Mind your language: Describing Disability Culture

London Unseen is very pleased to host 'Mind Your Language: Describing Disability Culture' an event curated by Alex Cowan, Head of Archives and Collections at NDACA (the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive). NDACA is an NHLF project that brings to life the heritage and rich history of the UK Disability Arts Movement. The Disability Arts Movement began in the late 1970s and continues today. It involved a group of disabled people and their allies who broke down barriers, helped change the law with the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995, and made great culture and art about those struggles.

This event will explore the importance and impact of the language used in archives and collections to represent disability culture. Through a series of talks and a panel discussion from fantastic speakers, we'll dig into questions and discuss this important subject.

Questions explored will include: Who decides on the terminology used to describe us? How do their words affect the way we and others find information. How does it impact the way we are seen and how we see ourselves? How are others approaching these issues?

Setting this conversation in the context of NDACA's own collection and under the heading of 'Nothing about us, without us', we'll look at how the archives can challenge and find alternate paths / solutions and find agency within the archive.

For the full programme and ticket booking: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mind-your-language-describing-disability-culture-tickets-471180903767 

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Banner Image: Backward bully burden by Jon Adams. Framed poem using repetition and "negative" word association to give an impression of how the poet's teachers described their Dyslexic pupil in 1972 (text from NDACA)