Horizontal, produced by Pippa Frith and led by Suriya Aisha, is a project that seeks to make high-quality inclusive theatre. Through a range of disciplines, the project seeks to give a voice to those who have a lived experience of chronic invisible disabilities. Aisha and other contributors to the project – ‘The Horizontals’ – gave a presentation to TEDxBrum in 2017.
During the presentation, one of the speakers talked about her refusal to apologise for self-care and care management and her refusal to recognise accusations of laziness. She described the misunderstandings and ignorance of so many of us that have little knowledge of long-term conditions/disabilities such as sickle cell anemia.
Another speaker spoke candidly about the conditions that put her in a state of perpetual burn-out and pain and how, although she wants to be active, she is often unable to do the things she wants to do and, in her words becomes “a horrible parent and a pretty terrible friend.” She speaks about the deep connections that she has formed with other people who lead ‘horizontal lives’. She has learned not to hate her body for being how it is. She states: “I don’t have to apologise for being a human who has needs” and that “I am not bad for not being able to fit into the system as it is – that system doesn’t work for people”.
Suriya Aisha argues that society centres and fetishizes a culture of burn-out and speaks about her own experience of extreme burn-out in her theatre training that led to the formation of the Horizontals. She poses the question: who does this burn-out culture exclude because they are unable to work in this way? Society attaches value to how productive we are and those who have hidden disabilities are often forced to fit in to existing work patterns, to work in a vertical way, enduring pain and extreme discomfort. Aisha argues that we should reflect on the way that we do things, and she calls for an approach to employment structures that values care as much as accessibility. The speakers argue that “accessibility is the bare minimum – inclusivity is our living wage”.
The pandemic has ruptured many of our usual working practices. Large parts of the working population (front-line key workers) have had to keep working in the same fashion as before of course, but many others switched to remote working in the spring of 2020 and are set to continue to work in a far more flexible manner for the foreseeable future. What can we learn from this? Surely this is a moment to rethink the culture of work and of HE learning environments – to embrace a range of flexible and inclusive working practices and to reconsider how we measure value in our workers and students. The idea that care and inclusivity can be at the centre of our teaching/working environments echoes the views of Anne-Marie Creamer, which were discussed in my blog ‘Telling Stories’ (29.04.21).
Matthew Keegan suggests, in his BBC online article ‘Why coronavirus may make the world more accessible’ (14.05.20), that the fact that work environments have been able to adapt so quickly to the pandemic demonstrates that society can become more inclusive for those with disabilities. However, there is every chance that this won’t necessarily lead to a more inclusive world post-Covid. Caroline Casey, founder of ‘The Valuable 500’, which “aims to get 500 CEOs and their companies to commit to putting disability inclusion on their business leadership agenda” insists that “nothing less than system change is going to contribute to the resolution of the disability inequality crisis that exists.”
Currently, at UAL, we are working with a ‘blended model’ of teaching and learning, accommodating students who are living in other countries, those who are working almost full time to pay the bills, those who are working from home because they are broke, anxious or depressed as well as those who are confident enough to work every day on campus. We have had to be more flexible to be inclusive and, largely, it has been effective. But how do we adapt and learn from this experience? How do we develop and maintain inclusive, flexible and caring teaching environments in the future?