Intervention reflection – summative submission

As an Associate Lecturer for UAL Foundation Art and Design Sculpture, I have become interested in accessibility in relation to the way we teach. On the course there are regular examples of students with Individual Support Agreements. However, the studios can be sensorially overwhelming and, over time, become physically inaccessible. There are many aspects of accessibility which are not covered in the course, leading to a continuation of practices which are exclusive of disabled viewers, students or artists. (The Horizontals, 2017)

Artist Jess Thom explains the Social Model of Disability, saying ‘people aren’t disabled by their impairments but by a failure to consider difference in the way society is organised’, (2012). Thom asks us to form a critical position toward societal apparatus that cause barriers for disabled people and to take steps to dismantle them. The Radical Model of Disability also considers disability a social construct but goes further, delighting in differences: ‘disability is not a point of individual or social tragedy but a natural and necessary part of human diversity.’ (Withersaj, 2012). As a person with hearing loss, wearing hearing aids enables me to hear, meaning that I don’t feel disabled. However, I also celebrate my hearing loss, which allows me to sleep through car alarms.

Initially I planned to open conversations around accessibility by running a sign-up session inspired by image descriptions – a method of conveying art to viewers who are blind or have low vision – and link this to a field recording activity. The exercise asked students to work in pairs, each having an image of an artwork to write a description of, then swapping descriptions and attempting to draw the hidden image. Image captions are now increasingly used on social media and in museum contexts (Birdbility, 2024), so by introducing these early, I aimed to encourage students to consider inclusive practice.

With feedback from my tutor Miriam, it became important to look at contested approaches to image descriptions. My research drew me to the importance of embedding accessibility into practice, rather than tacking it on at the end. Shape Arts’ Access as a Creative Tool resource explains embedded access: ‘rather than there being a ‘core’ work from which accessible ‘versions’ are derived, the work itself has been made accessible throughout’ (Shape Arts, 2024). This made me realise that the main activity of my workshop should be the creative ‘field recording’ aspect where students could embed access into a work from concept.

Another challenge of teaching image descriptions was their relationship to intersectionality. ‘This practice must continue to be engaged with contemporary dialogues as image description inherently intersects with questions of race, gender, and identity’, (Cooper Hewitt, 2024). This is highlighted when the image includes individuals, for example any description of race should be ‘consistent, describing everyone’s race and not just people of colour (rather than assuming white as the default)’, (Chen, 2021). Describing gender is also problematic if the descriptor doesn’t know how the individual defines themselves. One useful resource to illustrate this is the ‘Disabled and Here’ stock image library of disabled BIPOC with accompanying verified image descriptions. Ultimately it is important to consider whether the person’s identity is relevant such as when the image is ‘celebrating the radical visibility of marginalized people.’ (Chen, 2021) 

I put my plans to, Hannah Kemp-Welch, a PHD candidate at Creative Research into Sound Art Practice at UAL. She provided a link to a video she made with Carefuffle Working Group exploring the creation of closed captioning for the Handsworth Songs. Carefuffle advocate for image descriptions to be interpretive of more than the visual facts, but to also incorporate emotion, atmosphere and experience. (Lux, 2023).

It made me consider exploring beyond the conventional use of image descriptions, shifting focus onto an experiential activity. Originally the image descriptions and field recordings were to combine into a soundscape, but this felt limiting. After feedback in the group tutorial, I separated the two activities in my lesson plan, so that both could be more open to interpretation. bell hooks theory of engaged pedagogy describes inspiring teachers as those who ‘approach students with the will and desire to respond to their unique beings,’ (hooks, 1994, p13) leading me to prioritise student self-expression.

Another challenge is making the workshop itself accessible. Rather than make special amendments, I want to embed inclusion throughout, for example integrating the session into the course instead of a sign-up to make it accessible to those who have caring responsibilities. After considering how the sound recording approach might itself be inherently exclusionary, I decided to broaden the practices I introduce students to, looking at Christine Sun Kim’s work to inform this.

Sun Kim’s work Time Owes Me Rest Again elaborates her own perspective, while also relating to the more collective experience of the Covid19 pandemic, showing that the intervention could be adapted to explore methods of recording both shared and individual experience. This made me consider other artists whose work is influenced by their differing worldviews. In my group tutorial Nina suggested I look at the Wellcome Collection’s exhibition In Plain Sight, which ‘asks what happens when we open ourselves up to seeing in different ways’ (Wellcome, 2022). Other suggestions were Angela de la Cruz and Evelyn Glennie. These links have given me insight to broaden my references, to empower the students’ personal responses.

In future, I aim to increase the accessibility of how I present these artists through PowerPoint. At first, I tried including a transcript on the slides to help students to follow. I put my draft to Gary Colclough, Academic Coordinator for Access at FAD and he signposted me to the UAL PowerPoint accessibility checker, where I discovered the importance of keeping text brief, including alt text for images and using high contrast between text and background (UAL, 2019).

A broader approach will help students to celebrate their intersectional identities. Looking at Crenshaw’s notion, it is important to acknowledge that each student will have a different response to the task. Keeping the task open allows for this, rather than trying to make special arrangements based on assumptions of student’s abilities. One example is Joanna Penso who explores intimacy through field recordings of the human body. ‘Paying particular focus to the sounds that we have been taught to stifle in public is a radical way to remind audiences of our humanity’ (Penso, 2024). Penso’s work reminds me of the importance of bodily hearing, finding alternative ways to record experiences and to encourage students to consider vulnerability within their work. Instead of limiting ourselves to sound recording, the artist references I choose can empower students to explore diverse methods. It seems important to consider both group and individual responses to encourage students to be in dialogue with each other, creating forms of translation, say between Deaf and non-deaf students.

I want to ensure ‘students are not the only ones who are asked to share, to confess’ (hooks, 1994). In a previous iteration of a field recording workshop, I included a slide which details the Speech Banana – a graph explaining how letters have different tones in speech. I use this to illustrate my own hearing loss, sharing that I cannot hear high tones and so miss out on sounds like ‘th’. hooks explains ‘that empowerment cannot happen if we refuse to be vulnerable while encouraging students to take risks.’ (hooks, 1994, p21). This approach allows students to link experience to academic ideas, further illuminating them.

As my plans changed, I felt it would be helpful to create a Learning Outcome to test my session against. I settled on – Demonstrate an understanding, analysis and application of inclusive practices relating to methods of recording and presentation – which enables me to facilitate students to describe and record their experience in their own way.

The field recording aspect has itself thrown up challenges for inclusive practice. Mark Peter Wright explains ‘Sound recording is tied to hierarchies of power and subjugation, that the recorder and recordist can never be neutral witnesses’ (2022, p16). Because my session is practical, my next steps are to take inspiration from Wright’s ideas about including the process of making recordings to critique the medium itself. ‘We hear the preparation, logistics, and interactions that occur …the field becomes a fractal version of itself, a multi-sited zone of listening, sounding and learning.’ (Wright, 2022, p22). It also becomes important to consider the recorded individuals. If we are to record others, how can I help students understand the implications of collaboration with a non-human? Timothy Morton explains ‘how the experience of art provides a model for the kind of coexistence ecological ethics and politics wants to achieve between humans and non-humans’ (Morton, 2018, p3) because it constitutes a deep engagement with the world around us. Introducing these ideas can become an opportunity for dialogue about how student work might take on a political aspect, without a direct reference to politics – ‘If we are to build a critical practice that can address ethics and power, recognizing that birds listen to humans and that the earth records our steps is a shift that can generate new discourse around agency and rights’, (Wright, 2022, p44)

My next steps will be to consider how my delivery can impact student experience. I plan to research hooks ideas of the importance of excitement in the classroom to lead me to innovate further, perhaps attempting to incorporate movement activities by Boal to encourage physical learning.

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