Disability and Home

Disability and Home is a collaboration between Digital Disability and the Museum of the Home. Exploring the idea of ‘Home’ from the lived experience of Disabled people,  initially  two exhibitions: a Disability Toys exhibition and Threshold. Disability Toys revealed the historical range of Toys that used disability, especially, the wheelchair. 

Threshold used photography to reveal the way having one’s own home is essential in the idea of independence. The collaboration between the Museum of the Home and Digital Disability will continue to explore ‘Home’ and Disability as we build upon this collaboration.

Threshold

Threshold, if the eyes are the window to the soul, are the gateway to listening to the lived lives of others.

In showing disabled people at their front door on the Threshold, exploring the importance of having ones own home to be a valued part of society. The Threshold project reveals how the image itself is open to varied interpretations. Charities use Black and White imagery to define their subjects as ‘less’. Marginalisation is achieved by linking ideas of class, wealth, location and ‘otherness’.

The Threshold project is entirely from the perspective of disabled people themselves.

In addition to this exhibition, there is a film that reveals, in-depth, the experiences of disabled people who went to the Special School detailed in the 1971 publication The Empty Hours. 

Anahita Harding

Anahita

As a disabled person, home for me is a place where I can rest and recharge. I like to take my time cooking (usually lentil soup), or to have a coffee while watching a film. Sometimes it is a place where I spend time with family in the evenings.  “Home” can change depending on where I am living- I could be with a flatmate, family member or alone, but what makes a place “homely” is when I feel settled and at ease, and able to fully be myself.

Anahita Harding is an artist, often working conceptually, exploring disability, identity, gender and culture.  Most recently Anahita scaled the interior of the Fire of London Monument as if mountaineering (given it is inaccessible): climbing the stairs in mountaineering-style and recording the process on film for an upcoming triptych video triptych installation.

Antoinette Morris

Antoinette

Home is where I live: home is where my life mainly takes place.  Friends come, family come, and support, however limited, comes to enable me to continue to live fully independently. The idea of home, having a front door that is mine to choose to open or not, I know is not an option for many disabled people through no choice of their own. Institutions, the loss of control and choice, are ever present in the way our society works.  The, my, ‘Front Door’ is my life writ large.

Antoinette Morris attended Coney Hill School, at the same time as Lee Perkins and Paul Darke, in the 1970s.  She left before Lee and Paul for a mainstream school near her home in Kent.  Antoinette worked for BBC World Service, SHAPE, London Disability Art Forum and as well as a disability children’s organisation in Hackney. Antoinette is now retired.

Harriet Wade

Harriet

Home for me is a safe and peaceful refuge and a place to rest and sometimes to recover from trying to keep up with everyone else out there in the world. An accessible home is hard to find, to manage, and to afford. I live in a nice house because of the benevolence of a family member … I wonder if I will ever be brave enough to move …

Harriet Wade is a Trustee of one of Surrey’s leading venues after having had a career in Social Work.  Harriet’s father, Peter Wade, was a key player in the development of the Disability Movement in its early inception and development.  Harriet is currently training to be a Cruse Bereavement Councillor.

Lee Perkins

Lee

My ‘Front Door’ is to the home I share with my Mother: as I have aged and become more disabled is has become, is becoming more difficult to enter.  I will need to move eventually to stay still: ageing is something rarely considered if you are disabled.  Being ‘Disabled’ if often seen as a static or rapidly deteriorating state of life: it is rarely so. It is ever changing, sometimes slowly sometimes quickly, for many of us - especially as we get older. Thus, the home, the practicalities of the home, are often ignored when it comes to disabled people.

Lee Perkins attended Coney Hill School – Hayes, Bromley, Kent - along with Antoinette Morris and Paul Darke in the 1970s.  Lee worked for Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) most of his working life in Slough. He has a passion for Arsenal Football Club and cricket which has enabled him to travel the world. Lee is now retired.

Liz Carr

Liz

As an anti-assisted suicide advocate, I would argue that providing support and accommodations, a decent ‘Home’, will enable disabled people to live valued lives in their own homes. I believe that assisted suicide (AS) devalues the lives of disabled people and promotes the idea that life with an impairment is not worth living. AS imposes pressure on disabled people to choose death over living: no home and no life! The ‘Home’, my home, should be provided with support and resources, for all disabled people, to ensure we can live with choice and full control over their own lives. A home of our own is essential for us, as disabled people, to be full members of society in a way that is equal and based on justice.

Liz Carr is an internationally recognised actor and activist who has been active in the Disability Movement for decades.  Her current primary activism is based around Assisted Suicide, a contentious issue currently under Government review, which she discussed on her recent appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs - which can still be heard on BBC Sounds. www.lizcarr.co.uk

Penny Pepper

Penny

Our precious if depleted social housing system has given me this beautiful space with its Victorian front door. Once owned by Lady Blah it is now the entrance to my precious creative domain. It is especially loved coming from a working-class family with destructive tendencies, and an awareness that disabled people's spaces do not often promise permanence. We remain threatened with residential care and housing poverty. This means the process of making my home, my environment welcoming, colourful and provocative is a pleasure I never take for granted.

Penny Pepper is a writer and artist, poet, who is a regular writer for ByLine Times. Penny’s most recent novel was First in the World Somewhere.   Penny has toured the nation with her work and performed in places as diverse as Wolverhampton and Hastings. www.pennypepper.co.uk

Miro Griffiths

Miro

The home is a contested space. Often, disabled people do not occupy homes. They exist – survive – in inaccessible buildings, with restricted participation due to a lack of support, and under control from authorities who determine how lives should be lived. There is a legacy of denying disabled people a place to call home. Alternatively, the home should be a space of comfort, security, and – most importantly – creativity. A place to be creative, imaginative, and experimental. The home is a place to think, and practice, how to live your life, who to live with (if anybody), and who you are becoming.

Dr Miro Griffiths is one of the UK’s leading Disability Studies academics working in the subject at the University of Leeds’s Centre for Disability Studies.  Currently Miro is a Leverhulme Research Fellow exploring Disability Youth Activism and is a Lead Investigator on this, Disability and Home,  project along with Dr Paul Darke. https://disabilityactivism.leeds.ac.uk/miro/

Paul Darke

Paul

I never considered my home – the family home growing up – to be my ‘Home’ as I went to a residential special school, from the age of 7, and I thought of that as my home. I did spend 40 out of 52 weeks a year there. Consequently, I have ambiguous feelings about the idea of a home: people are what matter no buildings. ‘Front Doors’ often hide familial trauma. They can be a shield to protect or to hide truths. Open doors, front or back, are always better.  

Paul Darke is the creative force behind Digital Disability which has developed this exhibition and on-going collaboration with the Museum of the Home.  Paul went to Coney Hill School – special residential school - with Antoinette Morris and Lee Perkins.  Paul is an artist mentor and media specialist on Disability and Cinema. www.digital-disability.com

Acknowledgments:

Threshold Exhibition Acknowledgments

Threshold Photography Exhibition is part of the Disability and Home project exploring the idea(l) of the home in relation to the lived experiences of disabled people: the project is entirely from the perspective of disabled people themselves.

In addition, to this exhibition, there is a film being made that reveals in depth the experiences of disabled people who went to the Special School detailed in the 1971 publication The Empty Hours. The film will be shown in 2024/2025 as the project develops and grows.

Digital Disability are based in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.

Acknowledgments:

Thanks to the subjects of the photography: Anahita Harding; Antoinette Morris; Harriet Wade; Lee Perkins; Liz Carr; Dr. Miro Griffiths and Penny Pepper.

With additional thanks to the Tettenhall Transport Heritage Centre and Unlimited.

Digital Disability (Outside Centre) wish to thank the Museum of the Home for their partnership and encouragement, as well as the National Lottery Heritage Fund for their financial support in the development of this project.

Digital Disability also wish to thank Claire Darke, Professor Simon McKeown, Dr Alison Wilde, Nicola Lane, Professor Beverley Clough, Callum Perrin and Walker Darke for their participation.