This year the UK government has announced cuts to disability benefits, with the intention to take £5bn by 2030. The disabled experience in the art world is becoming increasingly visible as the demand for more inclusivity across race, gender, class and disability is being called for. The ableist political landscape is detrimental to the progress being made for access to the arts for all people, but mostly those from marginalised groups.
One of my takeaways from watching the resources was the support systems in place for people with disabilities to access spaces society has limited them from. With the current cuts putting many funding organisations at risk it is probable that society will take a significant step back in any progress that has been made in committing and carrying out changes that are in line with the social model of disability. Ade Adepitan a presenter and Paralympic athlete mentions that schemes which consider intersectionality are few and far between, this creates even more barriers and reenforces limitations.
Jo Verrent (2025), Director of Unlimited, an independent arts commissioning programme for disabled- led work based in Wakefield states ‘We have high levels of intersectionality with marginalised characteristics and lived experiences. This beautiful blend makes us innovative, unique, and distinct. It’s also what has made the last few months so challenging, as in the UK multiple cuts have been proposed to disability benefits – ones that we know will hit hardest for the multiply marginalised.’
One of the many trickle-down effects of cuts like these is the impact they have on the current and future representation within workplaces. Focusing solely on art and fashion creative industries, which are historically known for blatant discrimination of race and gender along with a lack of accessibility to the industry for working class people due to unpaid full-time internships, London centric jobs (within the UK) and the cost of higher education. This doesn’t encompass a true representation of society and only enforces that the arts are for the privileged and are spaces that do not welcome ‘other’ voices.
I think it is important to have creative spaces and collectives which are made with and for marginalised people, such as art collectives like Intoart a Peckham based visual arts organisation committed to equity, visibility and social justice. It is imperative for spaces like this to exist to create opportunities, a collective voice and community. However, I do also question whether this does create a passiveness in wider organisations, galleries and schemes to work towards a more equal and inclusive representation within their spaces and justify this behaviour by praising the work done by specialist organisations without considering and implementing changes themselves, which only reinforces systemic discriminatory behaviour.
Reflecting on my own practice and position within an institution like UAL I struggle with the fact I work at an arts university that doesn’t embrace radical thinking and is very slow in making any system changes, along with working on a creative course which is regimented in its structure and outcomes. On the other hand, I have not only chosen to work here but also benefitted from the universities more problematic traits such as hiring from within or from current employee networks.
“any radical pedagogy must insist that everyone’s presence is acknowledged. That insistence cannot be simply stated. It has to be demonstrated through pedagogical practices. To begin, the professor must genuinely value everyone’s presence.” Hooks, B. (1994)
The ISA system which UAL has in place for students with disabilities covers both physical and neurodivergent conditions, it allows for adjusted deadlines along with other support the disability team provides. As a tutor I am made aware of students who have an ISA however the specifics about their disability is not disclosed unless the student wants to share this information. The course I lecture on currently has 49 students of which 13 are retaining an ISA all of which are for invisible disabilities (please note this doesn’t consider the students who have not formally declared the need for support.) The fact the Embroidery degree doesn’t have any students with a visible physical impairment on the course shows how unwelcoming these spaces are to people with disabilities and how the limitations in machine adaptability show that there are ingrained barriers within embroidery which subsequently effects the inclusion and visibility of physically disabled people within the fashion, art and textile industries. Even though UAL considers itself to be practicing the social model of disability as seen in the video resource I know from my day-to-day experience of working in the new LCF building that even the simplest accessibility requirements such as working lifts, lack of working presentation screens and limited private spaces haven’t been made a priority and has impacted the teaching environment.
With my own experience of navigating learning and workspaces with dyslexia I have encountered barriers in being able to access long form writing resources along with formulating my own written outputs. A lot of my reflections in term 1 were about the struggle in asking creative students to write essays when I know how disconnected that is from the daily practice of a textile designer and the empathy, I have built for that whilst undertaking my PgCert.
It is not just the responsibility of people with disabilities to fight for change in these spaces. Usually, the work to push through policies is done in addition to existing workload by people who encounter discrimination on a daily basis. It is a shared responsibility to develop and design inclusive spaces, courses and futures rather than putting the load onto marginalised groups to have the answers to systemic problems.
Resources if Interested in learning more about disability-led art organisations and experiences:
Intoart – visual arts charity based in London working with adults and young people with learning disabilities.
Able Zine – a publication and creative agency based in London, UK. Able works with creative collaborators around the world, to share voices from and lend visibility to the disabled community.
Liberty Festival 2025 – Liberty is committed to spotlighting and celebrating the very best of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists in Wandsworth
CRIPtic Arts – CRIPtic Arts exists to create an artistic landscape where disabled people flourish.
Ill Feelings by Alice Hattrick – Personal narrative and cultural criticism, delving into the enigmatic world of chronic illness.
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
Butler, P. (2025) ‘Ill and disabled people will be made “invisible” by UK benefit cuts, says experts’ The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/08/ill-disabled-people-uk-benefit-cuts-policy-in-practice (Accessed on 9 Apr 2025)
Crenshaw, K. (1991) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’ Stanford Law Review.
Disability services at University of the Arts London (2024) ‘Registering with the Disability Services’ https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia/disability-and-dyslexia-what-to-expect (Accessed on 28 Apr 2025)
Hattrick, A. (2025) ‘Disability is Not a Separate Category of Personhood’ Art Review. https://artreview.com/disability-is-not-a-separate-category-of-personhood/ (Accessed on 30 Apr 2025)
Hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to transgress. Routledge.
Lawson-Tancred, J. (2024) ‘How Artists are Shifting the Narrative Around Disability’ artnet. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/how-artists-are-shifting-the-narrative-around-disability-2500239 (Accessed on 23 Apr 2025)
Morton, B. (2025) ‘Benefits crackdown unveiled with the aim to save £5bm a year by 2030’ BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89y30nel59o (Accessed on 9 Apr 2025)
Sun, C. (2024). Christine Sun Kim in ‘Friends & Strangers’ – Season 11 | Art21. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/2NpRaEDlLsI
Verrent, J. (2025) ‘Disabled artists under threat- time to take action’, Unlimited. https://weareunlimited.org.uk/disabled-artists-under-threat-time-to-take-action/ (Accessed on 23 Apr 2025)
Hello Ellie,
Your post was very timely, as the Labour party has made these drastic cuts, and now seem to be in talks to walk back on them after the Reform win in the by-election in Runcorn. It was important to contextualise the contemporary moment in which we are meant to be learning and practicing these policies. And the problems that you point to about the future for representation and accessibility (along with equity) will certainly be shaped by the funding that is or is not distributed for disability. There were lots of great images in the text, and perhaps you might want to incorporate them in your reflection in the future. I think I was particularly interested in Ntiense Eno-Amooquaye’s work, but was not sure how it reflected the intersectionalities you discussed. The additional resources were certainly helpful!
Thanks for your comment Christin, I think what I possibly failed to get across was that Intoart is an organisation that champions disabled and autistic artists, their vision is for them to be seen as equal and accepted within the art word, hence their rejection of the outsider artist terminology. Many of their artists intersect disability and race and examine that within their work, such as Ntiense Eno-Amooquaye.
I agree it would be valuable to bring the images into the reflection more explicitly next time. What I could have included was more of a discussion about their work and background to the pieces I chose to include.
I absolutely love Ntiense Eno-Amooquaye’s work and would happily discuss what I know of her work when we see each other next.
Thank you for your feedback, this has really helped me to think about my communication and making links between topics, references, and visual materials more clear and considered.
Hi Ellie, this is a really honest and compelling reflection that weaves together personal experience, institutional critique, and broader political context. Your discussion of the UK’s disability benefit cuts effectively grounds the piece in the urgency of the moment, while your insights into structural ableism at UAL, from inaccessible teaching spaces to rigid course structures, highlight how systemic exclusions persist even within supposedly progressive institutions.
Your personal reflections about the contradictions of working within a system you’re also critiquing adds depth, and your thoughts on the ISA system show a thoughtful awareness of the limits of surface-level inclusion. The piece is especially strong in calling out the tendency of larger institutions to offload responsibility for inclusion onto smaller, specialist organisations, and in naming the collective responsibility required for meaningful change.
You’ve managed to balance critique with care, and the blog is a generous invitation for others to think more critically about their roles in shaping inclusive spaces
Thanks Romany for your thoughtful feedback and for taking the time to read this! I have definitely found that i am more conscious of what we have been talking about in the PgCert sessions whilst delivering or planning for my classes which hopefully is creating some change where possible with inclusion for students learning needs and approaches. I haven’t yet shared what i have been writing with my wider course team, i’d be interested to know when we next see each other, if you have been doing that, and if so how any changes or ideas are being considered. Thanks again!