I am going to focus my reflection on Christine Sun Kim: “Friends and Strangers” (14 mins) Sun Kim is a deaf artist born in 1980, a similar age to me.
I was really excited to see her name because I realised that I unknowingly collaborated with her on her Manchester International Festival project. As former head of design at Selfridges I oversaw the creative teams in Selfridges Manchester; responsible for the Production and installation of her piece ‘Captioning the City’ so this really resonated with me. I found the concept of flying the plane over the city where she pushed the boundaries of intersectionality as an Asian, female, deaf role model and stated ‘Caption everything, Caption the sky’ literal blue sky thinking.
My nephew in law is deaf and uses ASL which is obviously different from BSL, his story made me notice Sun Kim’s recent exhibition at the Wellcome collection on sign language. Wellcome is an example of design accessibility at it’s best, beautiful and considered braille captions, contemporary, not an afterthought but a clear tool of communication.
https://wellcomecollection.org/search/images?source.subjects.label=%22Sign+language%22
Sun Kim’s comments on intersectionality as a female artist and mother working in Berlin and not having to pay for childcare (I am a working class mum in London bringing up 2 children and working full time this really was eye opener for me that they didn’t have to pay for childcare) This is something that I and many others feel penalise women in today’s society in the UK. It can damage your career, adding to the career gap and social divide something @flex appeal and @Mother Pukka fights to raise awareness for. The pandemic has massively changed the workplace in a positive way for women in the workplace, but I fear it’s reversing, as more and more industries go back to 3-5 days in the office and the political landscape changes; in what I see as very negative ways. Brexit and US President Trump and his reversal of EDI and women’s and Trans rights are having a big impact on the workplace.
From being pregnant with HG on the tube / navigating London Transport to work and experiencing first hand a hidden debilitating disability that I’d never had lived experience of before I was thankful to have the ‘baby on board badge’. EDI has been, and is, a large part of my design language and consideration. I now know that you can get a ‘not all disabilities are visible’ badge on TFL so we’ve come slightly further than when I worked on ‘Great British Public Toilet Map’ https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/projects/great-british-public-toilet-map/ locations for innovation ICA at RCA for my MA (I needed a radar key for IBS) so this meant a lot to me post childbirth.
People like Sun Kim have fun challenging perceptions and showcasing the positive side of being deaf. I learned, working with the Valuable 500, on Synch 20 Tokyo; who aim to end disability discrimination in the workplace, that we do not use ableist language such as ‘hearing impairment’ because this has negative connotations. There’s a contemporary list by Gov.uk (an award winning site at the Design Museum annual awards won by [then] Public Digital’s Ben Terret team with Margaret Calvert. Calvert is an intersectional female designer of UK motorway signs; arguably the world’s most safe and inclusive design. I love design work that elevates disability superpower like Sun and also the in C4 Paralympic campaign by Lyndsay Atkin, a fellow LCC Alumni grad. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/mccann-worldgroup-bolsters-creative-leadership-lynsey-atkin-london-cco/1877771 really inspired me and my students for the Paralympics as does Samaritans campaign and Supermundane’s work ‘it’s ok not to be ok.’
Working at Tate on their wayfinding with specialists who worked on the most inclusive games to date, London 2012, and doing workshops with the exec and SLT (Senior Leadership Teams) in finding the prayer room, or navigating Tate Britian vs Tate Modern in lifts as a mum with kids or as an older person in a wheelchair has been a defining learning curve for me.
My career as a design leader at some of the UK’s largest public serving institutions, and now, teaching on DPS (Diploma in Professional Studies DPS, supporting around 80 students navigate their way into the competitive world of design, in today’s phygital and evolving world of work) has often made me consider accessibility. From ‘learning and interpretation’ at Tate, V&A and Tate, across digital and permanent exhibitions, to touring exhibitions where you need to consider legibility of captions, silent hour for neurodivergent visitors, testing the NHM SLT on getting to South Kensington Exhibition Road from the SK tube with no lifts – Victorian infrastructure prevents this for all of SK including Science Museum and V&A.
I, like Sun Kim, considered EDI at V&A on their marketing campaigns invites and social, DPS I have collaborated with Valuable 500 on ending disability in the workplace and set a live project for 5 students where we discussed ableist language inspiring next generation (other generations can be resistant to new language and lock into things like SEND which is gov / Education based but not current terminology).
I’ve had the white CIS privilege of promoting the use of pronouns internally in big organisations like Selfridges and working on Queer British Art at Tate, London Fashion in the 80s at V&A; all inclusive eras and the history is so fascinating. Using my pronouns ‘she / her’ is important to me from growing up with a Trans friend Lucy / formelly Luke – who was in the Absolut campaign ‘Labels aren’t for people’ (personal friend navigating being trans now like people at NHM when we had Fantastic beasts by JK Rowling = problematic systemic transphobia).
We discussed in our breakout groups how we support students going out into industry and most big companies offer reasonable adjustments and are really good on this with their diversity teams. We offer ISAs, EC and disability support, counselling and self-certification which is great because you don’t need to go to the lengthy process of proving a disability when this is a challenge in itself as part of being neurodivergent. I’m supporting an autistic female in a current class, needs who extra support, and all of these exhibitions that are raising awareness help us to get the support they might need eg a mentor from year above, also female, (females have often masked signs for years) autistic and printmaker so can relate.
It has helped me understand myself and my own intersectionality struggles as a female with ADD, OCD and autistic parents through counselling and reading and learning lots on the subject. It has been (until very recently) uplifting to see companies and Education putting EDI and working class RCA https://2022.rca.ac.uk/collections/the-rca-working-class-collective-presents/ at the forefront of their inclusivity hiring (NHM you must interview if there’s a disability unless very good reason not to).
Bibliography
1.Kim, C.S. (n.d.) Friends and Strangers [Video]. Available at: https://wellcomecollection.org/search/images?source.subjects.label=”Sign+language” (Accessed: 26 June 2025).
2. Manchester International Festival (2021) Captioning the City by Christine Sun Kim. Manchester: MIF. (Include specific URL if you have it.)
3. Royal College of Art (n.d.) Great British Public Toilet Map. Available at: https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/projects/great-british-public-toilet-map/(Accessed: 26 June 2025).
4. Campaign Live (2023) ‘McCann Worldgroup bolsters creative leadership with Lynsey Atkin as London CCO’. Campaign. Available at: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/mccann-worldgroup-bolsters-creative-leadership-lynsey-atkin-london-cco/1877771(Accessed: 26 June 2025).
5. Royal College of Art (2022) The RCA Working Class Collective Presents. Available at: https://2022.rca.ac.uk/collections/the-rca-working-class-collective-presents/(Accessed: 26 June 2025).
https://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/1880-that
https://wellcomecollection.org/search/images?source.subjects.label=%22Sign+language%22
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/access-at-south-kensington.html
https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/accessibility
Assistance cat NHM dino snores
Retail accessibility https://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/features/info/accessibility/
we also did breastfeeding friendly areas across all stores for inclusivity
London 2012 inclusivity Paralympics https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/aug/11/olympic-games-review-blake-morrison
Wayfinding 2012 Channel 4 idents by 4 creative and Lyndsay akin
Inclusive language – name training LCC
https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Blog/language-and-disability-rights-an-evolving-relationship
Leave a Reply