experience of being or becoming Deaf?”
Diaz, Clarisa. “Infographic: How Much Of The NYC Subway Is Accessible?” Gothamist, March 5, 2020. [infographic]
In this article, Clarisa Diaz illustrates a powerful infographic of the New York City Subway system, graphically representing accessible stations only. This graphic communicates how dire the situation is with the subway system, where only 25% of all stations are currently ADA accessible. While the MTA has released a goal to reach 100% accessibility by 2034, additional mapping and analysis of these stations shows that this work would have to begin immediately, and at a much larger scale in order to reach that goal.
“That means to reach the goal of 100% accessibility by 2034, the MTA would need to make around 143 stations ADA accessible for each of the next capital plans (2025-2029 and 2029-2034). The MTA "would have to be working on this right now at a much larger scale,” said Jessica Murray, a PhD candidate at CUNY who studies the impacts of transportation on people with disabilities. At the current pace of 70 stations every five years, it would be more like 2044 when the entire system could be fully accessible.”
Hall, Delaney. “Curb Cuts.” 99% Invisible. Accessed May 24, 2021. [podcast]
This podcast details the history of disability rights activists who were instrumental to the very first implementation of curb cuts in Berkeley, CA. At night, activist groups such as the Rolling Quads took guerrilla-style actions to make changes to their streets, such as taking sledgehammers to bust up curbs, or pouring concrete on half a dozen street corners to build their own ramps, despite experiencing fierce opposition. These actions, among others, ultimately led the city to pass its first ever legislation implementing curb cuts on street corners in commercial areas in Berkeley, and sparking a movement across the country demanding for greater accessibility and mobility.
“You’re experiencing the curb-cut effect. You’re trying to get into a building, your hands are full of packages? You use the special electronic button or the button you can hit with your hip? You’ve just used a thing that was made for somebody who can’t push a door — or in the earlier example, somebody who can’t hear. We run into examples like this all the time without being aware of it.”
Hamraie, Aimi. “Mapping Access Toolkit.” Critical Design Lab, 2020. [project]
Mapping Access is a project from the Critical Design Lab which aims to increase understanding of accessible space using participatory mapping and data visualization to represent spaces within the campus built environment. Through collective mapping and Map-a-Thon events, this project seeks to evaluate spaces deemed “ADA Accessible” and disrupt conventional understandings of accessibility standards. Mapping thus becomes an ongoing process highlighting the various intersections of disability justice, while facilitating the social transformation of our built environments. The project initially focused on the Vanderbilt Campus as a case study, however, the Mapping Access Toolkit is intended to be used openly by community organizers, campus planners, or academics interested in conversations about accessibility within their larger communities.
“In arts and design cultures, the terms social practice and spatial practice (respectively) refer to conceptual, public-facing, and participatory work, which often takes place beyond privileged gallery spaces, refuses the political economies of the art world, and centers the built environment as a cultural text that can be analyzed and rewritten. […] Sociospatial practice (and accordingly, critical mapping) also serve as what [Ivan] Illich calls “counterfoil research,” which appropriates, bends, and reshapes tools for use in remaking a convivial culture. Conceived as a socio-spatial practice, critical accessibility mapping approaches environmental analysis as an opportunity to reconceptualize the labor of spatial reading, treating geospatial data collection as collective labor through which new relations of interdependence can emerge.”
Netflix. Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, 2020. [documentary]
This documentary traces the lives of a group of teenagers who met at Camp Jened, a camp for teenagers with disabilities located in the Catskills. From this origin story at Camp Jened, many of these individuals went on to participate in disability activist circles in Berkeley, California. Following Berkely's hotbed of activism surrounding the Disability Rights Movement, the film follows the lives of these activists and the steps they took to amplify their stories, demand disability justice, and realize positive change in the form of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and other groundbreaking disability rights legislation.
"We as disabled persons are here today, to ensure for the class of disabled Americans, the ordinary daily life that non-disabled Americans often take for granted, the right to ride a bus or a train, the right to any job for which we are qualified, the right to enter any theater, restaurant, or public accommodation, the passage of this monumental legislation will make it clear that our government will no longer allow the largest minority group in the United States to be denied equal opportunity. To do any less is immoral."
“Photo Guide to Accessibility Modifications in the Home.” Salt Lake City, UT: ASSIST Inc. Community Design Center, June 2016. [photo guide]
ASSIST Inc. is an independent nonprofit that has been providing architectural design and community planning assistance to people with disabilities for decades. In this project, ASSIST created a catalog of architectural details set to standard accessibility dimensions, for use by architects working to achieve greater accessibility in their projects. This resource could be useful for design students and professionals looking to expand their projects beyond conventional ADA standards.
“This photo guide is designed to help illustrate practical home modifications for accessibility, safety in the home, and prevention of falls. The photos provided are of well designed solutions for a variety of users and needs.”
Thomas, Stephanie K. Capitol Crawl. Washington, DC, 1990. [video]
This video highlights excerpts from the Wheels of Justice rally at the US Capitol on March 12, 1990, and the actions that various organizations and individuals took, ultimately leading to the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA was stalled in Congress and grassroots disability rights organization ADAPT led a national effort to organize several days of action to call for an end to this discrimination and significant gap in legislation. The goal of the rally and Capital Crawl was to bring visibility to the needs of a community that had for too long been ignored, empower people with disabilities and amplify their voices, and demand changes to laws and policies impacting the daily lives of these community members.
“Citizens with disabilities in America and in all nations will become producers, taxpayers, consumers, and participants in the full richness of their cultures. Every human being on earth will benefit”.