Accessibility as a Creative Practice
Hello Residents! The rest of July we will be focused on some topics and themes that will inform the rest of your SDA residency. The primary goals of this program is to introduce residents to a variety of accessibility practice and Disability Justice concepts, and explore creative ways to integrate them to the foundation of your art practice and your art-making process. Below is an overview of some of the themes, but we encourage you to read through our full “Accessibility as a Creative Practice” section over the next few weeks. We will host a discussion thread on our community forum, so you can all share your thoughts and questions with the group. And we will have a short dialogue on these topics during our first community event on July 28th.
Below we discuss the following topics:
Access is a Process
Iterative + Interdependent Art-making
Access Intimacy
The full “Accessibility as a Creative Practice” section also include information about:
Disabled People in the Arts: Creators, Cultural Workers, and Art Lovers
Disability Language + Models
Disability Justice framework
If you prefer a different format to view this information, you are welcome to use our Accessibility as a Creative Practice Google Doc.
Access is a Process
When it comes to accessibility the approach is often a "checkbox list” mainly based on logistics. While these aspects of accessibility are paramount to creating inclusive, equitable spaces, they are just an entry point. There's a commonly used phrase in the Disability community - Access is a Process. This has two intertwined meanings: Firstly, making accessible environments is never a "one and done" situation - it is always evolving, often with moments of friction that require nuanced situational solutions; and secondly, the acknowledgement that accessibility is complex, and if you don't get it perfect (or even near perfect) the first time, keep trying - through the work, creative and innovative solutions will be found.
As an artist who is possibly just starting to think about incorporating accessibility into your art practice, know that the process is just as important as the end result - and it is an enriching process that is founded in care. Disabled people are frequently excluded from spaces through the neglect to consider "non-normative" ways of embodiment and communication. As artists we have the opportunity to create artwork that is inclusive and equitable by integrating accessibility features into our work. We also have the skills and talent to incorporate accessibility creatively - beyond strictly a "checkbox" approach. Not only do Disabled people have the right to be included in the art world, they also deserve access to artistic experiences.
In an arts context, "Access in a process" speaks not only to the continued care-based process of developing accessible spaces, but also the creative process that can give birth to multisensory artworks based in Disability Aesthetics and Disability Justice.
Iterative + Interdependent Artmaking
In an interview with Edna Bonhomme for Frieze Magazine, Carolyn Lazard said, "Access has this capacity to break through the boundaries of medium, because of the way it makes art necessarily iterative. Through access, a single artwork might exist as a description, as a notation, as sign language, as a transcript or as a tactile object – depending on what people need." (Frieze, 2022) Lazard points out an edifying and rewarding aspect of creating accessible art - the process and end result can lead to a generative and iterative style of artmaking that expands your art practice, skills, audience and creative community. By exploring an idea in several different forms of expressions or modes of communication, you have the opportunity to deepen your own understanding of the concept, and create an artwork (or artworks) that investigate a topic extensively. This is beneficial for yourself, as well as the audience to whom you hope to reach.
You may be intimidated by the thoughts of adding several new elements to your artworks. You may feel confident with your skills as a visual or time-based media artist, but not as a writer, for example. In the spirit of Disability culture, embracing collaboration and “interdependent artmaking” is something to celebrate. If you don’t feel comfortable writing your own artwork descriptions or you are interested in learning Audio Description but recognize you don’t have the time at this point in your career, seek out others in your creative community who can help - collaborate on interactive artworks that can be combined to make a fully accessible work of art. Working with others to create multimodal, multisensory artworks is just another way of approaching accessibility, and one that honors and uplifts Disability culture and justice.
Interdependence is a concept frequently explored and embraced within the Disability community, though it's a concept that is commonly discussed in other communities, cultures and areas of scholarship. For many Disabled people, support systems and communities of care are essential to their survival and ability to thrive.
Access Intimacy
As an extension and more humanized version of interdependence, Disability Activist, Mia Mingus named an important concept - Access Intimacy. Mingus explains Access Intimacy:
“Access intimacy is that elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone else “gets” your access needs. The kind of eerie comfort that your disabled self feels with someone on a purely access level. Sometimes it can happen with complete strangers, disabled or not, or sometimes it can be built over years. It could also be the way your body relaxes and opens up with someone when all your access needs are being met. It is not dependent on someone having a political understanding of disability, ableism or access. Some of the people I have experienced the deepest access intimacy with (especially able bodied people) have had no education or exposure to a political understanding of disability.
“Access intimacy is also the intimacy I feel with many other disabled and sick people who have an automatic understanding of access needs out of our shared similar lived experience of the many different ways ableism manifests in our lives. Together, we share a kind of access intimacy that is ground-level, with no need for explanations.”
Discussion Questions
Visit our Community Forum to engage with the rest of the SDA residents about these topics. When making a post, consider the following questions (though you are welcome to post any thoughts you have about these themes.)
How can the “Access is a Process” mindset help and/or hinder active steps towards a more accessible Arts world? How about in your own Arts community or creative practice?
What most excites you about creating iterative and interdependent (collaborative) artworks? What are your biggest concerns or reservations about integrating this into your art-making process?
What questions or ideas came to mind while you were considering these concepts?
Links
Artwork Description: Two people with low vision sit at a table cluttered with art supplies, both wearing glasses. On the left, the South Asian person with facial hair uses watercolor to paint flowers. A reference book and a pair of reading glasses rests behind them. Across the table, the Black person with short hair examines a small figurine through a magnifying glass that's centered on an eye. The craft area is warmly lit by two desk lamps and the illustration background is a yellow green. (Illustration by Sherm for Disabled and Here)