Disabled Legacies, Beyond Access and Inclusion
Part of the What is Research Now? series at the Paul Mellon Centre.
The Spring 2026 edition of the series was titled “Disabled Legacies: Beyond Access and Inclusion”. It was led by the questions: Can the legacies of Disability Art and Culture take us beyond “access” and “inclusion”? Can Disability Justice help us create and lead all of us to live better lives?
The programme – through a series of talks, performances and workshops – explored not only histories of disability but ways of thriving and being, arguing that disability justice can be not just a subject of study but a method and mode of being. This edition was co-convened by Kenny Fries, Khairani Barokka and Sria Chatterjee.
February Gathering
Day One: Introduction and First Panel
Disabled Legacy, Wisdom and Advocacy as Philanthropy and Efforts to Sustain Disability Movements Towards Generational Abundance with Sandy Ho. Chair and Discussant: Kenny Fries
Day One: Second Panel
Hannah Wallis and Iarlaith Ní Fheorais in Conversation: Disability and Access at an Inflection Point. Chair: Sria Chatterjee
Day One: Third Panel
Disability, Othering, & Victimhood: Some Lessons from the AIDS Crisis with Simon Watney. Chair and Respondent: Kenny Fries
Day Two: Second Panel
Abi Palmer Invents the Weather / Intrusion: A Manifesto. Chair: Khairani Barokka
Day Two: Fourth Panel
Don’t Worry, I’m Just On Quip Time: Unambitiousness and Access First Working by Amelia Lander-Cavallo (Quiplash) and Shivaangee Agrawal. Chair: Kenny Fries
March Gathering
Day One: Introduction and First Panel
A History of the UK Disability Arts Movement by Tony Heaton. Chair: Ashokkumar Mistry
Day One: Second Panel
Crip Couture as a Research Method by Sandie Yi. Chair: Kenny Fri
Day One: Third Panel
Infinite Crip Times Exist (∃ (∞tCRIP)) ⇌ All Ableist Spaces Shapeshift (a2 + s2) by Saleem Hue Penny. Black Trans Mad Worldbuilding and creative praxis by Syrus Marcus Ware. Chair: Khairani Barokka
Day One: Third Panel
Naomi Ortiz and Cat Chong in Conversation: ‘The opposite of fear is a poem’. Chair: Sria Chatterjee
Day Two: First Panel
Beauty and the Blind by David Johnson. Chair: Sria Chatterjee
Day Two: Second Panel
Film Screenings and Q&A with Theo Jean Cuthand. On Black Pain, screening by Jameisha Prescod. Chair: Kenny Fries
Day Two: Third Panel
On Being Uncapturable: Crip-Ancestral Escapes from the Archives as Future Liberation by Khairani Barokka. Interstitial Overlaps by Pelenakeke Brown. Chair: Sria Chatterjee
Day Two: Fourth Panel
The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory by Kenny Fries. Chair and Discussants: Sria Chatterjee and Khairani Barokka