Blog post 1 – Disability and Intersectionality

The Social Model of Disability at UAL (no date) states that “we are not disabled by our individual differences, but by barriers in the world around us”. In personal interviews, three individuals discuss how they are held back by wider society, not their specific disability and identity aspects (see the appendix for a summary of these interviews).

During the interviews, the three subjects stress the importance of creating visibility for underrepresented identities. They also emphasise how the right resources enable participation and access for these groups, be it the right sports equipment, accessible toilets, translators or child care (Adepitan and Webborn, 2020, Brown, 2023, and Sun, 2024)

As a craft based course at an art university, we have a unique opportunity to give students who have struggled in the school system the “opportunity to shine” (Adepitan and Webborn, 2020).

While 18% of UAL students have a declared disability (UAL, 2025), few of our students have a visible physical disability. However, many of them have specific learning preferences, such as dyslexia or ADHD. There is a lot that teaching staff can do to enable participation, for example by being flexible in how we approachthe students, and giving them choices in how to access sessions and complete tasks (UAL, 2019).

While it is our duty as lecturers to support our students, this is unfortunately not the case within most professional environments. For example, we have seen how it is more difficult for our international students to find work experience placements compared to home students. Other students who struggle with time management or social skills also find it difficult to integrate within the industry.

The absence of students with physical disabilities on the course indicates that there are certain barriers during the application process, or even before that. The lack of special equipment to enable participation in a craft-based course, as well as a later industry role, is likely to be a major obstacle. Sometimes our students have been temporarily disabled due to injury, and the only support that we have been able to give is rearranging their tasks, or offering them time out.

At UAL disabled students do comparatively well, with 4% more achieving a First/2:1 in 23/24 compared to students with no declared disability (UAL, 2025). However, this statistic does not account for students with undeclared disability or ‘intersecting identities’ (Crenshaw, 1991), for example socioeconomic background, ethnicity or gender. The same year, the awarding gap between Home White and Home B.A.M.E students was 12%. As Adepitan points out, systemic, unsaid, discrimination is more difficult to change (Adepitan and Webborn, 2020).

For UAL’s policies on social inclusion to become reality, investment is required to provide the right resources that can enable participation and access. We need time to create videos and other learning materials, and to provide extra in-person tutorials. We need budgets to help struggling students gain access to expensive materials like fabrics and trimmings. We need an accessible Student Services to step in and support our students with mental health problems. It will always be a challenge for teaching staff to look after their students and identify their needs, especially for lecturers who are being paid by the hour, and expected to oversee increasingly large class sizes. We need to create personal relationships with our students and build trust, which takes in-person meetings, and time.

Appendix:

Ade Adepitan, a Paralympian, experiences intersecting discrimination as someone who is disabled and black. Both the disabled community and the black community have been held back by systemic discrimination and oppression. If these barriers are removed, and “we give people opportunities to shine, the sky is the limit” (Adepitan and Webborn, 2020). He points out how the Paralympics show that when someone is given the right resources, they will achieve something incredible. 

Despite having heard a lot of talk about change and support schemes over the years, Ade has seen that talk translate into very little in reality. Though he experiences less overt discrimination in public, the systemic, unsaid, types of discrimination have proved more difficult to change. It is often hard to concretely prove that this type of discrimination is actually happening, let alone try to initiate ways to reduce it. (Adepitan and Webborn, 2020)

Christine Sun Kim is a deaf artist. She describes how the deaf community is a comforting space with a shared culture and language, where deaf people avoid the oppression they face in the hearing community. Once in it, people like to stay in the community. However, it can be like a trap, like “being stuck in the echo” as Christine puts it. Her art made her enter the hearing world. When growing up, she could not access art classes because there were no interpreters available. Now, she uses her art, often through creating pieces on a large scale, to make deafness visible in the hearing world. She wants deafness to be part of what is socially acceptable and normal. Through her work, she advances visibility and representation of the deaf community and bridges the deaf and hearing worlds.

Christine is also a mother, and has relocated from New York to Berlin, where daycare is free. The German government supports their citizens in various ways (health and social insurance, space to create) that make it much easier for her to live there as a deaf artist and mother. (Sun, 2024)

Chay Brown, a trans man with mental health difficulties, describes himself as “probably not neurotypical” (2023). As a white, cis passing man with an invisible disability, he believes he has a lot of privilege compared to others in the trans community. However, he struggled with learning the subtleties of non verbal communication between gay men, and points out that these unspoken ways of communication within the LGBTQ+ community can be a barrier for individuals with autism or anxiety. Also, many community events happen in loud, alcohol serving venues, where accessibility is often poor.

His advice is to listen to disabled people, to ask them what they think, to be prepared to hear how you could have done things better, and to budget for improvements. He emphasises the importance of talking about disability issues, and how hearing about others personal experiences have helped him realise that he is not alone. He champions Parapride as an important avenue for visibility and inclusion. (Brown, 2023)

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 23 May 2025) 

Brown, C. (2023) Interview with ParaPride. Intersectionality in Focus: Empowering Voices during UK Disability History Month. (Online) Youtube. 13 December. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yID8_s5tjc. (Accessed 23 May 2025)

Crenshaw, K. (1991) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp. 1241–1299.

Sun, C. (2024). Christine Sun Kim in ‘Friends & Strangers’ – Season 11 | Art21. (Online) YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/2NpRaEDlLsI  (Accessed 23 May 2025)

UAL (2025) Attainment Profiles. Available at: dashboards.arts.ac.uk (Accessed: 23th May 2025)

UAL (2025) Student Profiles: Characteristic. Available at: dashboards.arts.ac.uk (Accessed: 23th May 2025)

UAL (no date) The Social Model of Disability at UAL. Available at: https://youtu.be/mNdnjmcrzgw. (Accessed: 23 May 2025)

UAL (2019) Guidance for Inclusive Teaching and Learning. Available at: https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/documents/sppreview/3550bb2f-db31-4a28-8223-6a13d80001e7 (Accessed 23 May 2025)