Blog post 1: Disability
Christine Sun Kim, a Korean American deaf artist walking through a crowded city to her studio. This video blew me away, so much to take in in such a short video, it made my day too!
Kim investigates the operations of sound and various aspects of Deaf culture in her performance and video. In developing her personal visual language, Kim draws from a variety of information systems. She uses elements from these systems such as body language.
I felt the video was very inclusive as it included subtitles, but I felt very empathetic to the frustrations she faced in her childhood. Her parents struggled learning English and sign language. I can imagine this scenario not being easy for Christine and her family.
I think the overall message I will not forget “Lets listen with our eyes and not just our ears”.
I want to take this message with me and apply it in my role.
I definitely feel I could enhance and make my support role and workshops more inclusive by having a much broader variety of media for instance multiple ways of perceiving/learning.
I definitely feel understanding students access requirements in a workshop by emailing them pre-session to check their needs. I would also be mindful they might not want to share this me too but am my duty of care I would look out for any learning needs a student may require but does not recognise.
The Learning Zone is such a great social learning space to keep showcasing students work,
Highlighting students work could help get to know peoples’ disabilities and view individuality. The video showed such a creative way of ‘owning sound’ it was really interesting to watch and see how someone perceives sound. In the LZ we could show videos like this/ student work to help build community, at the moment we have that video reel of student films on one of the plasmas.
I would also love to look at students work on this subject which could help with innovating the space, as students are really creative and making new things, we could learn from their research and see if there was anything we could add to the space. One idea I want to take forward if students are doing research on furniture design and disability we could look at including their work within the space.
2nd Resource – UAL Disability Web Pages
The UAL disability web pages are a great way to creating awareness to students about the different type of support UAL has to offer. As my teaching practice involves creating workshops which students attend on their own accord and they’re not linked to their course. I do find students ask me for more support which I love to help them with! After much thought and seeing all these great resources as a student myself, I will take more time out in showing students these web pages and encouraging them to get the right support if they need it and always explain the benefits of it. I would always reiterate that we are all different and we all work at different paces, so we should all take advantage of the support in our learning journey.
Last year, I had 6 students in my Adobe workshop and it was clear a couple needed extra time to navigate in using software. Only one of them applied for a ISA via the route I suggested for their coursework and to be able to submit digitally. Recently I saw the other students and they let me know they too had taken the same route and they found things to be less stressful now and they are able to meet their deadlines which was so nice to hear. I am so glad I had some input in them making the right choices.
3rd Article – #DisabilityTooWhite article/interview
The article got me thinking about so much which I will try to discuss clearly I think the idea of inclusivity and diversity in any kind of representation is essential in today’s climate. From working in UAL, and CSM for more than 10 years the differently abled students we have worked with have experienced invisible issues such as dyslexia (The Equality Act 2010).
Being differently able-ed has no colour or gender therefore it is extremely important to try and create an even playing field for all students. Some students require extra time others need help from student support. But all students are special.
The idea of teaching in a creative environment is to evolve and grow. Teaching should be flexible, just as we have learned from online teaching during the Pandemic. As educators, we must be ready to take on student feedback and learn from their research.
First step is to be aware and I think it was great to be set goals in my PRA, for instance, anti-racism goals for the year which.Some colleagues I work with were involved with the decolonising project which helped me gain a better understanding of the challenges students of colour face.I also became part of the BAME forum which was a bigger community of people from many universities.
Our 4th resource is the inspiring paper by Khairani Barokka (Okka). She is a writer, poet and artist The show is called Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee.
The article presents her teachings from her tour solo deaf accessible poetry/art show with little resources and in physical chronic pain at the time of the show.
Kahirani Okka explores deep into a invisible disability. I think Humanity is a word I would use in this case. There is so much ignorance and insensitivity towards disabled people which needs to change for the better. Putting ourselves in others shoes is the way I like to approach this and how would I feel in this situation. The act of kindness and your duty of care as a staff member of UAL, whether I am supporting a student or teaching them in my workshop.
I always encourage my students to look at DS web pages and I understand they don’t always want to seek for help due to some external factors they may be attached to like their culture or community. I feel by talking to students more they become more open and build that trust with you which is so beneficial for myself but them mostly as they go about their learning journey and for their future too
I do believe things are becoming much more open but I do still feel we have a lot more work to do in our UAL community as a whole.
Shades of Noir (SoN) article – Disabled People have an ally Problem by Imani Barbani
So many articles, were so intriguing to read and I could really relate to them in so many different ways. I have chosen Disabled People have an Ally Problem by Imani Barbarni. This article touched my heart. Being an Asian this resonated with me and my culture on how the young would not have their say as the elders would always speak in front of them.
The article by Imani Barbami frustrated me that this is happening even when there is a disability. I agree with her when she mentions,
“No matter how close you are to a disabled person, you cannot completely know what it is like to be disabled or experience the world and its people in a disabled body. There’s no way around it. You may bear witness to our daily lives and still not know what it’s like to live as us”.
In my teaching and my support role I would like to implement this where I can immerse myself in the words of disabled people (as Barbami says)
I think some simple principles will always apply, having cared for someone close myself. They are to be Caring, Empathetic and to be kind. I would always try to put myself in someone elses shoes.
I would like to educate myself further and look at the work of disabled advocates and always think of different ways on how we can help our students whether they have a visible disability or not.
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This quote is often attributed to famous poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou.
Bibliography:
The selby (2002) Vimeo: Christine Sun Kim – 10min (Accessed 5th May 2022): https://vimeo.com/31083172
Blahovec, Sarah (2017) Confronting the Whitewashing Of Disability: Interview with #DisabilityTooWhite Creator Vilissa Thompson (Accessed 7th May 2022): https://www.huffpost.com/entry/confronting-the-whitewash_b_10574994?guccounter=1
Shades of Noir (2020) https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people
Article : Disabled People have an ally Problem by Imani Barbani
(Accessed 10th May 2022)
Deaf-accessibility for spoonies: lessons from touring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee while chronically ill.
file:///Users/msahota/Downloads/Deaf-accessibility-for-spoonies-lessons-from-touring-Eve-and-Mary-Are-Having-Coffee-while-chronically-ill%20(2).pdf (Accessed 9th May 2022)
https://www.khairanibarokka.com/#/teach-speak-consult/ (Accessed 9th May 2022)
Re: 2nd Resource – UAL Disability Web Pages
Thank you for sharing your teaching experiences. Your experience on teaching Adobe workshop made me to reflect on my teaching practice. As A photography technician at LCF, I run photography related workshops and some of my workshops are application based such as Adobe photoshop, Capture One. As I run classes for courses in Media and Communication School at LCF, some of the students I only have the chance to work with once in the whole academic year. I may not have the chance to find out if there are students with impairments or invisible disabilities that affect their learning or need for support in the learning process. As far as I know, technicians are not informed by Disability Adviser in regard students’ ISA. Adjustments in classes and workshops may need to be made to facilitate students with ISA, it is important for all the teaching staff, both academic team and technician team to be informed if this is the case.
As those who have the responsibility to make sure students can fully access what they need in the learning process, we have to know what we can do in order to provide support.
Re: Shades of Noir (SoN) article – Disabled People have an ally Problem by Imani Barbani
Thank you for sharing the beautiful quote by Maya Angelou. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
I agree it is important to be caring, empathetic and to be kind especially when you work in education where trust and faith are the foundation when learning take place.
Thank you for reading through my blog Suki. I agree with you that both academics and technicians need to know students impairments or invisible disabilities. As a technician it often feels like we have to guess or approach students differently which is not often the correct way . A joint up approach is very important for us in our roles and I hope this will be overcome in the future by always driving this request forwards.
Monica I agree with your comments about Khairani Barokka and her show Eve and Mary are Having Coffee and in particular your use of the word humanity, it’s so easy to focus on the things that differentiate us from each other and forget to take time to celebrate the human qualities we share like compassion and creativity. A word I would like to add is bravery. I cant imagine how difficult it must have been to put a show together and then tour it when you are in constant pain, then write about those experiences so honestly. I have begun to reflect on the experiences some of my students may have with hidden disabilities , the fatigue they must feel having to explain themselves and their disabilities to others and of course most of of us are not as eloquent or engaging as Khairani Barokka. I really enjoyed your thought provoking blog thankyou.
Thank you so much Michael for taking time to look at my blog. I agree with your comment on Khairani Barokka’s article and the word Bravery. It definately has made me think as a student on this course and how overwhelming it can be t so to be in this stiuation is just soo brave. It has made me realise how we don’t know how someone is feeling or what they may be going through and how important it is to always be compassionate and empathetic towards each other.
Hello Monica =)
really nice to read your post. I can see how some of these resources can be applied in the Learning Zone.
Also the Learning Zone is such a great place to learn =)
I particularly enjoy reading the Shades of Noir (SoN) article – Disabled People have an ally Problem by Imani Barbani. I totally agree that one person will never fully understand what it is to be like another person.
So what can we do? Why would we have to try to do that? How can we allow that person to be themselves, without trying to fit in the institution? I understand that care, empathy, compassion are all important feelings that we must have with us.
Forgive me my lack of examples, I am still working on that, I will give an example of a white man, but he is someone who I really enjoyed reading. I have been trying to apply this into my practice as a teacher and also as a mother. Sir Ken Robinson has a few books, and he has examples of how people were able to succeed in live (what I mean by succeed in live is to find their passions), by being supported and encouraged to do what they had vocation too, for what they are, instead of trying to fit into the system.
The quote at the end of your post is beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with us. =)
Thank you for reading my blog Carolina I am glad you enjoyed my chosen article by Imani Barbani. As you mentioned, we need to at least have the foundations as humans, to care, to have compassion and kindness to begin to help others in different ways. Thank you for the suggestions for further reading, I will look in to Sir Ken Robinsons books for sure.
Shades of Noir-Disabled people have an ally probelm by Imani Barbani.
I did not read this article until I read your blog. I was immediately brought back to 1980’s Northern Ireland and being out shopping with my mum and granny. My granny was very physically disabled and lived with us. On one occasion we had to leave my granny outside a shop in her wheelchair because it wouldnt fit through the door and when we returned my granny was upset because a man had put money in her lap thinking that she was begging. I rememmber my mum’s rage when people asked after my grannys health but directed their questions to my mum as if my very intelligent ex school teacher granny could no longer speak or think because she was in a wheelchair. My mum was very outspoken and did not hold back on letting people see her anger.
‘she’s right there , you ask HER’ is word for word what my mum used to say … its sad that this is still happening to Imani Barbani.
so interesting the idea of an unhelpful ally really being a performer and a helpful advocate being a vessel to pass along what the disabled community have expressed. Thanks Monica a really thought provoking blog