Jessica Miller

Throughout history, it is all too easy to see disability represented in stereotypical and marginalized ways. In the history of design, when disability is considered, it sees designers and innovators create solutions for disabled people when the reality of design and the role of disabled people in design is much more dynamic and complex. Surely there were currently disabled designers active in the field and there was a history of disabled designers. Who were these individuals and how did they enhance the field? And why weren’t they being represented? Whose stories were being rewritten or altogether erased? How did intersectionality and the various -isms perpetrate their erasure? The purpose of this research is to uncover an erased history of disabled designers and the contributions that have made to the design industry. By recording interviews of current working disabled designers, we can have a more robust record of the role they play within design, as well as the inaccessibility they encounter. This in turn can help influence the accessibility for future designers into design education and industry. Placing the interviews within a designed book demonstrates practice-based research. I focused on accessible design as a part of the creative process and applied what I have learned into practice.