Sulaiman Khan on worldbuilding and joyful Disabled creativity

Using mobile technology to make communication more accessible for Disabled people is life-changing for non-verbal people. Our first work, the Yellow Pencil-winning Look to Speak, by Google Creative Labs, is an app that enables people with speech and motor impairments to use their eyes to select pre-written phrases and have them spoken aloud. It would fit in the Social Model category of the Critical Axis model, as a piece of creative work that amplifies Disability using a traditional, rather than emerging, framework. As a piece of design, it is fantastic, however, as someone who has used eye gaze systems several times throughout my life, I can say that these systems can only be used for 30 minutes maximum before getting a severe headache and eye strain. What more can be done to innovate to solve this problem?

While Google Creative Labs has made excellent headway in turning its resources towards providing a better experience for Disabled people, as the next work I will look at shows, there is more that could be done. Google Access, an idea  from a student at Miami Ad School Toronto, challenges Google to create a new route-planning travel option on Google Maps for users to find accessible-friendly travel routes. It won a Wood Pencil in Future Impact, an award and incubation initiative for early-stage designs and initiatives still in research and development that are awarded for their potential to benefit society. 

Overall, I loved this idea because Google Maps is a potent tool if done right. Having more options and autonomy as Disabled people to travel on public transport is fantastic, as currently, Disabled people have a substantial extra cost to travel anywhere due to inaccessibility and ableism. According to Scope, the UK-based Disability charity, Disabled people, on average, have to spend an extra £583 a month on things like specialist equipment, services and therapies. Plus, one in five Disabled people shell out more than £1,000 a month. 

In London, for example, only 27 out of the 272 underground train stations are fully accessible, and on average, it takes more than twice as long for Disabled people to travel on trains because of inaccessibility. In addition to this, taxis are not cost-effective for Disabled people to use regularly – that is if they stop for us! On top of all that, the Disability employment pay gap report (2020) explains that the current Disability pay gap for employees in the UK stands at 20%, according to research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC). So if technology can help to alleviate some of the financial strain Disabled people face, then that can only be a good thing.

As a lifelong power wheelchair user with a physical Disability, I found the work itself a fantastic idea. However, I was slightly uncomfortable with the film about the work’s representation of Disability, mainly where a wheelchair user was being pushed in their manual wheelchair.

This is something that many wheelchair users dislike, as often it happens to us by complete strangers without our consent. I also have some thoughts on the use of the term “accessibility community” instead of “Disability community”. This reads to me as an example of erasure of Disability language and is representative of a culture where society is so afraid of Disability that they can’t even say the word. Arguably, the idea was to make sure those who are uncomfortable with the term Disability are not alienated; the non-Disabled perception around what it means to be Disabled needs changing, not the term itself.

Moving on to The ‘Design for Everyone’ Campaign work by The&Partnership London, for Royal National Institute of Blind People, which makes pregnancy tests accessible for blind women. I love this product design innovation. It’s something that’s outside the realm of my lived experience, but I loved it because it allows blind people to have more agency over their fertility. Historically, Disabled bodies and minds have not had any agency, and we are often gaslit by medical professionals and society. Mia Mingus, a Disability activist, says it best in a fantastic blog post about forced intimacy: “Forced intimacy is also my entire experience in the medical-industrial complex with doctors, nurses, brace makers, physical therapists and practitioners, none of which I ever consented to,” she wrote. This product design innovation is a revolutionary step to finally give agency to Disabled people – particularly Disabled women.

It won a Wood Pencil for Product Design – Prototypes. However, regarding the project’s naming, I believe the term “design for everyone” diminishes who it’s actually for – pregnant, blind people. I would have preferred to see the campaign use blind women or Disability within its title. While clearly the product innovation does make a product ordinarily dependent on a visual cue finally accessible to everyone, even those without vision, for me, the idea of removing ‘Disability’ from products aimed at Disabled people taps into something I, as a Disabled person, spot often. It’s a common misperception that when you design for Disabled people, then there’s no market whatsoever, so you have to say “for everyone” to ensure products and services sell. This couldn’t be further from the truth as Disabled people are an $8 trillion market, yet often Disabled people are not treated as consumers with spending power. Things are usually done for us instead of with us. It is important to note that I am not referring to the incredible product design innovation by RNIB but rather the language used to communicate the design work. 

The final work I’ll explore is Move United - Redefining Disability, a programme that pivoted during the pandemic to enable adaptive athletes to stay healthy and exercise at home. This was an insightful piece of digital transformation and graphic design work that catered to the changing needs of Disabled people through the pandemic – though a note for the brand themselves: I would argue that it’s not Disability that needs redefining – it’s the perceptions of non-Disabled audiences that need shifting). 

The above work is an excellent example of Disability inclusion and a great start towards greater representation. Moving forward, my advice is to consider this: Is representation enough in a society that’s structured on ableism? It’s 2021, and the world has changed dramatically, and for young creatives and creative leaders to make this change longstanding and meaningful, they must include Disability. They must say its name. 

According to the Lloyds State of Britain Report (UK, 2015): 19% of people featured in ads came from a minority group, including race, sexual orientation, or Disability. Of that 19%, just 0.06% of people featured in ads have a Disability. In comparison, about 20% of the UK population has a Disability.

Data from CreativeEquals also shows us there’s only 1% of Disabled people in the Advertising Marketing sector (or don’t want to disclose), which is unacceptable. This highlights the need for more Disabled creatives with lived experience of Disability working in agencies. 

To my mind, inclusion and representation aren’t enough when it comes to Disability. We must fundamentally work towards anti-ableism and Disability justice with an equitable and intersectional approach. The advertising industry needs to work towards this too. As the slogan from the Disability community goes: “Nothing About Us, Without Us.”

That’s why agencies must hire Disabled creatives, and Disability needs to be integrated into every part of the creative industries. So potential questions for the creators and decision-makers to consider for more prominent Disability representation are: 

• Who is being excluded and why? 
• Why is it essential to include anti-ableism and Disability Justice within the creative industries?
• Is progress enough if it’s not actively anti-ableist?
• Why does intersectionality and lived experience matter in Disability representations?

Ultimately there’s no creativity without Disability. Disabled people like me are infinitely imaginative within limitations but often left out of creativity. Creating with (not for) Disability is worldbuilding, sustainably regenerative, and joyful.