V&A Design and Disability: Accessible Exhibition Designs

Type: Workshops

Year: 2024

Location: London

DisOrdinary Architecture Contributors: Jos Boys, Chris Laing, Abi Palmer, Mandy Redvers-Rowe, Helen Stratford and Natasha Trotman

V&A Contributors: Sam Brown (Lead Designer 3D) and Evonne Mackenzie (Head of Design), alongside wider members of the design team

The DisOrdinary Architecture Project was commissioned by the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in-house exhibition design team to support their exhibition design development for a show called Design and Disability, curated by Natalie Kane and Reuben Liebeskind at V&A South Kensington. Both a “celebration and a call to action” (words of the curators), the show aimed to start from disability as a positive design generator and showcase disabled, Deaf, and neurodiverse people and communities as central creators of products and spaces. 

The in-house exhibition design team were keen to make the show itself as accessible as possible, going beyond compliance to make a space that truly welcomes diverse bodies and minds. Through a series of five workshops, led by Mandy Redvers-Rowe with Jos Boys, we worked together through different aspects of the design development process – key issues and opportunities; navigating space and content; engaging with the work; and accessible information.  For each session we were joined by a guest disabled creative to bring a variety of lived experiences and perspectives to the project. The workshops included visits to an existing gallery and show, experiential activities and discussion. 

“Huge thanks to yourself, Mandy and your team. Each workshop has really shaped the decisions we have been making and hope to put forward.”

Sam Brown, V&A 

Design and Disability open on 7th June, with a special tour DisOrdinary Architecture and the curators on June 17th. The show runs until February 2026.

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Festival of the Future (2025)

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MAIA: Disability Justice and architecture