Blog 1 – Key Concept – Disability
‘Seen’
‘Scale equals visibility. This has the ability to shape social norms’ (Sun, 2024)
I was inspired by the video of Christine Sun Kim in the video ‘Friends and Strangers’. I loved her unapologetic approach to her work. She is an advocate not only for the art and deaf community but as a Korean American woman. Her practice looks at how sound is projected in society and space with physical words as her voice. She ensures that her message is loud. Her multi-faceted identities, becomes her strength. The role of intersectionality is highlighted here in her overlapping identities, also shared by Kimberley Crenshaw, (2013).
Fig.1. Christine Sun Kim’s large-scale installation at the Queens Museum.
Fig.2. Christine Sun Kim installation expressing weight and emotions at the Queens Museum.
Fig.3. Christine Sun Kim New York City project for the Manchester International Festival.
Fig.4. Christine Sun Kim New York City project for the Manchester International Festival.
Fig.5. Christine Sun Kim New York City project for the Manchester International Festival.
The idea of changing the status quo for all communities as an educator should be a part of my practice. The more people advocating for visibility within society for disabled people the sooner the barriers can be removed to bring about equity. I was inspired by Christine’s’ quote when she referred to her motion graphics as a vehicle to force deafness. (Sun, 2024)
I felt disheartened that as a disabled woman she felt that she had to force her own identity so that she could be heard.
As Kimberle Crenshaw’s, (2013) theory of intersectionality highlights, we all have a variety of identities.
Ade Adepitan’s story from the video ‘Paralympics Legends’ also highlighted the complexities of intersectionality. Ade a disabled man of colour was accepted for the Paralympics during the time of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. If it were not for ‘Black Lives Matter’ would he have been accepted? He mentioned that he had attempted on many occasions to enter the Paralympics in the past. (Adepitan,2020).
How was he seen? I could argue that this could have the potential to be a form of tokenism. All lives and identities matter according to Yancy and Butler (2015). This could also be seen as an opportunity for the disabled and black communities. Being seen is a reoccurring theme.
Ade quotes,
‘Disabled is not a condition, the world creates disabilities’ (Adepitan,2020).
Fig. 6. Ade Adepitan at the Olympics.
As witnessed in the disability services video and the UAL social model, it reports
‘Disabled by barriers not by social influences’ (UAL,2020)
According to the awards data from UAL, disabled students are performing better than non-disabled students. This is great news; however, the retention rates differ.
Fig.7. UAL awards by disability. (UAL, n.d.)
Fig.8. UAL retention by disability (UAL, n.d.)
In view of the retention gaps non disability students have a higher rate, and all disabilities have a lower rate. Where are we failing our disabled students so that they no longer want to continue?
Arguably the data can also be inaccurate. This data is gathered at the beginning of the academic year; students also declare disability status throughout the year. I view the statistics as an opportunity to raise awareness and an attempt to bridging the gap.
I must therefore take into consideration the different identities of my students, seen and unseen that I will encounter. This is a complex task. When teaching, I have no idea about my students’ background. Therefore, when I am interacting this should be with an open gaze allowing me to be aware of my own social and political identities that may also be complex. When this takes place then all will benefit and be seen.
References
Adepitan, A. and Webborn, N. (2020). Nick Webborn interviews Ade Adepitan. ParalympicsGB Legends [Online]. YouTube. 27 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnRjdol_j0c [Accessed 25 April.2025]
Crenshaw, K.W., 2013. Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of colour. In The public nature of private violence (pp. 93-118). Routledge.
Sun, C. (2024). Christine Sun Kim in ‘Friends & Strangers’ – Season 11 | Art21. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/2NpRaEDlLsI [Accessed 25 April.2025]
University of the Arts London (2020). The Social Model of Disability at UAL. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdnjmcrzgw [Accessed 25 Apr. 2025].
Yancy, G. and Butler, J. (2015). What’s Wrong With ‘All Lives Matter’? [online] P.2. Available at: https://ahimsa.critstudies.calarts.edu/black%20lives%20matter%20JB.pdf [Accessed 24 Apr. 2025].
Image Reference
Fig.1 – 5.
Sun, C. (2024). Christine Sun Kim in ‘Friends & Strangers’ – Season 11 | Art21. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/2NpRaEDlLsI [Accessed 25 April.2025]
Fig.6.
Adepitan, A. and Webborn, N. (2020). Nick Webborn interviews Ade Adepitan. ParalympicsGB Legends [Online]. YouTube. 27 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnRjdol_j0c [Accessed 25 April.2025]
Fig.7.
UAL (n.d.). Active Dashboard. [online] UAL. Available at: https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=99b2fe03-d417-45d3-bea9-1a65ebc250ea&dashcontextid=63874773 [Accessed 25 Apr. 2025].
Fig.8.
UAL (n.d.). Active Dashboard. [online] UAL. Available at: https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=5e56a5d7-4c18-4b1f-9fd6-76a9fc8ffc92&dashcontextid=638684775887265547 [Accessed 25 Apr. 2025].
It’s great to hear which themes resonated with you from the videos, since it was a different theme to what I focussed on. I found it interesting to read more about visibility and think about the same resources from a different angle.
Even though there may be inaccuracies in the data, I found seeing the UAL data particularly insightful as I didn’t know the retention rate was lower for students with disabilites. This has made me consider what I can do in my role to make my teaching more inclusive and hopefully help disabled students access what they need to continue their studies.
It’s also great to hear how you will take this into your teaching practice following on from the workshops and reading we have done on disability and intersectionality.
Thank you for your comments. Yes, I agree with the UAL data being insightful despite not always being a hundred percent accurate. I think the most important thing is that we have access to information. This alone brings attention to areas that can be forgotten or unknown to us as educators. This allows us as to review where we can best support our students.
Gem, I like 2 of your observations:
“The more people advocating for visibility within society for disabled people the sooner the barriers can be removed to bring about equity.”
“I felt disheartened that as a disabled woman she felt that she had to force her own identity so that she could be heard.”
It seems to me that disabled people like Christine and Ade still need to come to the front themselves and fight to be seen and valued in a proper way including their intersectionality. And when we try to raise awareness, we might still be doing in the wrong way. On my research, I came across a great talk by Stella Young on Ted Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K9Gg164Bsw), in which she explains that a lot of “inspirational messages” created by non-disabled people on disable people, becomes “inspiration porn” by portraying them as heroes and fighters and thus becoming objectifications of non-disabled people. In other words, she notices 2 main outcomes:
1- The final message becomes: don’t complain about your life because it could be worse. You could be like them, the disabled.
2- all disabled people are reduced to be only ‘brave, heroes, fighters and role models despite their disabled bodies’. But most of them are just going about their normal lives and they don’t think about their bodies like we do.
It is enlightening to know about your statistic findings:
1- disable students are doing better. Great news.
2- in terms of retention, they are not. This survey is quantitative instead of qualitative. I wonder if UAL cares to ask why they are leaving ? This is the only way to assess the real problem…
I understand how this can be difficult for us lecturers, to tease out from our own positionality and make our lessons inclusive and accessible…
Thank you for your comments Emily. Thank you for sharing the talk from Stella Young. This is another angle to be viewed regarding non-disabled people’s perceptions. This will always be marred to some extent based on people’s preferences and prejudices. That is really interesting that when some inspirational messages made by non – disabled people can sometimes be classified as ‘inspirational porn’. Wow! This as an illustration of the power of the tongue to destroy or to support.
From Christine Sun Kim’s perspective as a woman who lives with the prejudices of society concerning disabled people advocates through her work in a seamless almost unapologetic way. This is her story and her journey and she proclaims this with clarity in an artistic and curated way. This inspired me to be more bold about my own identities and to embrace all areas of who I am.
Yes, I agree that the data highlighted is quantitative. Working within Academic Support we support students who are sometimes faced with challenging circumstances and as much as we can offer support and strategies we definitely need to be doing this University wide. As you indicated we need to be discussing and understanding the root of the problem.
This was a very interesting post. I found Christine Sun Kim’s work very powerful, and it made me reflect on the importance of our role not only as educators but also on the power of art as a form of activism to address topics such as inclusion.
Your point about the UAL data on disabled students stood out to me as well. It is encouraging to see that disabled students are achieving strong academic results, but the lower retention rates are concerning. It raises important questions about the support systems in place – are we doing enough to ensure that students feel welcome and able to continue? I agree that we must look beyond the statistics and treat them as a call to action.
Thank you for your comments. I think creativity, the arts and design can sometimes be underestimated in terms of the powerful messages that can be imparted to the community. Christine Sun Kim is a good example of this. I loved where you used the term powerful. Her work is just that.
I always feel whether we are doing enough for our students in terms of support and for them to be able to tap into this power. It would be interesting to delve further and to research into the contributory factors as to why students decide to dis continue.