This blog uses Crenshaw’s (1989) theory of intersectionality – where race, gender, and other characteristics overlap and create discrimination beyond a single-axis – to reflect on films by individuals identifying as disabled.
Illustrative Examples
Film one presents the Social Model of Disability at UAL but doesn’t give concrete examples of lived experience. Due to scope, I place more emphasis on the other films.
Film two features Paralympian Ade Adepitan discussing systemic discrimination intersecting race and disability. Adepitian notes that the Paralympic movement created opportunities for people to shine, yet other movements haven’t made much progress and should offer better support. Lived Experience: A striking example for me was Ade being unsure that he could promise children that their characteristics wouldn’t hold them back. It upset me that societal issues factored into such a decision. I was also surprised that the interviewer focused on transport design, missing the broader point about systemic attitude change.
In film three, Christine Sun Kim discusses how repetition of sign language shift its meaning, and how her large-scale art brings deaf experiences into hearing people’s everyday experience. Lived Experience: I enjoyed how Christine involved her child in her practice, showcasing how their experience permeates family life. Christine also felt less pressure in Berlin compared with NYC. Yet, NYC helped her build communication skills outside the deaf community. I was struck by how nuances within deaf culture can create barriers with the hearing world.
Film four features Chay Brown, a trans man and “probably not neurotypical”, cofounder of Transfactual, discussing their intersecting identity shapes and feelings of belonging in the LGBTQ+ community. Lived Experience: Chay had to learn the subtleties of non-verbal communication among gay men. He also highlights intersectional challenges, like step-free venues lacking accessible toilets, and how that LGBTQ+ events could better support those with neurodivergence.
Themes
One similarity was the systemic influences on family life. Christine’s integration of her child into her artistic practice demonstrated how disability became part of their everyday family life, whilst Ade’s reflections on the possibility of starting a family emphasised the challenges.
There was a trend in understanding nuances of how cultural communication intersects with identity. Chay’s reflections on the non-verbal communication practices of the gay male community parallel Christine’s need to develop communication skills in New York.
Other moments emphasised systemic issues and need for broader attitude change, e.g., Adepitan’s discussion of the limited progress of movements compared with the Paralympic movement which provided opportunities for equal involvement – where attitude change leads to genuine equality of opportunity. Christine in NYC and Chay at LGBTQ events both also highlight systemic issues with cultures they interacted in.
My Teaching Context
I teach software design. Software we use might include systemic bias. For example, features (such as the save icon) typically assume a western user (Kariuki, 2023). We also have a deaf student on our course, where it is crucial that our software includes accessibility support, e.g. screen readers or tools for colour-blindness.
Our course also has several neurodivergent students. When lecturing, I need to be careful that I am communicating in a way that is not vague or understood, avoiding colloquialisms. I’ll also be mindful with assessing reports, where phrasing or language might vary.
It is important for students to recognise their own positionality and consider others when creating software, e.g., to avoid unconscious bias becoming part of their design cf. airport scanners which flag non-binary bodies for search (Costanza-Chock, 2020). Fostering everyday foresight on issues of diversity is paramount to my teaching.
References
Costanza-Chock, S. (2020) Design justice: Community-led practices to build the worlds we need. The MIT Press.
Crenshaw, K. (1989) ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics’, University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), pp. 139–167.
Kariuki, P. (2023) ‘Rwanda is different from California: from coding to innovation to impact people’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRYlokbxzmM.
Hi Corey, thank you for sharing your reflection. I really enjoyed reading it. I especially appreciated how you drew out the shared theme of systemic discrimination across very different lived experiences.
Your software design teaching example of the save icon being designed around assumptions of a Western user has me really interested to hear more about how that assumption was identified or uncovered. Was it something you discussed with students or colleagues, or something that emerged from a particular case study?
I also found it valuable that you mentioned accessibility tools, such as those for colour blindness. Do you use any specific software or design guidelines to support that? I’m really looking forward to seeing other inclusive practices you are going to implement to your practice.
Thanks again for such a thoughtful post!:)
Hi Rebekah,
The save icon example I discussed with the students, and learnt about from the keynote at the CHI conference. See: Kariuki, P. (2023) ‘Rwanda is different from California: from coding to innovation to impact people’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRYlokbxzmM.
I recommend the book Design Justice – which give lots of really fantastic examples of how technology designs biases can disable people. Reading this really helped to break from teaching the more limited “traditional” HCI methods.
For colour blindness, I know that there is examples of software that can simulate this. E.g. colour blindness simulator https://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/. I haven’t used this in my teaching, but it actually sounds like a really interesting thing to easily incorporate.
Thanks for the comments!
All the best,
Corey
Hi Corey,
I really appreciated your thoughtful analysis of the films and how you applied Crenshaw’s intersectionality theory throughout your reflections. Your breakdown of each contributor’s lived experience was both clear and insightful — I especially liked how you highlighted the subtle differences in how communication, identity, and systemic discrimination play out across contexts like the Paralympics, LGBTQ+ spaces, and art.
As a suggestion for expanding your reflection, it could be really valuable to revisit the Social Model of Disability in light of the rich lived experiences presented in the films. The Social Model, which shifts the focus from individual impairments to structural and societal barriers, is a powerful framework — but the stories from Christine Sun Kim and Chay Brown suggest that identity-based and cultural factors (such as communication norms, race, or gender identity) also play a major role in shaping disabled people’s experiences. For instance, Christine’s reflections on how sign language shifts meaning across contexts, or Chay’s need to decode non-verbal cues in gay male spaces, show that barriers are not just physical or institutional — they’re also social, cultural, and deeply shaped by other aspects of identity.
Here, referencing Alison Kafer’s Feminist, Queer, Crip could be especially helpful, as she challenges the idea of a “universal” disabled experience and advocates for a more political and relational model of disability that accounts for intersectionality. Also suggesting Tom Shakespeare who critiques the limitations of the Social Model, arguing for a more nuanced, bio-psycho-social understanding that acknowledges how personal, social, and structural dimensions all interact. Bringing in these perspectives could add depth to your analysis and help explain why a one-size-fits-all model might not fully capture the layered experiences represented in the films.
Also, while your teaching examples are strong and grounded in real classroom practice, there’s an opportunity to more explicitly connect the film themes to specific pedagogical or design strategies. For example, Chay’s and Christine’s experiences highlight how non-verbal communication can be a barrier or facilitator of inclusion — this insight could inform how you structure collaborative work in software design, perhaps by embedding clearer communication protocols, inclusive feedback systems, or offering multiple modes of engagement. Similarly, thinking about how Christine’s art repositions deaf experience within hearing-dominant environments could inspire design prompts that encourage students to consider how marginalised perspectives can reshape mainstream systems, not just be added on as an afterthought.
Thanks again for this post and looking forward to discuss this more!
Best,
Monika
Hi Monika,
Thanks for the recommendations. In particular, thanks for highlighting the Social Model of Disability to me. It is a helpful framing the focus of impairments onto societal barriers — I’ve used the reference in later blogs.
Kafer’s Feminist, Queer, Crip is also a very valuable resource. I want to digest it more fully when I have the time. A college at the CCI recently completed their PhD looking at Crip Alt Ctrl Designers in video-gaming: https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/35902/8/COM_thesis_PerryP_2024.pdf — which might be of interest to you.
All the best,
Corey