Assistive or Artistic Technologies? Exploring the Connections between Art, Disability and Wheelchair Use
Giulia Barbareschi, Masa Inakage · 2022 · Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22) · doi:10.1145/3517428.3544799
Summary
This paper explores the reciprocal influences between art, disability, and assistive technology use through semi-structured interviews with 17 artists who use wheelchairs for mobility. Participants spanned diverse artistic disciplines — dance (7), music and DJing (5), visual art and painting (3), sculpture, baking, circus art, and performance art — from seven countries (UK, US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Italy, India). They ranged in age from 3 to 46 years of wheelchair experience, used manual self-propelled, electric, and attendant-propelled wheelchairs, and included both congenital and acquired disabilities. The study was framed around three research questions: how embodied and social experiences of disability affect wheelchair-using artists; what role wheelchairs and other assistive technologies play in artistic practice; and how disabled artists' practices can foster new paradigms for accessibility research. Data was analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, with the researchers consulting participants during theme development to ensure interpretations captured their lived experiences — a methodological choice that participants described as empowering.
Key findings
Three themes emerged. First, personal journeys through art and disability revealed that identities as artists and as disabled people were generally formed separately but became deeply intertwined. Art served as a way to process trauma and grief after acquiring a disability, but was never described as solely therapeutic — it maintained its focus on technical quality and expressive power. The transition to wheelchair use, initially resisted due to self-stigma, was ultimately experienced as freedom. Second, social encounters through art showed that artistic collaborations between wheelchair-using and non-disabled artists could lead to transformative creative discoveries, though they required significant "translation effort" between different movement vocabularies. All participants faced persistent ableism — from being denied training access, to having their work patronized as "courageous" rather than skilled, to having disability art declassified as socio-political activism rather than recognized as art. Many engaged in advocacy and community outreach. Third, skills and technology in art making revealed how artists developed entirely new creative vocabularies that leveraged their wheelchair use rather than trying to replicate non-disabled techniques — wheelchair dancers created movement vocabularies based on the expressive qualities of wheelchair-using bodies rather than mimicking standing dance. Technology played a complex role: while some artists developed innovative DIY solutions (modified drum kits, paint-brush-equipped wheelchairs), others found that technology created barriers or proved inadequate, leading them to develop personal skills and techniques instead.
Relevance
This paper challenges fundamental assumptions in accessibility and assistive technology research. Rather than framing assistive technology through the lens of overcoming limitations or closing gaps, the study shows how disability and assistive technology use can generate unique creative capabilities and expressive possibilities that would not exist otherwise. For HCI and accessibility researchers, this reframing has several implications. It argues against rigid dichotomies (disability vs. ability, access vs. exclusion, use vs. nonuse) that dominate assistive technology design, advocating instead for embracing the complexity of how disabled people experience their bodies, technologies, and social contexts. The concept of "artistic technologies" — technologies designed to enhance the unique competencies that emerge from disability rather than compensate for deficits — offers a provocative design direction. Wheelchair dancers experimenting with how centre of mass and wheel position affect their style represent a form of self-driven body reconfiguration that current wheelchair design does not support but could. The study also highlights how collaboration with disabled artists can help HCI researchers move beyond problem-solving approaches toward understanding the richness and creativity inherent in disability experience.
Tags: disability art · wheelchair accessibility · assistive technology · creativity · disability identity · embodiment · ableism · disability culture · artistic technology · inclusive design