Reading Oliver’s (1990) paper on the social model of disability really made me reflect on my teaching environment in fashion. He argues that people aren’t disabled by their impairments, but by the barriers that society creates. This really stuck with me when I started thinking about the physical space in our studios. In fashion, we talk a lot about inclusive design and ergonomics, but our actual teaching spaces don’t always match up. Pattern-cutting tables are tightly packed—if you’re in a wheelchair or just have a larger body, you might not even be able to use them properly. That kind of exclusion is built into the system, even if it’s unintentional.
The dashboards we have at UAL are helpful in some ways—they show us data on awarding gaps—but they’re also quite surface-level. For example, we don’t get breakdowns of what kinds of disabilities students have, or how those might intersect with other aspects of their identity like race, gender, or class. I think this lack of detailed data makes it really hard to make meaningful change. Crenshaw’s (1990) theory of intersectionality helps here—she shows how people who sit at the intersection of multiple identities can face layered discrimination. A disabled student who’s also a person of colour, or from a working-class background, might experience exclusion in ways that aren’t visible if we only look at one category at a time.
One of the most powerful things I watched for this unit was Ade Adepitan talking about disability and public space. He said that when you design something that works for a disabled person, you end up creating something that works better for everyone. That really hit home. In our group discussion, a technician mentioned that one of the new technical buildings has no space for wheelchair access in the metalworking area—so again, we’re designing for the “ideal” student, and not making room for everyone else.
At the moment, I don’t know how many physically disabled students we actually have at UAL, and I think that’s part of the problem. If we’re serious about inclusivity, we need to ask harder questions—not just how do we support the students we have, but how do we recruit more disabled students in the first place? What messages are we sending through our environments and recruitment materials?
This unit is really pushing me to look critically at my own assumptions and the structures I’m part of. It’s not just about having accessible toilets and lifts—though those matter—it’s about embedding inclusivity into every layer of design and delivery. There’s a lot of work to do, but the first step is actually seeing the barriers we’ve created.
References
Crenshaw, K. (1990) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp.1241–1299.
Oliver, M. (1990) The Individual and Social Models of Disability. Available at: https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/library/Oliver-in-soc-dis.pdf
Kendi, I.X. (2019) How to Be an Antiracist. London: Bodley Head.
Brown, B. (2022) Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience. London: Ebury Press.