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.
Berni, I really like how you have connected this to the immediate situation of how students experience their time and the spaces at UAL and the wider idea of how design education can contribute to challenging and dismantling the barriers that currently exist and disable individuals.
I love the way you say the first step is being aware of the barriers that exist, I have found it can feel overwhelming when you start to see the world with that added awareness (and highlights how some people have to see the world that way all the time) but breaking it down reduces the risk of giving up in the face of a huge sea change.
Sharing the book I mentioned in our tutorial again here – Are you an inclusive designer? Julie Fleck (https://libsearch.arts.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?q=an:%22461011%22) It’s from an architectural perspective (definitely not my role as subject librarian for architecture and spatial coming through!)and it might not be ideal for thinking about adapting existing spaces but maybe it speaks to the idea of the spectrum of the ideal and the possible that Miriam mentioned. I feels like the impact space has on our daily lives has been highlighted recently with the new LCF campus having so many problems.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment and for taking the time to read and reflect on my post Jess. I really appreciate your insight into the importance of awareness as a starting point—it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. As you mentioned, once you begin to see the world through the lens of accessibility and inclusion, it can feel overwhelming, but I completely agree that breaking it down into manageable steps helps us move forward without losing momentum. Thanks for the advice !
I’m really grateful for the reading recommendation—Are You an Inclusive Designer? by Julie Fleck sounds like a valuable resource, and I’m looking forward to exploring it further. Although it comes from an architectural perspective, I can already see how the ideas could resonate in the context of fashion education and how we think about space, access, and the everyday experience of students and my staff –
I’ll be taking this on board in my teaching practice, especially in how I guide students to design with inclusion in mind, I feel like i have been attempting to do this along with colleagues, it juts needs further reflection and development, I’ll also be sharing this with colleagues who are equally passionate about creating more accessible and thoughtful learning environments. Thank you again—so helpful and very much appreciated!
Thanks jess !
Hey Berni, thanks for your reflections! This piece is such a clear reminder that a studio/ an institution can preach inclusive design while physically shutting people out. EDI shouldn’t be reduced to a checklist; it is a continuous process of critical examination and redesign; it’s perpetual pattern-making.
Although identifying barriers may feel uncomfortable, visibility is a prerequisite for meaningful change: only when we name these obstacles can we begin to dismantle them and create environments that serve everyone equitably.
I really enjoyed reading your blog post and especially connected with your comments about designing better environments for everyone. When you mentioned Ade Adepitan speaking about disability and public space—how “when you design something that works for a disabled person, you end up creating something that works better for everyone”—it really connected with me.
It’s such a simple statement that works on different levels: To me, it represents how we should approach design with an inclusive mindset but also points to the deeper, systemic biases embedded in how we have designed many of our public spaces.