The V & A is the most disabled-user friendly museum I know.  With Blue Badge parking for 12 cars by the  Exhibition Road entrance, leading to a step-free entrance with an automatic-opening door, and free wheelchairs available if wanted, they have really got what we need sussed.

More Information

The website has more on https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/design-and-disability?srsltid=AfmBOoqwzkJVD6xDt9u5MPI31o2aLwpQs7tpWsuiuliaqEzwnh28rpmd

170 objects will be on display across three sections –Visibility, Tools and Living – spanning design, art, architecture, fashion, and photography.
One example of the thought-provoking exhibits is the Squeeze Chaise Longue (Illustrated here), a recliner developed by artist Wendy Jacob, that embraces the sitter between two mohair arms, providing comforting sensory feedback for those who appreciate deep pressure stimulation. Wendy was inspired to create the work with autistic animal scientist and agriculturalist Temple Grandin, inventor of the ‘Hug Machine’, on the design. The luxurious form of the chaise longue subverts conventional pared-back medical aesthetics.

More displays will show how Disabled people have designed for every aspect of life through their own experience and expertise, as well as trace the political and social history of design and disability. Through examples of disability-first practices showcasing the work of Disabled people and their collaborators, the exhibition will demonstrate how design can be made more equitable and accessible, and aim towards design justice.

Natalie Kane, Curator of Design and Disability says: “This exhibition shows how Disabled people are the experts in our own lives, and have made invaluable contributions to our designed world.

Café

Afterwards, a large area in the museum is devoted to “a very nice café with a Museum attached.”.

This has a wonderful array of what might be called Fast Food -with lots of different main courses, tasty sandwiches, and a patissserie section to drool over.  Like a canteen, you pick up a tray and fill it – but the food is far tastier. I enjoy being wheeled around the different food stations, choosing what I wanted to eat.

You can eat inside in the opulent Wiliam Morris designed room, or outdoors in the Courtyard.  Plenty of space for wheelhairs, and the staff are very helpful.

About the Exhibition:

Design and Disability begins with a welcome and rest space for visitors to orient themselves and address any access needs. A tactile map, audio description, and BSL welcome will be available to visitors, as well as both large print, sensory map and plain English guides.

The exhibition’s first section, Visibility, will explore how Disabled makers visualise and express their own identities across fashion, photography, demonstrations, graphic design and zine culture. Highlights include the hyper visual ensemble by designer and activist Sky Cubacub, including their gender-affirming, adaptive garment Rebirth Garments Binder, which matches the Dragon Scale Head Dress that functions as a wearable weighted blanket; a handsewn Notting Hill Carnival Costume, inspired by Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus by Maya Scarlette, a fashion designer with ectrodactyly.

Portrait photography in this section will include Marvel Harris’ ‘First Swim after Rebirth’, a joyous self-portrait taken following gender-affirming surgery. As an autistic person who has dealt with issues of self-acceptance, well-being and gender identity, it celebrates Disabled joy. The second section, Tools, will explore the creativity of Disabled people in adapting and subverting designed objects to suit a greater diversity of access needs. This section challenges the way society views Disabled people as passive users of design, instead focusing on their inventing, breaking, adapting, and ‘hacking’ the designed world for themselves. Projects in this section consider how Disabled communities create design networks and work together collaboratively or individually to make new things

On display will be the Touchstream keyboard by Wayne Westerman and Fingerworks (2005), a technology which revolutionised the tech industry and was later used in the iPhone 1. Designed to help with his severe hand pain, the touchpad replaces a traditional keyboard, utilizing sensors to track movements like pinching, swiping and scrolling.

The finale of this section is a specially designed decompression zone for self-regulation, reflection, and rest. The area will include comfortable seats, a collection of objects designed by occupational therapists – many of them Disabled themselves – to adapt existing designs, books and objects. Design, art, architecture, fashion, and photography will show how Disabled people have designed for every aspect of life through their own experience and expertise, as well as trace the political and social history of design and disability.

Who should visit?

Top of my list would be EVERY Architect that bids for NHS work. Starting with the Architects who designed the Royal Marsden theatres after their recent fire.

Showing the BBC TV new crew around,  I winced when a Sister, showing off the special lighting, ] used her finger to switch on.  They obviously haven’t been abroad, where finger-tip switches are taboo;  it’s all done by elbows – they are cleaner.

Oxford’s giant John Radcliffe Hospital is another where the Architects and designers need educating.  Recently a new set of signs were put in place – and taken down almost immediately (what did that cost?)   Someone had had the “trendy” idea to paint lettering in grey on a white background.  Not very sensible if you have poor vision.

But the Radcliffe classic must be the isolation room I was given when a hospital infection made me blind.  My folded up clothes kept on being swept onto the floor, as I didn’t have anywhere to hang them.  I fumbled along the corridor to see Sister, who told me “I don’t talk to patients”.  Eventually I made so much fuss (I kept on tripping over clothes fallen on the floor) that Sister stompd down to my room.  Told me I had a cupboard – then found the cupboard had been installed facing the wall.

i could hear her bad-tempered attempts at wrenching it around, then ~”Oh” as she looked in and discovered there were no hooks or rails – it was bare.

Every time I have to use a loo there, I curse.  The John Radcliffe loos must be the most unfriendly ones around.

Good design

Just down the road is Bicester Community Hospital, with very disabled-friendly loos.  With plenty of room for wheelchairs, more than adequate sturdy grab handles, which are painted bright red – not only easy to grab but give a cheerful note.

If Bicester can get it right, others should copy.  Let’s hope the V & A~ can encourage better hospital-design