Stories

Art, activism and access

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Photographic portrait of a young person seated outside in a electric wheelchair looking to camera. Behind them are long grasses and shrubs lit from behind by a low sun.
Jamie Hale, Camilla Greenwell. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

The disability arts scene seems to be blossoming right now, and Jamie Hale is excited. As a disabled artist and activist, they want to investigate the interactions between disability and technology, access and art, and discover ways to make their own work more inclusive. In conversation with fellow artists, Jamie explores the places where accessibility and creativity collide, and asks whether technology should be used to cure and mitigate, or to truly break barriers.

Photograph of a performer dressed in a black and white vertical striped suit. Their sleeves are pulled up to show their forearms. Their right arm is raised up in front of them showing the middle finger of their hand to the camera in an act of defiance. Their hair has a blue tint and their eyes are made up with blue and yellow make-up. They are looking hard, straight into the camera. Behind them, the background is a graduated purple tone.
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The freedom to provoke

Jamie Hale talks to performer and director Emma Selwyn about the joy of creating work that celebrates, rather than suppresses, autistic behaviours.

Photographic full length portrait of a man in a white t-shirt sitting on a leather sofa. In front of him to the left of the frame is a wooden table with a laptop, keyboard and beat-box. To the right of the frame is a bass speaker and a floor standing lamp. Beside him on the sofa is a hat. A single line of text is legible on both the T-shirt and hat, reading 'Viewable'.
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Giving shape to sound

Fascinated by language and how music feels, Deaf rapper Signkid creates tracks that give shape to sound. He discusses inspiration, access and performing for all audiences, D/deaf and hearing alike.

Photograph of a woman as she instructs a male performer as he performs an upside down theatrical manoeuvre within a large metal hoop suspended from the ceiling during a rehearsal. The performer in the hoop has a prosthetic right leg.
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Acting, disableism and inclusive theatre

Deaf theatre director Jenny Sealey discusses inclusivity, community and the resilience of disabled actors.

Photograph of a whitewashed brick wall where the paint is flaking in places. Hung on the wall are two artworks. The artwork on the left is a large square oil painting on canvas, depicting an abstract landscape made up of textured brush strokes in blue, yellow and purple hues. The artwork on the right is framed in a simple white frame and depicts a digital artwork of a tree with swirling branches, green leaves dotted between the branches seemingly in mid air. The sky is a light green hue and a golden yellow sun radiates in the top right corner. At the base of the artwork is a line of distant green hills.
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Talent, tech and visual art

Jamie Hale finds a combination of talent and technology are crucial when it comes to creating great visual art, but how do you keep working when your circumstances are in constant flux?

Black and white photograph with a warm tone. The image shows a young woman seated in a wheelchair against a black curtain and lit by a spotlight. She is performing to an audience. She has been captured 'in action'.
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Disabled musicians and the fight to perform

Music might be the universal language, but unfortunately it doesn’t come with universal access. London-based artist Miss Jacqui discusses the barriers to her career with Jamie Hale.

Photograph showing a performer on a stage in a small theatre. The performer is dressed in a shiny gold suit. Their right hand is holding a microphone to their mouth. In their left hand they are holding a white cane. Their mouth and eye brows are covered in blue glitter make-up
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The politics and power of audio-description

Traditional theatre audio-description often lets down artists and audiences. But, done well, it has the potential to be a force for creativity as well as accessibility.

About the author

Photograph of Jamie Hale

Jamie Hale

@jamierhale on Twitter

Jamie is an artist, curator, and founder of disability arts showcase CRIPtic. They create poetry, comedy, scriptwriting and drama for page, stage and screen. They have written for publications including the Guardian and Magma, and have performed at venues including the Barbican and Southbank Centre. Their pandemic poetry pamphlet, ‘Shield’, is published in January 2021.