Reflective Report

Updated with citations:
Introduction
My report is about an online workshop for the Valuable 500 aiming to end disability exclusion in the workplace. The workshop itself intersects with my positionality as a white, northern British designer who has worked in the advertising, arts and cultural sector along with the retail and advertising sectors. By challenging my biases on race and disability in the workplace, I want to change the way people think about accessibility (both physical and digital), so it’s integrated into their work, rather than an afterthought (Fisher, 2023). It relates to my academic practice in that my DPS students will naturally integrate new ways of working inclusively into their projects and therefore the design industry going forward.

I teach on the Diploma in Professional Studies which is the sandwich year out in the design industry across a broad range of design areas including:

• BA (Hons) Design for Art Direction
• BA (Hons) Design Management
• BA (Hons) Graphic Branding and Identity
• BA (Hons) Graphic and Media Design
• BA (Hons) Illustration and Visual Media
• BA (Hons) Interaction Design Arts
• BA (Hons) Service Design
• BA (Hons) User Experience Design

My intervention is an online design workshop that aims to brief the designers on inclusive design as part of the process rather than a reflection. By doing this online it includes international students, carers, people with hearing difficulty (via auto captions), and others who may not be physically mobile. It also allows participation across time zones. I’ll include English, Chinese, and Korean students and any on global internships, and it can also be recorded for anyone with learning needs to rewatch.

The goal is to create a campaign in Tokyo to ‘End Disability Exclusion in the Workplace’. The campaign must be sensitive to international audiences and consider the intersectionality of both race and disability (Crenshaw, 1989; Puar, 2009). It needs to avoid racial stereotypes of Japanese culture and disability representation.

I have learned in 20 years of working in the design industry how important inclusivity is. This forms the rationale for my intervention design – to teach students to embed inclusive design into their process, including avoiding ableist language (Sins Invalid, 2019).

Theories that have motivated me to teach this workshop are based on practical industry lessons – from free inclusive family trails at Tate (Tate, 2017), to large print label books at V&A, QR codes at the Natural History Museum, and revealing hidden colonial narratives in British institutions. At Selfridges, I learned about digital inclusion and accessibility, aligning with the view that “digital accessibility is no longer optional – it’s a legal, technical, and cultural necessity” (Fisher, 2023).

The intention is to foster inclusive practice in students. It’s about sustainable transformation – they take it forward and bake accessibility into their work. The workshop invites students to reflect critically on accessibility and its intersection with race – for example, a spatial designer might consider 2m-wide thoroughfares for wheelchair access from the start.

A digital/UX designer would be encouraged to follow WCAG (W3C, 2018) to ensure inclusivity for all users.

Race must also be considered – internationally, culturally, and intersectionally (Charlton, 2000; Tate, 2017). Designers must avoid reductive representations or ableist language. We looked at campaigns where the first student round did use stereotypes or stock photography, and we reflected on this – we discussed using imagery with lived experience rather than elite Paralympians, as these can feel disconnected from everyday disability (Kafer, 2013; Channel 4, 2016).

Some students reflected personally. One autistic Korean student received feedback from the V500 briefer on how the sunflower symbol (used in airports) didn’t translate to a campaign on workplace disability. This sparked a valuable reflection on the difference between symbols of support and structural change.

We also discussed the ‘system barrier’ – that not enough CEOs put disability on the agenda (McIntosh et al., 2019). Our campaign aimed to use lived experience to challenge this. The best ideas used shape and colour to communicate intersectionality, covering a spectrum of disability from mental health to physical. We also discussed ableist language in detail: “language that devalues, stigmatizes, or excludes people with disabilities…” (Sins Invalid, 2019).

A successful campaign also needs strong graphic language and bold, readable copy – visible from a bus or train, a principle I learned from Guy Featherstone at Wieden + Kennedy (see also examples by Kee and Lam).

This reflection also made me more aware of awarding gaps at LCC – we discussed this in the IP unit. I realised my own unconscious bias (McIntosh et al., 2019) – for example, I might connect more easily with a white, northern student or someone with a similar aesthetic. Meanwhile, a student who joined fewer sessions may actually have been balancing work placements and financial pressures. The UAL EDI dashboard (UAL, 2024) See attached slides – shows how systemic this issue is and it made me angry.

The murmuration video from Saffron for the V500 was a powerful teaching moment – showing how motion, metaphor and empathy can move audiences to act. We also looked at Channel 4’s ‘Meet the Superhumans’ (Channel 4, 2016) and questioned the idea that only elite Paralympians are ‘super’. As Kafer (2013) writes, we need to challenge what we define as strength.

At the Wellcome Collection, the “Making from Bed” Zine exhibition (Wellcome Collection, 2024) was a powerful counterpoint. Zines were organised on a visual spectrum inspired by neurodivergent diagrams – showing everyday challenges and quiet strength.

A high percentage of DPS students achieve 1sts. I hope our balanced, practical and theoretical teaching, with international and intersectional lecturers and guests, contributes to that. But we must stay aware of bias, including overcompensating for ECs or ISAs.

To conclude, we must reflect on our own biases, create inclusive spaces, and let students’ lived experiences lead the conversation. I’ll continue to bring in intersectional guest speakers and prioritise digital access and structural inclusion.

Bibliography

Charlton, J.I., 2000. Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Channel 4, 2016. Meet the Superhumans. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuAPPeRg3Nw[Accessed 16 Jul. 2025].

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.

Fisher, S., 2023. Digital accessibility is no longer optional. Government Events. [online] Available at: https://www.governmentevents.co.uk [Accessed 16 Jul. 2025].

Kafer, A., 2013. Feminist, Queer, Crip. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

McIntosh, P., et al., 2019. Unconscious Bias in Higher Education: Addressing Racial Disparities. London: AdvanceHE.

Puar, J.K., 2009. Disability. In: B. Turner, ed. The New Blackwell Companion to Social Theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, pp.495–512.

Sins Invalid, 2019. Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People. 2nd ed. Berkeley: Sins Invalid Press.

Tate, S.A., 2018. Decolonising and re-centring intersectionality in (educational) research: Whiteness, Black feminist theory and African Caribbean women graduates. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(1), pp.103–116. [online] Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2018.1428718.

UAL (University of the Arts London), 2024. EDI Data Report. [online] Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/472836/UAL-EDI-data-report-2024-PDFA.pdf [Accessed 16 Jul. 2025].

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), 2018. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. [online] Available at: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/ [Accessed 16 Jul. 2025].

Wellcome Collection, 2024. Making from Bed Zine Exhibition. [online] Available at: https://wellcomecollection.org[Accessed 16 Jul. 2025].